How Effective is Your Birth Control (Really)?

According to a study published in Family Planning Perspectives, 50% of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. Did you know that approximately one in every three pregnancies occurred during a month that women were using contraception? A large-scale study, reported in the Guardian, and conducted by leading sexual health researchers reveals that these pregnancies often resulted from condoms breaking and because women missed taking their birth control pills.

This begs the question – how effective is your birth control method? Not only must you know how to properly and consistently use contraception, but you should also know how effective it is. Understanding birth control effectiveness can be a little tricky for many people. It tends to become complicated because statistics and information are cited in different ways. You may read about failure rates, effectiveness rates, typical rates, perfect user rates, and the list goes on. It is easy to see how confusing this can be. So how do you get your facts straight?

• Take a look: Is your method as effective as you think?

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