Alert! Hormonal Implants lead to hundreds of unwanted pregnancies!

A new finding has come to show that hundreds of women have fallen pregnant after a long-term contraceptive implant failed. Many women were left injured or scarred as a result of the implant after it was inserted into their arm.

To compensate the failings of these contraceptive implants, the NHS has had to pay the women who were hurt by the implant and those who were traumatised by their unexpected pregnancies. The total payouts have totalled more than £200,000 – an average of more than £28,000 each.

A lawyer representing the women who had fallen pregnant unintentionally revealed that many of his clients had suffered psychological difficulties after suffering miscarriages or undergoing abortions after the implants went wrong. One woman who underwent an abortion claimed the trauma had led to her marriage ending.

The hormone filled rod which is behind all of these unwanted pregnancies is called Implanon. The Implanon implant is meant to provide protection against pregnancy for up to three years and when properly inserted, it is 99.5% effective compared to 99.7% for the Pill. The Implanon device costs £90. It is a flexible rod the size of a matchstick which is inserted underneath the skin of the upper arm. It works by gradually releasing the hormone progesterone, which stops the ovaries from releasing eggs and makes the womb less receptive to fertilised eggs.

One in four women in the UK who go to family planning clinics receive the long-term contraceptive implants. The implants are especially popular among teenagers who prefer the implant to the pill because it doesn’t require daily action.

Investigations conducted after reports of unwanted pregnancies have revealed that in some cases, the implant was not released from the pre-loaded applicator and therefore never inserted into the arm of the patient. Other implants were delivered too deep into the arm to function properly.

In its entire living history, the NHS has never experienced a contraceptive failure as great as this one involving Implanon. In total, 584 women who had the implant have reported unwanted pregnancies to the Medicine and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The total could actually be much higher considering many woman may not have reported becoming pregnant. The MHRA received 1,607 complaints about the implant going wrong. Some of these complaints were filed by doctors concerned about the difficulty of inserting the device and also that the implant is impossible to check if they are correctly implanted because they are invisible to X-rays.

The manufacturer of Implanon has now replaced it with an updated product called Nexplanon, which has a new pre-loaded applicator and can be detected by X-ray or CT scan. The manufacturer has not,however, recalled the existing stock of Implanon, which means doctors are still using it.

It’s important to remember that no form of birth control is 100% reliable and that when choosing a method of contraception, it’s best to talk to your health care professional. While hormonal birth control is often the most reliable forms of contraception, it can also come with the most amount of risks. Natural contraception, when practiced correctly, can be just as reliable as hormonal birth control and much safer. By practicing natural contraception with a contraceptive monitor or barrier contraceptive, you are eliminating the risk of side effects often associated with hormonal birth control such as mood swings and weight gain, and as in the extreme circumstance detailed in this story, unexpected pregnancies. To learn more about natural contraception, click here.

Men MORE Attracted to Hormone-Free Women

New research has shown that women who practise natural contraception appear more attractive to men than those who practice hormonal contraception. Studies by British researchers, Alexandra Alvergne and Virpi Lummaa, indicate that women who avoid using hormonal contraceptives are seen as more attractive by men during their ovulation period. As you know by our previous articles, ovulation is that time of month when our bodies are focused on making babies. Primal instincts begin to kick in and prompt our bodies to focus on mating and looking our best to attract a partner. This shows that women who use cyclotest or any other form of natural contraceptive, will have that natural something to draw in the guys, just as mother nature intended.

Alvergne and Lummaa emphasise that women undergo physical changes in the course of their menstruation cycle. Facial features, smell and voice are often subject to change. During the fertile phase, which is around the same time as ovulation, these characteristics have a particularly alluring effect on men as both men and women are programmed to know that ovulation time is reproduction time. It has also been established that women in their fertile phase tend to find themselves more attractive and as a result, put more effort into their appearance and dress. Women who practise hormonal contraception artificially subject their hormone balance to a permanently infertile phase, which suppresses the cyclical high of both their positive self-perception and the positive way in which they are perceived by others. Without this monthly high, many women using hormonal contraception suffer negative psychological effects. Woman who practice natural, hormone-free contraception on the other hand, are able to utilise and enjoy this monthly high and often experience an increased level of confidence as a result. This confidence allows them to be more active in their pursuit of finding a partner.

Self-perception is the key to success here. However, the success isn’t attributed solely on the positive way in which a woman perceives herself during the fertile days, but also in the possibility of ascertaining through specific cycle observation, the best time to look for a potential partner. A woman can use the symptothermal method to determine precisely her fertile and highly fertile days,so she can plan her social calendar in advance to make the most of her natural boost.

The manual method of symptothermal charting involves a paper and pen exercise of recording daily temperature readings on a chart and joining the dots, then applying a few formula and a few rules to predict when ovulation might occur. In order to even begin this process you must have already compared up to a years worth of charting data, which is best done under the supervision of a doctor who is knowledgeable in the field of reproductive science.

The alternative to this manual method is letting a contracpetive monitor, like cyclotest, do the job for you. These high-tech, compact devices replace the doctor, the pen and the paper and join the dots up for you while applying a complex algorithm to predict, using minimal data, when your highly fertile period is due. These monitors are incredibly reliable and accurate when used as a natural contraceptive device and allow you to start monitoring your fertility as soon as you take them out of the box!

While all forms of natural contraception allow you to experience this monthly high, using a contraceptive monitor enables you to know when to expect this increase in attractiveness in advance. If you are single and looking for a potential mate, this sympto-thermal method may be a bertter option for you than other forms of hormone-free birth control which do not track your fertility, such as barrier contraceptives.

Being seen as more attractive to men is one of many advantages of making the switch from hormonal birth control to natural contraception. While appearing more attractive to men may sound superficial or unimportant, there are many other more serious psychological benefits of giving up the hormones. Check out the reasons to go natural from a psychological perspective.

To find out what other benefits come with giving up the pill and going natural, have a look here.