Birth Control

Birth Control

What is Birth Control?

• The sexual act always has the potential to lead to pregnancy.
• Pregnancy will make major demands on the mind and body of a female , and if she is not ready, it may have adverse effects.
• Also, all the resources are limited, therefore if the populations keep on expanding, it will become difficult to improve the standard of living of people.
• Because of these reasons, many techniques have been devised to avoid pregnancy .
• These are known as methods of contraception/birth control .

Methods of Birth Control

Barrier Methods

• These include the use of physical devices like condoms and diaphragms in order to prevent pregnancy. 
• Condoms are used by males whereas diaphragms are for females. 
• They both prevent the meeting of sperm and ovum by acting as a barrier between them.
• One of the major advantages of using physical barriers is that they prevent the transmission of STDs by preventing the transfer of body fluids .

Chemical Methods

• Oral and vaginal pills and Intra Uterine Contraceptive Devices (IUCDs) come under chemical methods of contraception.
• Oral pills contain hormones which prevent the production of ovum (egg). Although these pills have certain side effects , it is considered a very effective way of preventing fertilization.
• Vaginal pills contain spermicides (cide means ‘to kill’) which are certain chemicals that kill sperms.
• IUCDs like copper-T are also a very effective contraceptive. Copper-T is placed in the uterus by a doctor and it prevents the implantation (the process in which an embryo is embedded in the lining of the uterus) of a fertilized egg in the uterus. 
• However, these methods cannot prevent the transmission of STDs.

Surgical Methods

• These are permanent ways for contraception and are available for both males and females.
• In females, this surgical process is known as tubectomy . In this, the fallopian tube is cut and the ends are tied.
• For males, this surgical process is called vasectomy in which vas deferens is cut and the ends joined together.
• But surgeries can cause infections or other complications if not performed properly.

Note: Surgical methods can also be used for removal of unwanted pregnancies . However, this can be misused by people to particularly get rid of girl child. This is also known as female foeticide.

Because of excessive female foeticide, the male-female sex ratio has been disturbed and therefore, government has banned prenatal sex determination.