Contraceptive methods are not something new in fact some of them have been around since the stone age and are generally classified into four methods Behavioral, barrier, hormonal and permanent methods.

Behavioral methods

The rhythm method is having the knowledge of when our fertile and ovulation days are, therefore they give us the days in which we can have sexual intercourse without the risk of pregnancy. We invite you to go to our Creafam.com page where there is a calculator so that you can plan and have the exact calculation of your fertile days and thus be able to have a family planning method such as the rhythm method. If they are over a year old and have been successful in it, come with us to also investigate or find out if there is no fertility disorder. Why? Because the rhythm method is not 100% effective, it may have some deficiencies or some alterations and cause pregnancies, but then in couples who have taken the rhythm method and have achieved it successfully, it is best that they have an infertility problem and they have not yet diagnosed it.

Hormonal methods

Almost all contraceptive methods intervene either in the production of FSH and LH at the pituitary level and then we do not stimulate ovulation or follicle growth or intervene at the level of progesterone to change or make some alterations at the level of the mucus on all cervical or fallopian tubes or in the mobility of the cilia that exist in the tubes that are like little hairs that transfer to the ovum and then these methods, depending on which one we give, act in various alterations to prevent ovulation or to prevent there being an implantation of this ovum. So, already understanding this, we are going to start first by describing the contraceptives that contain estrogen and progesterone.

There are many varieties, I am not going to talk about brands or names, I want you to know that there is an immense diversity between methods that contain estrogen and progestogen, among them are the oral contraceptives that almost all of us know, which are generally taken for 21 days or 28 days, there are patches that They are glued transdermal that are generally weekly, that is, they are changed every 7 days. There is a ring that is like a plastic bracelet that is placed inside the vagina and it also releases progestogen estrogen. There are injections that are generally monthly.

The effectiveness of this type of oral contraceptive methods, patches, rings, injections is close to 99% yes yes yes they are going to be used correctly one of the advantages because there are also several concerns or taboos of women who say “It is they told me that with this I was going to get cancer” To give you an idea how noble oral contraceptives are today. They are used for patients who have irregular bleeding, that is, hemorrhages, for patients who have moderate-intense menstrual pain, or dysmenorrhea, for patients who have endometriosis, for patients who have breast disorders or pathology, lumps called fibrocystic mastopathy, and it hurts, we also use contraceptives to improve or dilute or remove that pain and finally give us protection or reduce the risk of endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer.

So the oral contraceptives with estrogen and progestogen, or the patches or the ring, have more benefits and advantages than alterations or complications. The following contraceptive method is also by mouth, it is called or it contains only progesterone, it no longer contains estrogen, it only has the second hormone that we mentioned that is produced by the corpus luteum, which is progesterone.

This medication can be given as an injection, which can be monthly or quarterly, but there are also oral pills. What is the advantage of this oral product that you mentioned? Which is also used in women who are lactating. What do you mean by this? A woman has just had her baby born, she begins to exclusively breastfeed her but after two or three months she says “Doctor, I’m worried about whether I can get pregnant again” well, in this type of patient it is ideal where she says I want to breastfeed her for one year, one year and a half.

This medicine only has progesterone, it does not cross the milk barrier and so it can give the baby breast milk without any problem, also what it does is generate a thicker mucus at the level of the cervix, which generally makes it impossible for sperm to ascend through the genital tract in some cases decreases the mobility of the cilia of the fallopian tube, thus preventing sperm transfer and fertilization, its effectiveness also reaches levels of 99% and within this category of oral contraceptives with There are only progestogens, there are also two that are widely known by adolescents, the methods that are called the day after.

From the day after there are two products on the market, one that has Levonorgestrel and the other that has Ulipristal, both are progestins. The difference between levonorgestrel is that it has to be administered preferably within the first 72 hours after having had sexual life and the new Ulipristal. This gives us up to 5 days of advantage, avoiding ovulation and if it also exists, what it does is modify the cervical mucus, modify the movement of the cilia to avoid implantation. The devices can be of two types: the intrauterine device that is placed inside the cavity to prevent implantation, these generally have a barrier function that we call it, preventing the embryo from being implanted, there is the copper T intrauterine device that we all know and there is a device that is already made of silver, the silver one is being used more and more because it has fewer side effects of discomfort towards the patient due to allergic reactions, the copper T is increasingly being abandoned but both have very good efficacy when introduced and obviously monitored that implantation or placement is appropriatesister

But there is another type of more recent device that has a lifespan of 3 to 5 years, generally up to 5 years, what it does is release progestogen, that is, this device, in addition to being like the ones we were talking about a while ago, also produces progesterone. a barrier method then has two virtues it acts with a barrier method and it also releases progesterone which, as we mentioned, makes the mucus thicker, prevents ovulation from occurring at times, even mentioning this type of device method like oral contraceptives with progestin is ideal for patients who have dysmenorrhea, that is, intense menstrual pains and uterine bleeding mainly and there is another device that is not a barrier but is placed on the forearm which is a device that generally lasts from 3 to 5 years and also it releases progesterone, this is not a barrier, it would be like a hormonal method and there is another one that is like a subcutaneous injection that lasts from three to six months… I say three months and it is being used more and more by patients for its comfort. say, the patient only applies it once in the third month, she has to apply it again. The general advantages of this type of device or quarterly hormonal injections is that the patient has more relaxation or more freedom to be free from taking medications and not remembering them and to forget you simply have to put on a calendar the specific day where you have to remember to inject this device again and the one at 3 or 5 years, well obviously also write it down and remember at 3 or 5 years to change it or take it off for the search of pregnancy.

Barrier methods

There are other methods that are completely barrier, the widely known condoms or condoms. What advantage does a condom or condom have? Well, mainly that it prevents the sperm from leaving the female genital tract and there are also female condoms that prevent these sperm from ascending to the genital tract. Many of these condoms have a spermicide, that is, they eliminate or kill the sperm at the time they come out of the condom. , however, here you need a good sexual education from your parents or the doctor to tell you how to correctly place this condom because if not, for that reason sometimes there are leaks or failures in the method, using it correctly are methods that They are more than 80% effective and the greatest virtue of these condoms is that they prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

Permanent methods

We are going to talk about some last methods of contraception that were generally called permanent, that is, they could no longer be removed once they were carried out, which is the vasectomy in men and tubal occlusion or known as OTB or Salpingo. Salpingoclasia in women consists of ligating and cutting the tubal tract that communicates the ovary with the uterus, but today this type of surgery can also be recanalized, so it would no longer be called permanent, however it is an ideal method for couples who already they had a satisfied parity; women who have already had two or three pregnancies and no longer plan to become pregnant. In a male vasectomy it is the same, what we do is cut a duct that carries the sperm from the testicle to the penis in ejaculation by removing that small duct called the product deferens and we prevent the sperm from leaving the penile tract and thus there is a pregnancy also invite them that those patients who used the permanent contraceptive method such as vasectomy or tubal occlusion in Creafam can achieve a pregnancy with in vitro fertilization techniques come with us to give them an explanation they are patients who perhaps have two pregnancies want a third child and they had decided prematurely on tubal ligation or occlusion of the vas deferens. We can achieve a pregnancy through fertilization techniques. Come with us and we will solve your problem.

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