What Are Your Options for Emergency Contraception?

There’s no getting around it; contraception is vital to your sexual health. Without birth control, you are putting your wellbeing at a high risk of unwanted pregnancies. Without a barrier method of contraception, your wellness may also be affected by a sexually transmitted infection (STI). If you don’t want to get pregnant it’s good to think in advance about what contraception you will use. You might want to use more than one in case one method proves ineffective, or if your primary method doesn’t protect against STIs. That said, in emergency situations where you don’t use birth control or your contraceptive lets you down, there is a solution: emergency contraception.

 

There are many reasons why you might need to use emergency contraception; your condom bursts or rips, you forget to take your Pill or you have unprotected sex and regret it later. While emergency contraception should never be used as an alternative to normal contraception – and I can’t stress this point strongly enough – it is possible to get emergency contraception that will work to stop pregnancy after you’ve had sex. These emergency contraceptives can be broken down into two types. First, you have emergency hormonal contraceptives (sometimes known as ‘the morning-after pill’). Or, there’s the intrauterine device (IUD). It’s important to note that neither kind of emergency contraception (pill or IUD) offer protection against sexually transmitted infections.

 

Let’s take a look at both of these kinds of emergency contraception in a little more detail:

 

1. Emergency hormonal contraceptives: This kind of emergency contraception breaks down into two emergency oral pills; Levonelle and ellaOne. Sometimes known as “the morning-after pill”, both of these varieties are available from doctors, community pharmacies and sexual health centres. If you have unprotected sex, you need to take Levonelle within 72 hours (three days) or else it won’t work. The ellaOne pill, on the other hand, can be taken within 120 hours (five days) of having unprotected sex. You can get the Levonelle pill for free without a prescription from most pharmacies, your GP or local sexual health clinic. The ellaOne is also free of charge, but you will need a prescription from your GP or sexual health clinic.

 

2. Intrauterine device (IUD): The IUD is a small, plastic and copper device that can be fitted into your womb by a medical health professional. Just like the ellaOne pill, you can use an IUD up to five days after having unprotected sex. IUD’s need to be fitted by a trained doctor or nurse and this can be done at your GP’s, local GUM or Sexual Health Clinic.

 

You should never use emergency hormonal contraceptives (“morning-after pills”) as your regular method of contraception – really, the clue is in the word “emergency”. If you do need to take the morning-after pill, it should serve as a wake-up call and cause you to re-evaluate your approach to contraception. Now is a good time to think about what contraception might be best for you to use on a more regular basis. If you go the IUD route for emergency contraception, on the other hand, you can keep the IUD in as your regular method of contraception. However, if, for some reason, you do not want to do this, a healthcare professional can remove it during or after your next period.

 

While you can take an emergency hormonal contraceptive pill within three to five days of having unprotected sex – depending on which pill you use – they are more effective the sooner they are taken. If used correctly and taken within 24 hours of having unprotected sex, emergency hormonal contraceptive pills prevent around 95% of pregnancies. However, the IUD is the most effective type of emergency contraception and prevents up to 99% of pregnancies if used correctly.

Categories: Emergency contraception, emergency hormonal, health clinic, hormonal contraceptive, hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine device, Intrauterine device (IUD), Morning After Pill

Endometriosis Causing You Pain? 4 Treatments You Should Try

Endometriosis can really take its toll on your wellbeing, not only affecting your sexual health with severe pain during sex and infertility, but also presenting with other upsetting wellness concerns, such as backache and painful bowel movements. Unfortunately, there is no cure for endometriosis, but there are a number of endometriosis treatment and management options that can help you to cope with the condition.

 

1. Medical Therapies: The most common medical endometriosis treatments are hormonal contraceptives and other hormonal regimens, such as GnRH agonists (gonadotropin releasing hormone drugs). These drugs control the hormonal stimulation of your endometrial tissue. If you are suffering from pelvic pain, your first-line management includes hormonal contraceptives – be they oral, transdermal or injectable – along with non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen. These treatments are cheaper, easier to use and less likely to produce side effects than other hormonal treatments, and so may be used indefinitely to help you manage your symptoms. A type of androgen (Danazol) is sometimes used to treat endometriosis, but it can cause some undesirable side effects. These include weight gain, hirsutism (hair growth), fluid retention, fatigue, hot flashes, decreased breast size, acne, oily skin, irritation or inflammation in your vagina, hot flushes, muscle cramps, emotional instability and a deeper voice.

 

2. Surgical Procedures: If you have surgery, this can be something as simple as a laparoscopy to something as drastic as a hysterectomy. If you have a laparoscopic procedure, your surgeon will either use heat or laser to destroy your endometriotic implants, or else cut them out. This can be a complicated surgery if the endometriosis is in your ureters or bowels. If your doctor recommends that you have a hysterectomy, you should be aware that this involves the removal of your uterus and potentially your ovaries, both of which you need to have a baby. Therefore, you should only have this procedure if you’re absolutely sure you don’t want children, and exploring other – potentially less effective – treatments is worth that goal. If you wish to preserve your fertility, discuss other options with your health care professional and consider seeking a second opinion.

 

3. Alternative Treatments: Complementary therapies for relieving the painful symptoms of endometriosis include traditional Chinese medicine, nutritional approaches, homeopathy, allergy management, and immune therapy. Again, you need to bear in mind that none of these treatments can cure endometriosis. That said, you should talk to your doctor about these options. Some doctors believe going down the alternative wellness route is a waste of time, but others will tell you that it’s always worth try alternative methods of pain relief as long as they are not harmful to your condition. Either way, you should always consult a doctor first, as you need to know exactly what you’re putting into your body.

 

4. Pregnancy: Although pregnancy is by no means a cure for endometriosis – and you shouldn’t have a baby just for nine months of pain relief – some women do find that being pregnant helps to lessen their pain. Moreover, even though the chronic condition won’t disappear with pregnancy, many women still find that the pain is substantially improved after they have a baby, and some women find that the pain does not come back at all. The reason behind this is that pregnancy stops the ovulation process, causing your endometriosis implants to become less active and, as a result, become less painful or large than they once were. Or, the reason why pregnancy eases your endometriosis pain may be because you’re not having periods, and menstruation triggers the pain that many women with endometriosis feel.

Categories: endometriosis, hormonal, hormonal contraceptives, Pain, Pain Relief, pregnancy, Treatments