Emergency Contraception Pill

Contents:

• How do Contraceptive Remedies Function?
• Who Needs to take Birth Control Pills (OC)?
• Who is Forbidden to take Birth Control Pills?
• How to take Birth Control Pills?
• How to take the Pills After a Sexual Intercourse in Case You Missed the Time When You Should Have Taken Them?
• Advantages of Birth Control Pills
• Disadvantages of Birth Control Pills
• Conclusions

How do Contraceptive Remedies Function?

Pills to prevent pregnancy consist of a combination of women sex hormones. That’s why they’re sometimes called combined oral contraceptives (COC). When you take the hormones everyday, the work of the ovaries gets changed thus preventing the maturation of a follicle and an ovary getting out. Ovulation doesn’t happen and it’s impossible to get pregnant.

Apart from it, birth control pills thicken the mucus in the cervical canal of the uterus. Consequently, spermatozoids can’t get inside the uterus and fertilize the ovary.

Even if ovulation happened, a spermatozoid got inside a fallopian tube and fertilized the ovary, the embryo won’t be able to get fastened in the uterine cavity since on the background of taking birth control pills the mucus shell of the uterus becomes very thin.

Who Needs to take Birth Control Pills (OC)?

Oral contraceptives nowadays are not only a means of preventing unwanted pregnancy. It’s also a means of treating many women diseases. That’s why sometimes birth control pills are prescribed to girls who don’t have any sexual life yet.

There are more than 50 types of birth control pills that are aimed at women of different age. This is exactly the reason why taking these pills is safe almost at any age.

Who is Forbidden to take Birth Control Pills? Contraindications

Just like any other drug, birth control pills have contradictions. For example, women who have or had venous thrombosis, serious cases of liver or kidney diseases and women over 35 who smoke are forbidden to take the hormonal pills. The pills are also forbidden to take in case of pregnant women.

How to take Birth Control Pills?

As a rule, women start taking birth control pills on the first day of the menstrual period and go on taking them for 21 day. Before start taking them again, there is a pause for one week. There are several quite easy rules that should be necessarily followed when you’re taking birth control pills.

1. Under no condition should you miss the time when you are to take a pill or break the regime according to which you’re taking the pills.
2. It’s recommended to take the pills on one and the same time everyday. Actually, it’s better to take them before you go to sleep.
3. If you start having complaints after you’ve started taking the pills, you’d better discuss them with a doctor.
4. Even if you didn’t have menstrual-like reaction, you still should go on taking the pills. However, you should necessarily consult your doctor. If your doctor confirms that you’re pregnant, you should immediately stop taking the pills.
5. If you should take a different drug at the time of taking the pills, you should necessarily discuss it with a doctor.
6. If your blood pressure has increased, there is jaundice, it’s hard to breathe, your eyesight suddenly got worse, there is pain behind the chest, migraine or severe headache, you should immediately stop taking the contraceptives and get to a doctor as soon as possible.
7. When you’re taking birth control pills it’s recommended to decrease the number of cigarettes you smoke. Actually, it will be better if you stop smoking all at once.
8. The fact is that you get pregnant during the first menstrual period after you stopped taking contraceptives. Don’t forget about it!

How to Take the Pills After a Sexual Intercourse in Case You Missed the Time When You Should Have Taken Them?

If you have forgotten to take a pill and less than a half of a day has passed, you may take the pill you’ve missed to take. Then, you go on taking the pills according to the previous scheme till the end of the cycle.

If more than a half of a day has passed, you also take the missed pill first and then go on taking the pills according to the usual scheme. Here, however, there is also a need to use additional methods to prevent pregnancy during all the following week.

If you have missed the time to take a pill twice or more times, then you should take 2 pills a day and also use additional methods to prevent pregnancy during all the following week.

Advantages of Birth Control Pills

Birth control pills have a number of advantages in comparison with other methods to prevent pregnancy:

1. This is a very safe method of contraception: the majority of birth control pills give you a 99 % guarantee that you won’t get pregnant.
2. Girls and women of practically any age can take them even though for each age group there are certain birth control pills.
3. They get the hormonal background back to normal and decrease the risk of such diseases occurrence as ovarian cancer, endometriosis and cystic ovary.
4. They make menstrual period regular in case your periods were often late earlier or you had them several times a month.
5. They decrease the risk of premenstrual syndrome.
6. When you’re taking OC your menstruations become less abundant and last for not so long.
7. If you take birth control pills, you’ll have an opportunity to delay unwanted menstruation (for example, if you’re going on holidays).
8. They have a treating effect in case of mastopathy.
9. If you decide to plan pregnancy, then you’ll have more chances to get pregnant after you stop taking OC.
10. All effects of birth control pills go away right after you stop taking them.

Disadvantages of Birth Control Pills

Of course, birth control pills have their disadvantages and not everyone can take them:

1. Birth control pills can’t give you a 100 % guarantee that you won’t get pregnant: even the best OC can fail you.
2. It’s necessary to take birth control pills everyday: Even if you miss taking only 1 pill, it decreases the pills’ effect and may lead to pregnancy.
3. In case you are taking some other drugs (for example, antibiotics) the efficiency of the pills may get decreased.
4. For some time after you started taking OC you may have smear-like bloody discharges in the middle of the menstrual cycle.
5. Birth control pills may contribute to an increased appetite. They also may make water stay in the organism: if you don’t want to gain weight on the background of taking OC, you need to keep an eye on the way you eat and lead an active way of life.
6. Birth control pills may be the cause for hair loss.
7. Once a woman stops taking birth control pills, her menstrual cycle may become not regular (however, it’s very rare and can be called an exception from the way the things usually are).

As any other drugs, birth control pills have their own side effects: swelling of the lacteal glands, increase of the arterial pressure, headaches, bulging of the belly, etc. Before you start taking OC, there is a need to consult a gynecologist.

Conclusions

Probably, women won’t stop arguing about birth control pills any time soon. There are too many of those women who consider hormones to be absolute evil. Of course, it’s not so and millions of women all over the world have successfully been taking OC for many years. Still, you should understand that this is, first of all, a remedy. You shouldn’t start taking the pills without having previously consulted a doctor. While you are taking OC, it’s necessary to strictly follow the rules and take the pills in accordance with the rules.

If you come to it with a certain sense of responsibility, OC may accompany you for many years of your life.