Fast Facts on Birth Control Pills

There are numerous options available to control birth or prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Health experts agree that different birth control methods like oral contraceptives, Intrauterine Devices (IUDs), and skin patches are the safest and most effective ways to reduce the risk of unintended pregnancies. But, they also emphasize that women should have knowledge about various birth control methods, before trying to follow them. Still, there are certain birth control facts that women may not hear in their doctor’s office.

 Some Facts:

•  An estimated 62 million U.S. women are in their childbearing years.
• Women from the U.S. usually want two kids and to achieve this goal, she uses birth control methods for about three decades.
• 98% of women in the U.S. have used birth control at some point in their lives, and 62% of those are currently using birth control options.
• Condoms and oral contraceptives are the most commonly used birth control methods
• In developing nations, 35% of birth control is via female sterilization, 30% via IUDs, 12% via oral contraceptives, 11% via condoms, and 4% via male sterilization.
• Globally, condoms are widely used and are one of the most common methods of birth control.
• During the 1700s, women sometimes used lemons as diaphragm because the acid may have acted as a spermicide but the lemon was also known to cause vaginal tissue damage.
• In the 1950s and 1960s, women sometimes used Coca-Cola douches as a contraceptive.
• Over 222 million women in developing countries who want some type of birth control are not using the modern form of contraception.
• People of all ages in the United States can avail the facilities of birth control without their parent’s consent.
• Periodic abstinence is a natural family planning method of birth control in which couples restrict themselves from sex during a woman’s most fertile time. This birth control option is useful about 75% of the time, but it is not the recommended method.
• Another birth control option is the withdrawal method in which the penis is withdrawn from a woman’s vagina before ejaculation. According to the Planned Parenthood report, the withdrawal option is effective only 73% of the time, but it is not a recommended method because various medical professionals don’t consider it as a type of birth control.
• Withdrawal is ineffective for several reasons like it would be difficult for a man to pull out his penis from a woman’s vagina when he is very excited. Another reason is, that for younger men or those with less experience in sexual activities, ejaculation happens a lot faster than they think it will.
• People in the U.S. use the two most popular forms of birth control, including the pill and sterilization option. Despite being easy to obtain, about half of all U.S. pregnancies are unintended.
• There are combination pills containing two hormones, estrogen, and progestin (a synthetic type of the naturally occurring hormone progesterone). These hormones restrict the ovaries from producing eggs in the middle of each monthly cycle.
• The birth control pill, first approved in the year 1957 for severe menstrual problems, created a buzz in the market. Due to the effectiveness in controlling conception, an estimated half a million women took the drug for its side effect that would prevent pregnancy.
• Various doctors don’t prescribe birth control pills for women who smoke cigarettes because it increases the harmful effects of cigarettes.
• There is a myth about birth control pills that they cause weight gain in women. But researchers suggest weight gain be attributed to teenagers because they are growing up.
• Contraceptive pills marked the biggest change with their arrival. Even the world’s known magazine TIME wrote in its blog, “No previous medical phenomenon has ever quite matched the headlong U.S. rush to use the oral contraceptives now universally known as ‘the pills’.”

Conclusion: With the progressing time, scientists are eagerly working for new revolutions that will create a similar impact on the market as birth control pills did. The facts mentioned above will help you in brushing the history of contraceptive pills and their effectiveness. Moreover, one should never forget to discuss the pros and cons of pills with the doctor before using them.