Combating Sperm - I

Combating Sperm - I

The 20th Century has seen the explosion of the belief that procreation and reproduction are inseparable. Now you can have your cake and eat it too. Ms FEELWELL checks out the various contraception choices.

Sure nature’s aim for sex is procreation. And, being the clever lady that she is, Nature has also made sure that the ‘urge to merge’ overtakes human beings.

And Nature, also being compassionate, has made sex a pleasurable activity as a bonus for doing our duty as human beings to keep the Homo sapiens race intact! However, with the man manufacturing more than 26 trillion sperms a year, it’s hard to not conceive a baby during intercourse.

Although abortion is a choice but in today’s day and age, do try and make it the absolutely last one. Look, when you can take proper precautions, why allow unintended pregnancies? Incidentally, although men do have choices of contraception, more often than not, the responsibility falls on the women. After all, it’s her body that becomes the receptacle of the pregnancy. There are basically four types of contraception that you can choose from:

1. Sterilisation
2. Hormonal methods
3. Barrier methods
4. Natural contraception methods

All have some positive and negative baggage, no pun intended.

Sterilisation
The two methods of sterilisation are tubal sterilisation for women and vasectomy for men. Sterilisation has certain advantages over other methods in that it involves a one-time operation; are effective and has no side effects. You can shed worries about becoming pregnant and lastly, contrary to popular belief, they do not affect sexual functioning. Tubal ligation, a common name for female sterilisation, can be in the form of laproscopy, a mini-laparotomy, a full laparotomy, vaginal procedures or hysterectomy. After sterilisation, the sexual functioning of women may improve because now there is no fear of getting pregnant. Some men worry that vasectomy will affect their sexual functioning but in truth, a man feels no different since he is still able to have erections and ejaculate. The only difference is that his semen does not contain any sperm. However, his testes continue to manufacture sperm but instead of being ejaculated, it gets absorbed by the body. Still, for the first 15 ejaculations, it is wise to use some other contraception method till the sperm gets completely removed from the system. The only thing you must remember is that sterilisation assumes that you would not want to have any children in the future.

Hormonal Methods
The Contraceptive Pill
Inhibits pregnancy through use of hormones. The pill is very effective birth control method and is credited for starting the sexual revolution in the 1960’s.

The pill has taken on many new avatars. Although the basic components of the pill—the estrogens and the progestin—the hormones that a woman’s body uses to regulate her period, are the same but while the early pill caused many side effects, today these have been greatly reduced.

Now pills come in two types: combination pills that contain both estrogens and progestin and the mini-pills containing only progestin. The pill has several advantages apart from the obvious one. You have more regular periods, fewer menstrual cramps, less pelvic inflammatory disease, less pre-menstrual cramping, less acne and protection against endometrial and ovarian cancer, less ectopic pregnancies. The only thing you must remember is to take the pill everyday, preferably at the same time.

Norplant
Was created for the woman who’d forget to take the pill! Norplant uses a hormone called levonorgestrel, which is contained in 6 soft capsules about the size of matchsticks. These are inserted under the skin of the upper arm and continually release the hormone.

Once a physician has inserted Norplant, it’ll protect the woman for 5 years.

Depo Provera
Is an injectible contraceptive, which involves getting a shot after every 12 weeks?