Contraception - 2

In the last post I'd talked about the Barrier methods of contraception. This post is dedicated to Hormonal methods of contraception.

As I had explained in the last post, contraception is achieved by preventing the sperm & the egg from meeting or if the meeting has taken place, then from preventing the mated egg & sperm to settle down in body & grow up into a baby.

For the entire reproductive process in human body, both males & females, certain hormones are essential. In women these hormones rise & fall with different phases of monthly cycle. The timely & adequate rise & fall is essential for the normal functioning of cycle. Imbalance between these hormones leads to menstrual irregularities or scanty or heavy cycles & Infertility. So it is essential that these hormones remain in balance.

The Two most important hormones of female reproductive cycle are Estrogen & Progesterone.The interaction between these to decides the time when egg is released & if fusion between egg & sperm takes place, they condition the Uterus to receive the fused gamete & help it grow.

All the Hormonal pills bring an imbalance between these two hormones & thus preventing fusion of the egg & sperms or else preventing the fused product to settle. But these drugs if taken without supervision & in inadequate or too high doses can lead to hormonal imbalances & menstrual irregularities. Thus these pills should be used with CARE, CAUTION & UNDER MEDICAL SUPERVISION ONLY.

I have seen cases where women who use Contraceptive pills to abort, ended up bleeding profusely, some even die before we can help them medically. At times improper consumption of pills leads to severe menstural irregularities, changes in hormonal cycles.

Contraceptive pills though have very high efficacy in preventing pregnancy, there disadvantage lies in the fact that they DO NOT offer any protection from sexually transmitted diseases. So while using OCP's you should make sure that your partner is using a Condom.

Currently Hormonal pills are used as-

Oral Contraceptive Pills - to be used daily, as directed by the doctor till the woman does not want to conceive. (Long term consumption of OCP has been associated with risk of breast cancer, so do make sure that you raise this concern with your doctor)

Emergency Contraceptive pills - Used as an emergency measure to prevent pregnancy within 72 hrs of having Unsafe Sex. These days due to heavy advertising, I-pills have become a convenient alternative for women to use after unsafe sex.This highly irresponsible & dangerous. In such circumstances, these pills be consumed only with consultation of a doctor.

Medical termination of Pregnancy in early weeks of pregnancy - We get a lot of patients in the OPD who come to us after having consumed drugs to abort & then ending up in emergencies or women who insist that we give them drugs to abort pregnancy irrespective of the age of gestation. A word of caution about this. Use of Drugs to abort should be done only with MEDICAL ADVICE, this is for the good of your own health & life.

As I have said before, don't get swayed by the massive Information that is available these days, Use that information Judiciously. Act Responsibly & Stay Safe.



(This post contains just basic medical information regarding Hormonal pills for general awareness. It is not intended as medical advice nor should it be taken so.
Kindly turn to your doctor in case of any queries regarding the above post.)

Contraception - 1

This will not be a single post but a series of post about Measures of contraception & the sensible use of various Contraceptive measures available.

Contraception is simply referred to as any method by which a woman doesn't get pregnant while still being sexually active.

Methods of contraception are divided into

                                  - Reversible (woman can conceive soon after they stop using the method) 

                                  - Irreversible/Permanent (inability to conceive once the method has been used)

Reversible Methods can be of Various Types like Barrier methods (e.g. condoms), Hormonal (Oral Contraceptive Pills), Mechanical (Intrauterine devices like Cu-T).

Today's post will be focused on Barrier Methods.

Barrier Methods - As the name suggests, act as a barrier in preventing the egg & the sperm to meet thereby preventing Pregnancy from taking place.

The commonest Barrier protection method in use these days is the Male Condom (& yes female condoms do come, but they are very expensive, cumbersome to use & at times uncomfortable). 

Male condoms are the easily available, cheap,easy to use, safe & disposable contraceptive devices.

The added advantage of Condoms is that they prevent transmission of STD's & HIV infection.

But a few Things need to be kept in mind while using a condom. For that it's essential to understand that Condom is like a glove that covers the penis & the ejaculate containing sperm is collected in this glove thereby preventing it from spilling into vagina. For the Condom to function efficiently it is therefore essential that the condom is of right size, good quality and covers the penis completely, has space to collect the ejaculate & is intact to prevent the ejaculate from spilling accidentally & beating the purpose of the device.

Check-list before using a Condom -
- Press the tip of the Condom to remove air if any in the condom

- Before using just pour a gentle stream of normal water in it to check there is no leak.

- While removing after coitus make sure that there is no spilling of the ejaculate in vagina & also check the condom for any tear that might have happened during the act.

- In case of tear / leak in condom please make sure to I for your partner and get them to Consult a Obgy specialist.

- It increases the efficacy of condom if the female uses a spermicidal jelly, but this should be done in consultation with your OBGY specialist.

Using condom has no effect on the sensation of the sexually act as is commonly believed.

Also the latest condoms are free of the allergic reactions that sometimes used to occur with latex condoms.

But more important than knowing all this is Acting "Responsibly". It is very Important for sexually active Men & Women (of any age group) to "SAY NO TO UNSAFE/ UNPROTECTED SEX".

U should insist that your partner use a Condom while having sex, because AIDS/ STD's do not have any sexually preferences. They affect both the sexes & AIDS kills both men & women equally. If the partner has any reservations get him to talk to a doctor but donot give in to "Unprotected Sex" in any case.

Also, getting accidentally pregnant due to unprotected Sex, not only leads to emotional problems, apart from the toll repeated pregnancies & abortions to get rid of unwanted pregnancies take on the body of women.

I have seen countless patients go through the mental & physical trauma of the effects of such irresponsible acts, at times even leading to deaths.

I once had a patient, a young girl who got infected with HIV because she had had unprotected sex only once with her boyfriend because he refused to use Condom even when she Insisted, both being unaware that her Boyfriend was HIV +ve. There are many such stories that we as doctors come across daily, Incidents which ruin families & individuals.

ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT U CAN SAY NO and THAT ONE NO CAN SAVE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. So donot hesitate to make that choice. LEARN TO SAY NO.

I'll wrap up this post with this bit of Caution. We live in the age of Information, the motto of which is "if it's a question, it can be googled". But what can't be googled IS how to use that information correctly, this especially applies to Medical Information. The Information that is available online is what We doctors read all our lives in our books, but the reason why we have to slog 8-10 yrs of our lives becoming worthy consultants is so that we can decide which information is worth using for the welfare of our patients & which is not. My point is don't get swayed by the flood of information, at times too much information can kill.