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| by Gnarls Monkey, Flickr, CC |
To many women this may seem a silly question, once
almost everyone knows someone who indeed got pregnant while using contraception. When a
cissexual woman says she got pregnant under these conditions, however, she is
blamed for not having used it “correctly”. The responsibility of getting pregnant always seems to be hers. I’m not sure if this feels so strong also to trans* men who get pregnant, so
let me know if it does (or not) and it will be extremely helpful of you. Cis women are blamed for not denying sex when a cis guy didn’t want to wear a condom, for seducing them, for not taking the pills the way they should, and so on. So let’s get real and use information on our favor; let’s understand a few important circumstances that can
diminish efficacy of your contraceptives, especially pills.
Using the pill “correctly” means to take one everyday, around the same time, as prescriptions say. This way your body can receive the daily amount of hormones needed to avoid embryo fixation in your uterus along the month. Besides the pill, there are other ways you can ensure no fetus will develop inside you. Some of them can work better for you than the pill, it’s a matter of testing and trying to adapt. I, myself, have used different pills (with different doses of different hormones) and also a patch that needs to be changed once a week (it was a lot harder to forget changing it than to forget taking a pill in my case). There are also implants that are put under your skin or together with an IUD inside your uterus and release bits of hormones throughout a year or more; monthly injections with a higher dose of hormones that are absorbed by your body for a few weeks; a silicon ring put inside your vagina that releases hormones for a month.
Options exist and you can choose the one that fits better into your profile. Some people prefer taking the pill (me!) and getting a lower amount of hormones daily. Others prefer injections or patches because the pill is too easy to forget. Others go with the vaginal ring once they do not have enough time or patience to schedule doctors’ appointments monthly just to take the injections. Some just don’t want to even have to think about it for years, so they choose implants with or without the IUD. It’s really up to you and if your gynecologist does not inform you about all your options, I suggest you switch to another one, if possible.
The fact is: your body needs to receive the necessary amount of hormones so that it can avoid getting pregnant.
The problem is: even when using contraception correctly and even when they are super-efficient, some circumstances may always interfere with their efficacy and in these cases they may fail. And you might get pregnant. I had to find out about these factors by reading the recommendations that come in the medicine box, and also by almost risking unwanted pregnancies thanks to some doctors’ carelessness (like prescribing a powerful medicine that interferes with my pill but not even bothering asking me if I was taking pills). And for those who think information is available to all, just remember that many people do not read (and yes, they can also take contraception) and a big part of those who can read are not exactly able to decipher medical terms. In Brazil, at least, this is a very serious issue.
Diarrhea is a very common cause of contraception, more specifically pills, failing. When having a diarrhea, if severe enough, you intestine won’t be able to absorb the needed amount of hormones from pills.
Vomiting is also a common cause of pills failure. Part of the pills’ hormones should be absorbed in the stomach. If you have frequent hangovers/drinking vomiting or other serious conditions such as bulimia, reflux, etc. you may also be vulnerable. Many of these things are unfortunately still taboos so doctors do not even take them in account when prescribing pills. They do not ask about them to their patients. They do not consider the possibility of their patients being in these situations. Patients also usually do not tell their doctors about it – they know they might be scolded or receive looks of disapproval, among other things. For a bulimic person, or a heavy drinker, for example, vaginal rings, injections, implants and patches seem to be a better solution. If you can find a doctor who care about you and your lifestyle without judging you for it, I strongly recommend it.
Some antibiotics of broad spectrum also influence in your body’s capacity of absorbing hormones and may interfere with other contraceptions beyond pills. It’s worth asking doctors about this possibility every single time they prescribe you antibiotics. This is another excellent reason (besides other dozens of them) for using fewer antibiotics, only when needed and exclusively if you have a prescription for it. Immunosupressive drugs like some anti-allergic medication (prednisone, for instance) can have a similar effect.
These are the main and more usual circumstances you can find yourself in, that interrupt or diminish contraception effect. For what I have been told by doctors and books, tobacco and alcohol themselves are not harmful in what concerns contraception efficacy (they have other side effects combined with contraception that can be dangerous, so do check this with your gynecologist if you are a regular user of any of these drugs).
Now how about we stop blaming pregnant cis women exclusively for their unwanted pregnancies?
