A COMPLETE GUIDE TO BIRTH CONTROL

Are you searching for the right birth control? Wondering what your options are, and how they differ from one another? There are many types on the market, and one will surely be right for you. Your birth control choices can be broken down into four broad categories: Hormonal Methods, Barrier Methods, Spermicidal / Other Methods, Permanent Methods, and Emergency Methods.

The Hormonal Methods

All of the hormonal methods involve the hormone progesterone, sometimes in combination with estrogen to prevent ovulation, and subsequently, pregnancy. Without ovulation, there is no ripe egg. Without a ripe egg, there is no possibility of pregnancy. The hormonal methods change the amount of the hormones estrogen and progesterone in your blood stream. Basically, the additional hormones convince your body that you have already ovulated, and therefore you don't need to produce another egg.

Birth control pills, often simply called "the pill," mimic your regular cycle, minus the ovulation part. After twenty-one days of taking hormones, you switch to placebo, or sugar pills, and the hormone levels in your blood drop dramatically. With the hormone drop, you begin to bleed. You should be aware that the bleeding you have on the pill is not the same as a regular period. This is because the combination of lack of ovulation and the hormone levels in the pill cause your uterine lining to be thinner and have a slightly different composition than a regular cycle would have. The bleeding is really an artificial bleed rather than a true period.

Most forms of the pill contain both estrogen and progesterone. The "mini pill" is another type of pill that only contains progesterone. The mini pill may have fewer side effects for some women than combination hormone pills.

You don't even have to have the artificial bleed if you don't want to. The pill can be taken continuously- that is once you've used the twenty-one active pills you just start a new pack the next day instead of the placebo pills. Many women worry that the uterine lining might "build up" without bleeding. That's actually not an issue. Remember that the hormones change the amount of lining that builds up, and that the "period" you get on the pill is actually an artificial bleed. Your body doesn't actually have to "get rid" of the lining, and it won't continue to grow. The only reason the pill was originally designed to have a bleeding period was because doctors thought women

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