Deciding on a contraceptive method
When deciding on a contraceptive method, certain birth control considerations may come into play. The effectiveness of contraception may or may not be an important consideration. However, the reliability of any contraceptive method depends on whether it's used consistently and correctly. That being said, the failure rates of some methods are significantly higher than others. You need to decide what level of effectiveness is most acceptable to you.
Typical Use versus Perfect Use:
To understand how to determine the effectiveness of contraception, it is important to know that effectiveness rates often provided as typical user rates and perfect use rates.
Typical use refers to failure rates for people who do not consistently or always correctly use their birth control. These rates usually apply to the average person as it is sometimes difficult to always and reliably use birth control correctly.
Perfect use refers to failure rates for those whose use is consistent and always correct
The typical user success rate is generally lower than the success rate of the method if used perfectly.
100 Percent Effectiveness:
Abstinence is the only 100 percent effective method in preventing both pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. All other birth control options carry some risk of failure.
Highly Effective Methods:
The ParaGard IUD (Copper T 380A) , the Mirena IUD, Implants, Depo Provera Injections, Tubal Ligation, and Vasectomy tend to be the most highly effective methods of birth control.
These all have typical user rates of 97 to 99 percent
This means that out of 100 people who use these methods for a year, 3 or less will become pregnant
In general, methods that require less for a person to do tend to have lower failure rates.
:
Birth control pills (both combination and progestin-only) and other prescription options such as The Patch and The NuvaRing tend to have a high typical user success rates of around 92 percent.
This means that out of 100 women who use one of these methods for a year, 8 will become pregnant
Continuous breastfeeding (Lactational Amenorrhea Method – LAM) is another birth control method that yields a high typical use effectiveness rate.
This method tends to be 95 percent effective
For every 100 women who use LAM, 5 will become pregnant within the first 6 months
It is important to point out that this effectiveness rate only applies to women who are exclusively breastfeeding. This means that a woman feeds her baby at least 6 times a day with both breasts, does not substitute other foods for breast milk, and feeds her baby every 4 hours during the day and every 6 hours at night. Additionally, this method is not as effective if a woman has had a period since giving birth. A woman should also not rely on this method once she is 6 months post partum. After 6 months, the Lactational Amenorrhea Method is no longer a reliable form of birth control.
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