Birth Control Methods

Sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) include infections, which are spread through a sexual contact from one person to another. These diseases are a serious problem to people who decide to be sexually active. Statistics shows that there are 15 million of new cases of STD’s are recorded every year in the United States of America. Most of these cases are among the age groups from 15 – 24. Therefore it is very important to understand how to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and protect against them.

Most of STD’s can cause health problems to infected people, especially women. Some of them may result in infertility, others may even be fatal. These diseases may result in pelvic inflammatory disease in women if untreated, which could cause infertility. Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) also transmitted through sexual contact is one of the main causes of cervical cancer. Unfortunately, there is no cure for it as for a few other STD’s. Therefore it is very important to understand how to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and protect against them.

Human Papilloma virus

At least 50 percent of sexually active men and women are said to have Human Papilloma Virus — the main cause of cervical cancer. The only way to protect against this disease is to avoid sexual contact. However, those who decide to be sexually active should at least have a steady partnership and only one partner. Although if the partner had at least one sexual contact before, there is no guarantee that he/she is not infected already. Still, monogamous relationships are said to lower the risk and spread of HPV.
Those, who are not in a monogamous relationship, should have as few partners as possible. They should also choose reliable partners, who have had fewer sexual contacts. However, this could be hard to judge, since HPV usually develops no signs, except for warts that may occur in some cases, and a person may not know if he/she is infected. The use of latex condoms is known to reduce the risk of HPV. But there is no 100 percent efficient protection against this particular infection since the virus also occurs in the genital areas not covered with a condom.

Huma Immunodeficiency virus

Another serious STD that many people fear off is Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) the cause of AIDS. The virus can be spread through vaginal, oral, anal sexual act, and blood. It cannot be transmitted through other human fluids, like saliva and tears. Although there are certain medicines to prolong an infected person’s life, there is, however, no cure for the infection. The only way to protect against HIV is to abstain from sex . If a person is sexually active but is in a long-term monogamous relationship with a person who is negative for HIV, he/she is considered to be safe.

However, if a person decides to be sexually active but is not in a monogamous relationship, he/she is at risk of STD’s, including HIV. The only way to protect against the virus is to use latex condoms properly every time a sexual contact occurs. During oral sex a person should use Saran or plastic wrap to be protected against STD’s and Human Immunodeficiency Virus. In addition, the presence of other sexually transmitted diseases usually increases the risk of acquiring HIV infection.

Hepatitis B and C

Although many people do not realize that viral Hepatitis B and C is also a type of a sexually transmitted disease. B and C type Hepatitis may be spread through sexual contact and blood. One of the ways to prevent the spread of this disease is to abstain from sex. If a person decides to become sexually active, the use of latex condoms reduces the risk to acquire Hepatitis. A significant mean to protect against this disease is to be vaccinated for Hepatitis B. This vaccine is accessible for people of all age groups.

And finally, it is important for people to understand that frequent testing for STD’s is one of prevention methods to stop the spread of these diseases. Another method, in general, is to abstain from sexual contact or — if a person is already sexually active — to abstain from sex with unreliable or infected people. Remember, whenever you have sexual intercourse –wear a condom .

Statistics shows that 60% of teenage women and 70% of teenage men are already sexually active by their 18th Birthday. 75% of teenage pregnancies are unintended, and 25% of these pregnancies end up in abortion. Most of teenage pregnancies happen because of an early beginning of sexual life, low use of birth control methods , and lack of information on sexuality and protection against unintended conception and sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore sexuality education is one of the most effective ways in providing such information to young people.

Sex education, also called sexuality education or relationships education, is a course, during which young people receive information and form their opinions and beliefs to sex, relationships and intimacy. It helps the listeners to form their skills for them to be ready when they make a choice to have a relationship and sex for the first time. This way sexuality education assists in protecting teenagers against sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies, through teaching them different methods of birth control.

When sex education should start?

One of the most important questions is when sex education should start. Most specialists agree that it should start before young people enter puberty, meaning that they have not formed their views on sexuality and sexual behavior. It depends very much on the level of understanding which information should be given. Therefore the information given is different in different age groups, since what understandable to a 16-year-old is, will be inappropriate to a 12-year-old. Usually sex education starts at the age of 11-12, depending on the country and state policies.

Sex education works both ways – it helps to decrease negative results and improve young people‘s relationships. With all the information given students are then able to make informed choices and decisions when they decide so. It works to form the skills that teenagers need in their lives. Sex education is not only about introducing and discussing various methods of birth control or abortion, it is also about teaching young people to listen, negotiate and make a decision. It assists in recognizing the pressures other people may have on them and teaching how to resist them.

Our society forms controversial attitudes towards sex. Means of mass media give a lot of information on sexuality and contraception and during sex education young people are taught how to recognize useful information and facts. For example, most health messages stress the dangers and risks when sex life is concerned, whereas mass media mostly support the image that a sexually active person is more affectionate and progressive.

During sexual education young people get information on religious and ethical aspects about sexuality, abortion, and sex life. Then students can discuss them during the course.

The aim of sex education

Part of the education is to give the youth a message what sex is, why people make love, what consequences it may have. In addition, young people can find out about emotional aspects of sex and negative aspects if sexual life begins before they are mature enough. This does not mean that the educator sets strong standards and narrow moralistic ways. He/she only provides all the possible information and guidelines. Young people then should be able to make decisions for themselves what the positive properties of love relationships are.

People during puberty usually are very curious about their body changes, gender differences, and sexuality — the things they do not know yet. Therefore they seek for information from their friends, mass media, like TV, newspapers and magazines. It could be wrong because their friends also do not know much about sexuality and birth control, mass media also provides with sometimes unreliable information, which could be damaging to people who are not yet able to make their own judgments. Hence, teenagers form a wrong opinion on sex, birth control, and sexually transmitted diseases. Some of them may think that it is not possible to get pregnant during a first sexual act, others may not know that only a male condom protects against most sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS/HIV. It is significant, therefore, to provide correct information in order to fix mistaken opinions. And hence this lowers the danger that young people may put themselves to.

Usually during sex information students are taught about sexual development, including physical and emotional transformations connected with puberty. They also are being informed on reproduction — when a woman can get pregnant, how it all happens, what sexually transmitted diseases are and how people can protect themselves against them. In addition, teenagers are provided with the facts of various birth control methods , their advantages, disadvantages, and side effects. They also find out how each method works, how various methods are used, what the efficiency is, and the decision whether to use them or not. Young people get information on what kinds of relationships are, what positive qualities of them are, what commitment, marriage and partnership are.

In some countries state policies on sex education are very controversial and basically negative. However, practice shows that efficient sex education is very useful and helpful to young people, since they can then make informed and wise decisions in their future lives.

Although your body gradually becomes the same as the one of an adult during adolescence, it does not mean that you are ready to face the problems of a grown-up life. Therefore it is important to make a decision about sex. It is not easy for anyone and you might want to wait until you are fully grown. If you feel that it is too early to have sex than don’t do it and say so.

However, when you decide to have sex or if you are already sexually active you need to know about different methods of birth control and you should take measures to abstain pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Keep in mind that thousands of young girls become pregnant although they are not ready to have children yet. You might want to read this information about various means of birth control in order to be ready when you become sexually active.

First of all before deciding to have sex for the first time there are certain things you need to know:

• It is your and only your decision to have sex when you want to.
• You have the right to say no and your wish should be respected by others.
• Nobody may use pressure on you in order to persuade you to involve in sexual relations.
• When you decide that you are mature to have sex, make sure you take all the steps to avoid unexpected pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
• A woman can become pregnant or get a sexually transmitted disease during her first intercourse, period, standing during sex, and even when a guy pulls his penis out of the vagina before ejaculation (release of  sperm).
• Protection is a worry of both partners.

Hormonal Contraception

This type of contraception includes taking hormones, which are substances produced in a woman’s organism. They control different body organs. This method of birth control include: contraceptive pills , referred as the “pill”, a hormonal patch and vaginal contraceptive ring . All of them work in the way to prevent release of an egg and thicken the cervical mucus. Therefore, if an egg is not released from the ovaries you will not get pregnant.

If you choose one of the most popular methods, the “pill”, you will have to take them everyday at the same time, except four days of the month during which your period will occur. There are combined progestin-estrogen and progestin-only pills. Your gynecologist should help you choose the ones that would suit you best. The efficiency of the pill is 92-99%.

Hormonal patch is a small, thin patch that you should stick to your stomach, buttocks, upper arm or back for three weeks. You should stick a new patch every week of the month except the fourth week. It is more comfortable that the pill since you do not have to worry about forgetting to use birth control everyday. In addition, it has fewer side effects. The efficiency of the patch is 99.7%.

Another long-term hormonal birth control method is a vaginal ring that should be placed deep into the vagina for three consecutive weeks of the month. It should be removed from the vagina after three weeks and a new one should be placed after a one-week break. The efficiency of the method is 99.5%.

It is important for you to know that none of the hormonal contraception methods protects against sexually transmitted diseases.

Barrier Methods

One of the most popular barrier methods is a male condom , a latex sheath put on the erect penis during sexual intercourse. It is also the only method that can not only prevent unwanted pregnancy but also reduce the risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease. The efficiency in birth control reaches 85-98%.

It is important to wear a condom properly because improper use may result in unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease. You may learn how to use a condom reading the information leaflet enclosed into a condom packet. Avoid using oil-based lubricants, such as Vaseline, since they reduce the efficiency of this barrier birth control method.

Other barrier means of contraception are  cervical cap , contraceptive sponge and female condoms . Remember that these methods do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases. The barrier means of contraception are used by a female before each sexual intercourse. A woman should insert either of the mentioned methods into her vagina before sex and remove them after not fewer than 6 hours after the last sexual act.

The main way how barrier contraception protects against unwanted pregnancy is by blocking the sperm so that it cannot enter the vagina. It may take some time to learn how to use these methods properly, so don’t be afraid to ask your gynecologist to teach you to do this.

These are the main kinds of birth control methods that can be recommended to sexually active teenagers. It may be difficult to choose one of them therefore it is a good idea to talk to your family doctor or your general practitioner. They will keep your conversation in secret so that nobody will find out about it. Although, it may be a good idea to talk to your parents or school counselor in order to make the right decision. Remember, that you friends may also not know much on this topic therefore they are not the best source of information. And finally, make sure you make the right decision so that you will not regret it later.

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Throughout many years people tried to find ways to control fertility and prevent pregnancies. Even though in the earliest times people had little or no idea how women became pregnant, there were many mechanisms and various birth control methods used in many ancient cultures to avoid pregnancies.
Many of these methods had nothing to do with sexual intercourse or the act of conceiving a baby and, obviously, had little if any effect on birth control. Such methods were dances, amulets and rituals. Some methods, however, even if they were used without any knowledge about how to get pregnant, were ancient modifications of modern methods of birth control used even today.

In the times when pregnancy was believed to be controlled by spirits, the moon or the sun, rituals, myths, dances and amulets were popular means to control fertility. Those were the times when pregnancy and childbirth were dangerous to women’s lives. The death rate during childbirth or after it was high, and women tried to avoid pregnancy especially when they had already many children. The birth control methods were passed on from woman to woman quietly. It is known that in cultures where the moon was believed to be the power of conception, women tended to sleep out of the reach of moonlight in order to avoid pregnancy. In some other cultures throwing corn kernels, apples, or nails into a well or springing at a magical hour was believed to help a woman to stay un-pregnant for a month. Another ritual that was thought to help prevent unwanted pregnancy was walking over graves of dead female ancestors.

Birth control in Ancient Rome

Ancient Roman women put a leather pouch filled with cat’s liver on their left foot during sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancy. Some women believed that spitting three times into a frog’s mouth was a good method of birth control. European women thought that they could prevent pregnancy by turning backwards a wheel of a mill at midnight. And in many cultures women constantly wore various necklaces and amulets, which were supposed to have the power of controlling the act of conception.

Birth control in Ancient Greece

Some time later natural family planning techniques came into the minds of ancient women. The rhythm method, known and used by some women even nowadays, was introduced by a Greek gynecologist Soranus in the second century CE. He suggested that women should avoid sex during the days when ovulation occurred because he thought they were then most fertile. However, he was absolutely wrong assuming that ovulation occurred during the days of menstrual bleeding. In addition to the rhythm method, Soranus advised women to hold the breath and draw their bodies back during sex in order to stop the sperm from entering a woman’s body. He also suggested a woman to jump backwards seven times after sexual intercourse or sit down on bent knees to cause sneezing. These methods had no scientific basis and thus were not effective in birth control .

Another method, with the knowledge of ovulation and its effect on conception was continuous breast-feeding until a child was three years old. Somehow women knew that breast-feeding had to prevent ovulation and therefore they were not able to conceive.

The only method that had then and still has now a hundred percent efficiency in birth control was abstinence . Therefore many women had joined the monasteries and became nuns. For other women complete abstinence was not possible on a long-term basis but some religions and ethical groups had periods when sex was prohibited, such as during Lent or different religious or ethical holidays. However, these had no effect on birth control.

Birth control in Ancient Egypt

One of the oldest methods, that had something to do with the knowledge of how women became pregnant, was used in Egypt around 1500 BC. It is thought to be the oldest contraceptive. Suppositories made out of crocodile dung or honey, were used by women. It was believed that the sticky substance could stop the white fluid from a man entering a woman’s body. This probably only discouraged a man from having sexual intercourse with a woman who used these suppositories.

Birth control methods

The history of suppositories in birth control is large and modern science has approved the efficiency in birth control of some of them. For example, women used to grind acacia tree bark, dates and honey together and apply such a paste on the vulva before sexual intercourse. Since acacia tree bark has some lactic acid that is used even in modern spermicides, such suppositories had some scientific basis in preventing unwanted pregnancy.

The oldest modification of an intrauterine device (IUD) used today was suggested by Hippocrates who thought that inserting different objects into the uterus could make pregnancy impossible. Additionally, Arab camel drivers placed stones into the uterus of their female camels in order to prevent pregnancy in them. However, the founder of a modern IUD was German gynecologist Grafenberg, who developed the first IUD in 1920. Unlike in today used IUDs he took silkworm and silver wire, which was soiled into a ring, to produce the very first IUD.

The history of female pessaries reaches even the second century BCE. Even though pessaries are used in modern times as well, ancient pessaries were produced from rather different materials than they are now. Ancient pessaries were produced out of elephant dung, seaweed, and leaves. Also women used to put different substances like sea sponges or soft wool. You can only imagine how painful sex must have been those days. W. J. Rendel was a man who developed the first modern pessary and introduced it into the market in 1800s. It was made out of quinine or cacao butter and like the modern ones had to be inserted into the vagina before sexual intercourse.

There were various oral substances that ancient women in different cultures used to take to prevent pregnancies. Some of the substances not only prevented pregnancy but were also unhealthy or even lethal. Chinese women drank mercury whereas Indian women took carrot seeds and women in Eastern Canada made tea out of beaver testicles and drank it to avoid pregnancy. Even in older times poisonous substances including mercury, arsenic and strychnine were used as a form of oral contraceptives. However, it took a lot of time and effort until a modern oral contraceptive – the birth control pill – came onto the market.

Men also used different methods in order to prevent pregnancy in their female partners from occurring. The oldest method of birth control known is coitus interruptus, which means that a man pulls his penis out of the vagina before ejaculation. Although it is used by some even nowadays, coitus interruptus is, however, a poorly effective method of birth control since a small amount of fluid released prior to ejaculation contains some sperm. Another form of male birth control was squeezing the base of the penis so that a man does not ejaculate. This is called coitus reservatus. Although neither coitus interruptus nor coitus reservatus could be efficient enough in birth control.

Men also used cruel methods to prevent conception. This includes a so called sub-incision. In some tribes they used to cut a small hole in the male urethra at the base of the penis, so that semen discharges through the hole instead of entering the vagina during ejaculation. A man had to put a finger on the hole when urinating as well as when he wanted to make his female partner pregnant.

Condoms

Condoms , still present today, were first produced in 1562. However, they were very different from those used today. Firstly, condoms were made out of animal intestines, goat bladders or blowfish intestines. Secondly, they were used many times washing them after each use. Condoms even those days were used to protect not only against pregnancy but also against venereal diseases. Latex rubber condoms were first produced in 1840s and have been used and efficient ever since.

Modern-day birth control

Medical progress and modern technologies have made a lot of differences in sexual lives of men and women. Women have a lot of birth control methods they can choose these days in order to protect against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Scientists are about to introduce a new method of contraception for men – the male birth control pill. However, there are a lot of people in the world today, who still use various old birth control methods to avoid unexpected pregnancies. How far have we really come from ancient times?