Simple misuse of contraception, how a little knowledge goes a long way!

Simple misuse of contraception, how a little knowledge goes a long way!

There are many contraceptive methods around which are misused by couples as a result of a simple misunderstanding.  What many women fail to realize is that the window of time where they're at risk of becoming pregnant is relatively small and therefore, using contraception day in and day out is not entirely necessary.

For example, if a woman is not using a pill, patch, coil or any other type of hormonal contraception, she will actually only be fertile for 18-24 hours per cycle when she ovulates.  Since sperm can survive up to 5 days, intercourse 5 days prior to ovulation could fertilise an egg so we have  a fertility window of  6 days per cycle.  


In order to avoid pregnancy during those 6 days, the woman should either abstain from sex or use a barrier contraceptive.  

Most people who use barrier contraceptive tend to use them on each day of their cycle, even on the 20-22 days when there's no risk of becoming pregnant, when they actually only need to be used during their Fertility Window.

Contraceptive Monitors help you identify your Fertility Window, those 6-8 days per cycle when intercourse could lead to pregnancy. 

Click here to read on and learn how they do it and how they can help you take control of your contraception.  




 

Cancer and the Pill

In 2007 the World Health Organization determined that oral contraceptives were Group I carcinogens, which are capable of causing several cancers in women, including breast cancer. Unfortunately their findings have yet to be published in mainstream media, therefore many doctors aren’t aware of the risks and continue to prescribe oral contraceptives to their patients.

A new study widens this risk to include African-American women. Scientists at Boston University School of Medicine followed 53,848 African-American women for an average of 12 years, beginning in 1995. They found 789 cases of breast cancer. Of these cases, the number of estrogen receptor-negative cases was 65% greater in women who had used the pill. Such breast cancers have a worse prognosis than estrogen receptor-positive tumors. The risk for breast cancer was greatest in women who had used the pill within five years and whose use was greater than ten years.

Funding for the study was provided by the National Cancer Institute.

What do you think about this? If this is a proven study, shouldn't more people be aware of the potential risks?

References

Oral Contraceptive Use and Estrogen/Progesterone Receptor–Negative Breast Cancer among African American Women: http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/19/8/2073.full.pdf+html

Increased Blood Clot Risk on the Pill

More bad press for the pill, this time the focus is on the combined oral contraceptives - the kind containing both the hormones oestrogens and progestin. If the woman taking these pills has a common vein malfunction (experienced by a quarter of the population), her risk of blot clots is increased significantly.

'Up to 25% of the healthy population has a narrowing, known as stenosis, in the left common iliac vein (one of two major veins deep in the pelvis that return blood from the lower body to the heart), according to Dr Lawrence Hofmann and his colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine.

In their study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, having a "left common iliac vein stenosis" and taking so-called combined oral contraceptives - the kind containing both the hormones oestrogens and progestin - multiplied a woman's risk of deep vein thrombosis nearly 18 times compared to women with neither risk factor.

Sometimes known as "economy class syndrome", a deep vein thrombosis is a blood clot - often formed in veins of the lower legs – which is potentially dangerous because it can travel to the heart and lungs and cause serious harm.

Some 12 million women in the US use the "combined" form of birth control pill, which is already known to increase a woman's risk of blood clots.

In general, the researchers note, among every 10,000 young women who are not taking oral contraceptives, about one to three will have a deep vein thrombosis every year. For young women who've been taking the Pill for a year, that risk goes up six-fold.'

You can read the full story here.