Hormonal Contraception - Birth Control

Contraception (preventing pregnancy) has been attempted for thousands of years. Over the centuries, contraceptive methods have varied greatly from ways we would consider bizarre to methods quite similar to what we use today. For example, in ancient Egypt, crocodile dung and honey were put in the vagina to prevent conception. In some African countries, women used okra pods as vaginal pouches – similar to the female condoms now in use. From dung to seedpods, the effectiveness of traditional contraceptive methods is quite questionable. Although today's methods of birth control can be more complicated to use, they are undeniably more reliable and certainly more appealing.

Over the next 25 years, the world's population is estimated to exceed 8 billion individuals. At more than 40%, this increase represents the largest population growth ever seen over such a short time period. Governments as well as individuals are taking action to keep a huge growth in population from overwhelming resources. Without using some form of family planning, however, approximately 80% of women age 35 to 39 and 91% of women age 20 to 24 would become pregnant at least once during a 5-year period. Even more significant to overall population growth, one out of ten women age 15 to 19 will become pregnant each year, despite a consistent decline in the teen birth rate. Far more likely to live in poverty, babies born to teen-aged mothers are often low in birth weight, which contributes not only to higher infant death rates, but also to greater risk of lifelong health problems. Although estimates vary over a large range, as many as 60% of all pregnancies are believed to be unplanned. Worldwide, unplanned children are more likely to die before the age of one year.

Efforts to control population growth take many forms – from governmental limits on the number of children per family to individual decisions about contraceptive methods. Hormonal contraception is just one method of birth control now used to help keep population growth in check and minimize the number of unwanted pregnancies. By far, the most popular method of limiting family size in the United States is oral hormonal contraception taken by the female partner. Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first “modern” contraceptive, Enovid 10, in 1960, major advances have been made in hormonal contraception. Available in several different dosage forms, today’s hormonal contraceptives are formulated to reduce side effects and increase convenience while maintaining effectiveness.

Important Note: Hormonal contraceptives, in any form, do not provide protection against the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as AIDS, gonorrhea, or syphilis (just to name a few).