WHAT’S A WOMAN TO DO ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL?
Your best choice depends on you.For some women, the convenience of birth control pills or patches may outweigh the side effects and health risks that go with them. At the other end of the spectrum, women in stable relationships, with regular menstrual cycles and good body awareness may want to consider using the “rhythm method,” also known as “natural family planning” and “fertility awareness.”
In between the extremes of synthetic hormone contraceptives and the rhythm method are condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps, female condoms and the Today Sponge. All three involve spermicide, which is not the healthiest goop you can put in your body, but again, risks need to be measured against maturity, lifestyle and how serious the consequences of pregnancy are. The Today Sponge is easy to use, effective, inexpensive and available over-the-counter.
I have yet to meet a woman who used Depo Provera, the progestin shot that lasts three months, who didn’t come out at the other end of it feeling terrible. It takes some women a year or more to recover. It may seem like an irresistibly convenient form of birth control, but please read the full physician’s information sheet on side effects before considering it, and also read this article, Wake-up Call about Depo-Provera.
A great tool for women who are tracking their fertility, either to conceive or avoid conceiving, is the Fertile Focus microscope, a lipstick-size microscope used to look at saliva. A telltale ferning pattern in the saliva indicates fertility. I introduced this neat little gadget to one of my teenage goddaughters who was having PMS symptoms, and it turned out to be a wonderful tool for enhancing her body awareness and introducing her to the rhythms of her menstrual cycles. When she ovulated and that distinct ferning pattern appeared in the saliva, she had tangible evidence that an egg had popped—it was pretty exciting for her, and also sobering—it made the possibility of pregnancy much more real.
I’ve also known women who used a fertility microscope during the ups and downs of perimenopause to check whether they were ovulating. If they weren’t they used progesterone cream that cycle—a resourceful strategy for creating hormone balance.
I’ve put together some past Hopkins Health Watch articles on chemical contraceptives to help you sort out the risks: What Every Woman Should Know about Birth Control.