World Contraception Day

Birth control methods

World Contraception Day: is celebrated across the globe every September 26. This worldwide campaign was launched in 2007 with the mission of raising awareness about contraception, so that all young people can make informed sexual and reproductive decisions.

This year's World Contraception Day motto is, "Your Future. Your Choice. Your Contraception."

Male birth control: Some women complain that men should take the lead in protecting their partners from pregnancy.  While in a perfect world there would be an effective Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive (LARC) for men I think we need to focus on protecting ourselves from pregnancy by using an effective method of contraception that we control because we are the ones who become preggers and terminate or carry to term. So we have a much larger stake in protecting ourselves from pregnancy. STIs are an entirely different matter and all partners should be tested and free of STIs or condoms should be used.

Some contraceptive methods currently available:

Hormonal contraceptives:

Combined (estrogen/progestin pills
Mini-pills progestin only pills or POPs
Vaginal ring – NuvaRing
The patch – Ortho Evra
The implant – Nexplanon
The shot - Depo-subQ Provera 104 (a newer less painful shot)
Hormonal IUDs – Mirena / Skyla

Copper IUDs:

Copper 380T – ParaGard and similar designs
GyneFix frameless copper IUD

Cervical barriers, condoms etc:

Ortho All-Flex silicone Arching spring diaphragm
Milex wide seal silicone Arcing spring diaphragm
Milex Omniflex silicone coil spring diaphragm
Reflexions latex flat spring diaphragm
FemCap silicone cervical cap
Male condoms latex & polyurethane
FC2 nitrile female condom
Today sponge

Fertility awareness:

FAM Fertility Awareness Method Symptothermal (using a barrier when fertile)
NFP - Natural Family Planning (abstaining while fertile)

Other:

Cycle beads –Standard days method / Rhythm method
Russian roulette – Withdrawal (Pull and Pray)

 

Reproductive health services and AST training

Pointe shoes can be effective defensive weapons

The photo: Platforms of a pair of well used pointes made of traditional materials. I think this image is so lovely as it is evocative of both the beauty of the shoes design and the extensive training required to wear them confidently and successfully. The working ends of pointes can also be extremely effective defensive weapons if the wearer has the courage to fight her attacker.

St Lucy’s and reproductive health services: As returning readers know, St Lucy’s is a Catholic school. However its primary endowment came from an alumna, the widow of a very successful newspaper publisher. The trust she established invested the funds very wisely over the years so that while the school is only tiny part of the Catholic higher education community in the U.S. the size of its endowment approaches that of Harvard.

Anyone who has been paying attention to the U.S media recently knows, as part of the Affordable Health Care Act contraceptives are now required by HHS to be provided free of charge by an employer for its staff and this applies to students of educational institutions as well, if insurance is offered. This has caused some concern among religious institutions that have moral objections to the use of birth control and related reproductive services.

Because of the change to a more liberal curriculum at St Lucy’s after Vatican II (1962-1965) it became apparent that a full range of reproductive health services would be necessary some of which would fall outside strictly interpreted tenets of the Catholic Church. So the way St Lucy’s endowment was structured the portion of the annual budget for St Lucy’s that covers staff and student insurance is funded separately so they have insurance options that cover the full range of reproductive health services from birth control to abortion. That prevents elderly, celibate, male churchmen from attempting to control the reproductive lives of sexually active young women and their teachers. As one woman said, “You don’t play the game, you don’t make the rules”

Students and ballet sex: Since Advanced Sexual Techniques is an elective it doesn’t affect a students GPA. However, it can have a major impact on her competitiveness and self confidence. If she doesn’t do well in AST she probably will be a ‘Mila Vanilla’ and just raise babies for some guy in the South or Mid-West. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just not the confident assertive sexually liberated women that St Lucy’s prides itself in turning out. AST candidates are initially self selected then screened as there are far more students wanting to take the course than there are places in class. Because of the heavy interest in and use of pointe footwear, toe-shoes and ballet boots, this year at least 4 years of pointe is a requirement and 16 is the minimum age, though we did make an exception for Cyndi when she was 15 because of her skill and assertiveness. It is rare that a 15 y/o can hold her own with a class of 16 and 17 y/os but Cyndi excelled in all aspects of the course to the frustration of some of the older girls.

One of the exams this spring – just before Spring Break - involves having sex standing in ballet-boots either taken from the front or entered from behind. So my AST students have all been fitted for a pair of Gepetto’s standard quality ballet boots. The $2,500 over the calf lace-ups with unitized stamped titanium toe boxes and shank assemblies and heavy leather uppers that when properly fitted and snugly laced prevent spraining or breaking an ankle. That boot has no armor and standard laces so a rival with bladed heels could slit the student’s laces or puncture her instep with a heel, so they shouldn’t be worn in local fetish clubs. But bladed heel boots – which are illegal anyway – are prohibited in the dorms or training areas so they are quite safe for AST training. Cyndi keeps her pairs of armored bladed fighting boots at my place rather than risk getting caught with them in her dorm room.

The trick of course is to have the boots made very snug so that when tightly laced across the instep the pointed foot is wedged between the shank assembly and the boot tongue and lacing which keeps the toes (in gel pads and tights) off the silicone rubber padding in the boots tip that will, when the weight is put on the foot, take a bit of the wearer’s weight. Then, when the weight is removed, push the instep back up a bit removing most of the weight off the toes. Lacing is critical for proper fit so the laces are made from a nylon that will not shrink or stretch which guarantees that when the boots are laced correctly the fit won’t change during that wearing. I’ve had my students practicing in traditionally made pointe shoes. The pair pictured at the top of this entry belongs to one of my students who is training in them. If a girl can control her legs so she doesn’t get rubber-legged and her knees and ankles give way when she reaches orgasm she should be fine. The students are videoed as well as wear a wireless telemetry unit that measures heart rate, blood pressure, strength of vaginal contractions and respiration among other things so it is almost impossible to fake an orgasm during the exam.

Frenulum damage: Something Pirate (who provides the ‘lab partners’ for AST training exercises and exams, and I talked about this semester is that he should provide only circumcised men for AST. That’s because two uncut lab partners tore their frenulums last semester during ballet sex lab exercises. I think it was because not only were the students en pointe with their vaginals clenched while their partners were inside them, but when they orgasmed their muscular contractions approached the strength of a woman with vaginismus and the guys thrust into one of their super strong contractions. The fact that both men were wearing condoms (which burst) at the time and the women were well lubricated with DiveGel+ suggests that neither wearing a sheath nor being well lubed will protect an uncut man thrusting during his partner’s extreme contractions.

Compartmentalization: One of the things I teach in AST is mental compartmentalization so that my students can block out thinking about wearing the telemetry unit and any discomfort from balancing on their pointes while taking their partner’s thrusts. That way they can concentrate on working with their partners to have the best orgasm they can. Once a student can orgasm while balanced on her toes in pointe shoes doing so in ballet-boots is far easier as there is major support from the heel and the tight leather boot shaft supports her ankles reducing the effort needed to prevent falling off pointe while being thrust into.

Other happenings of interest:

Birth Control and the single woman: “It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.” The full article from the NYT can be found HERE.

Empowering the 21st Century American woman is all very well, but if she isn’t taught to effectively control her own fertility much of that empowerment is for naught should she become a single-mom. One of the things St Lucy’s prides itself on is that our students are taught not only to excel academically, but to control their own fertility and use their physical charms to advance their careers and social positions and then have children if they want a family.

FCC bars LightSquared broadband service: I don’t usually comment on techie things, but in this instance I have a dog in the fight. “A proposed wireless broadband network that would provide voice and Internet service using airwaves once reserved for satellite-telephone transmissions should be shelved because it interferes with GPS technology, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.” The NYT article can be read HERE

One of the locations where field tests were made to measure the amount of interference with GPS signals was here in Vegas and the pilots of my G550 said there is significant interference with GPS receivers as they are designed now. Use of frequencies near GPS bands would severely impact civil aviation as well as the U.S. military. Not a good thing!

Casino boardroom struggle goes public: And of local interest: Wynn Board Forcibly Buys out Founder. Wynn Resorts for God’s sake! The article can be read HERE

Effectiveness rates using 2 methods of birth control

Effective contraceptive methods


I’m posting this because: Some of the students at St Lucy’s have begun to read this Blog and since summer vacation will be here soon I want to give them a familiar site they can bookmark if they have questions about the effectiveness of combining two different methods of contraception. Ideally a girl would insist on using condoms to protect against STIs during hookups or as added protection if she isn’t using her primary method perfectly, but we all know that the world of contraception is not ideal and neither men nor women like to use condoms so all we as their teachers and mentors can do is provide them with the information to make an informed decision.

The Buddy System: Effectiveness Rates for Backing Up Your Birth Control With a Second Method

Scarleteen
By Heather Corinna

You already know that no method of contraception is 100% effective (save permanent sterilization) to prevent pregnancy when you're engaging in sexual activity - read: genital intercourse -- which presents a risk of pregnancy. You probably also know, however, that there are reliable methods which are very effective when used properly, and that if you use contraception correctly and consistently, pregnancy becomes a whole lot less likely. But did you know that by doubling up and using two methods, with almost any combination you use, you can get mighty close to that 100% with many combos?

Hormonal methods of contraception are currently the most effective, reversible methods of birth control with perfect use. But with most of them, we can goof up -- maybe we skipped a couple pills or got a new prescription late, maybe we're not so timely about getting our injections or don't have consistent healthcare to get a new one on time, maybe we didn't realize our patch fell off. Oops. But if we're consistently backing up with a secondary method, even if our primary one fails, we're covered. As well, not everyone can use or wants to use a hormonal method: some of us prefer non-hormonal methods or those are our only safe or affordable options. While they aren't as effective in perfect use, if we add a backup method to the mix, we can be just as protected or even more protected from pregnancy as we could be with a more effective single method.

You'll see that some combinations can increase your level of protection substantially, while with other pairs -- especially where user error is a non-issue, like with an IUD or an implant -- the difference is so slight that backing up is just overkill. Regardless, there is no single combination of any two methods here which would leave you with less than 92% effectiveness, and most combinations will bump you up to over 95% protection. The highest combined methods' typical use effectiveness -- condoms paired with an implant - is 99.99% effective, while the lowest -- withdrawal buddied up with spermicide - is 92.17% effective. But no matter how you slice it, adding a second method always bumps up your protection against unwanted pregnancy.

The Caveats: This is a mathematical application. That doesn't mean it's not accurate -- it is, and I've got the migraine and a pile of paper covered with my chicken scratches to prove it -- but it does mean that these rates are arrived at through math, based on the combined effectiveness rates of single methods, not through specific study or clinical trials of the combined methods. The sources of our efficiency rates for single methods can be found on the Birth Control Bingo pages linked for each method.

In some cases, combining any two or more methods may possibly slightly reduce the effectiveness of one in actual use. For example, because oral contraceptive pills thicken cervical mucus, condoms, when not used with additional lubricant, can be more inclined to break due to increased friction. Using withdrawal with condoms may make it more likely to forget to hold the base of the condom and create a condom slip which may not have been as likely to happen without adding withdrawal to the mix. Without specific study on these things, we can't predict how much it may reduce the effectiveness of one method in those cases nor account for that possibility in the math. However, we have only listed combinations of methods which are safe and sound to use together and make for good mates. For instance, it would not be safe to combine Depo-Provera with another hormonal method. The vaginal effects of combining a ring and spermicides could cause a good deal of vaginal irritation . Using more than one condom is something we know makes condoms less effective, not more. Natural family planning can't be combined with oral contraceptives since a person using oral contraceptives no longer has a natural fertility cycle to chart in the first place.

We've also not done the math for using more than two methods. If you are properly and consistently using two reliable methods of contraception, the risk of pregnancy is incredibly small, and adding a third method is not likely to increase your protection by very much. The difference between a combined method that is 99.8% effective with typical use of both and three methods which are 99.78% effective together, for instance, is so small a statistical difference that adding a third method is likely to just be a needless expense and pain in your butt.

Certainly, if you prefer more than two methods, so long as they don't interfere with one another, you can choose to do that, but we'd also encourage you to evaluate your feelings. If two methods with something like a less than 2% chance of pregnancy in typical use -- and that still allows for room when it comes to user error -- still doesn't leave you feeling safe enough, you might want to consider that you're not comfortable enough with the small amount of risk which will always be a part of sexual activities that can result in pregnancy. It would probably be a good idea in that case to revisit your readiness, and either stick with activities which don't carry those risks, or hold off on heterosex (genital intercourse with an opposite-sex partner) until you're feeling more prepared for some small level of risk. When you're so freaked about the possibility of pregnancy that no amount of birth control feels like enough, it's unlikely that even with four methods, that level of anxiety is not going to leave room for actually enjoying the sex you're having (which is the whole point). Your enjoyment is going to be seriously hindered if you're taking a pill, putting in a diaphragm, having your partner put on a condom, using withdrawal and then taking EC. It's ideal and laudable to be smart and to be safe, but if your contraceptive practices start to feel like you're building a bomb shelter in preparation for a nuclear war every time you have sex, you or your partners are probably better off when it comes to your pleasure and mental health to recognize that you're not up to any risk of pregnancy, even a very statistically unlikely one, and to choose to engage in activities where your risks are far lower or nonexistent.

Listings for each single method are alphabetical. The combinations are listed from most to least effective with typical use, since typical use tends to be the most accurate measure for real people in real -- and frequently imperfect -- life. For more information on any of the single methods listed, just click on the links in their titles.


Cervical Barriers (Diaphragm)
94% effective alone with perfect use - 86% effective alone with typical use
Cervical Barriers + The Contraceptive Implant = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.98% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + Intrauterine Devices = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.89% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + Depo-Provera = 99.98% effective perfect use - 99.58% typical use
Cervical Barriers + Combination OCP ("The Pill") = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.88% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + The Contraceptive Patch = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.88% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + Minipills = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.6% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + Male Condoms = 99.88% effective perfect use - 97.9% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + Fertility Awareness = 99.88% effective with perfect use - 97.2% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + Female Condoms = 99.7% effective with perfect use - 97% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + Emergency Contraception = 99.34% effective with perfect use - 96.5% effective with typical use
Cervical Barriers + Withdrawal = 99.76% effective with perfect use - 96.22% effective with typical use

Spermicides with cervical barriers are not listed because spermicide is supposed to be used with them, so effectiveness rates for barrier methods already include the addition of a spermicide. Since the sponge already contains a spermicide, spermicide was also excluded from combination with the sponge.

Combination Oral Contraceptives ("The Pill")
99.7% effective alone with perfect use - 92% effective alone with typical use
Combination OCP + Cervical Barriers = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.88% effective with typical use
Combination OCP + Male Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 98.8% effective with typical use
Combination OCP + The Sponge = 99.97%effective with perfect use - 98.72% effective with typical use
Combination OCP + Female Condoms = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.32% effective with typical use
Combination OCP + Emergency Contraception* = 99.97% effective with perfect use - 98% effective with typical use
Combination OCP + Withdrawal = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 97.84% effective
Combination OCP + Spermicide = 99.94% effective with perfect use - 97.68% effective with typical use

Female Condoms
95% effective with perfect use - 79% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + The Contraceptive Implant = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.97% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Intrauterine Devices = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.37% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Depo-Provera = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.37% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Combination OCP = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.32% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + The Contraceptive Patch = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.32% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + the Vaginal Ring = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.32% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Minipills = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 97.9% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Cervical Barriers = 99.7% effective with perfect use - 97% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + the Sponge = 99.55% effective with perfect use - 96.64% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Fertility Awareness = 99.9% effective with perfect use - 95.8% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Emergency Contraception = 99.45% effective with perfect use - 94.75% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Withdrawal = 99.8% effective with perfect use - 94.33% effective with typical use
Female Condoms + Spermicide = 99.1% effective with perfect use - 93.91% effective with typical use

Don't forget! The addition of condoms to any method always carries the joint benefit of both allowing men a part in birth control and greatly reducing the risks of sexually transmitted infections.

Male Condoms
98% effective alone with perfect use - 85% effective alone with typical use
Male Condoms + The Contraceptive Implant = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.99% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Intrauterine Devices = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.88% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Depo-Provera = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.55% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Combination OCP = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 98.8% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + The Contraceptive Patch = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 98.8% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + the Vaginal Ring = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 98.8% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Minipills = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 98.5% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Cervical Barriers = 99.88% effective perfect use - 97.9% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + the Sponge = 97.7% effective with perfect use - 97.6% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Fertility Awareness = 99.96% effective with perfect use - 97% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Emergency Contraception = 99.78% effective with perfect use - 96.25% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Withdrawal = 99.92% effective with perfect use - 95.95% effective with typical use
Male Condoms + Spermicide = 99.64% effective with perfect use - 95.65% effective with typical use

The Contraceptive Implant (Implanon)
99.9% effective with perfect use - 99.9% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Implant + Male Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.99% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Implant + Cervical Barriers = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.98% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Implant + Emergency Contraception*= 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.98% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Implant + the Sponge = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.98% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Implant + Female Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.97% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Implant + Withdrawal = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.97% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Implant + Spermicide = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 99.97% effective with typical use

The Contraceptive Patch ("The Patch")
99.7% effective with perfect use - 92% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Patch + Cervical Barriers = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.88% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Patch + Male Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 98.8% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Patch + Female Condoms = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.32% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Patch + Emergency Contraception*= 99.97% effective with perfect use - 98% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Patch + the Sponge = 99.97%effective with perfect use - 98.72% effective with typical use
The Contraceptive Patch + Withdrawal = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 97.84% effective
The Contraceptive Patch + Spermicide = 99.94% effective with perfect use - 97.68% effective with typical use

Depo-Provera ("The Shot")
99.7% effective with perfect use - 97% effective with typical use
Depo-Provera + Cervical Barriers = 99.98% effective perfect use - 99.58% typical use
Depo-Provera + Male Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.55% effective with typical use
Depo-Provera + the Sponge = 99.97%effective with perfect use - 99.52% effective with typical use
Depo-Provera + Female Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.37% effective with typical use
Depo-Provera + Emergency Contraception*= 99.97% effective with perfect use - 99.25% effective with typical use
Depo-Provera + Withdrawal = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 99.19% effective with typical use
Depo-Provera + Spermicide = 99.94% effective with perfect use - 99.13% effective with typical use

Fertility Awareness (FAM)
98% effective with perfect use - 80% effective with typical use
Fertility Awareness + Cervical Barriers = 99.88% effective with perfect use - 97.2% effective with typical use
Fertility Awareness + Male Condoms = 99.96% effective with perfect use - 97% effective with typical use
Fertility Awareness + the Sponge = 99.82% effective with perfect use - 96.8% effective with typical use
Fertility Awareness + Female Condoms = 99.9% effective with perfect use - 95.8% effective with typical use
Fertility Awareness + Emergency Contraception = 99.78% effective with perfect use - 95% effective with typical use
Fertility Awareness + Withdrawal = 99.92% effective with perfect use - 94.6% effective with typical use
Fertility Awareness + Spermicide = 99.64% effective with perfect use - 94.2% effective with typical use

Intrauterine Devices (IUD)
99.9% effective with perfect use - 99.2% effective with typical use
Intrauterine Devices + Cervical Barriers = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.89% effective with typical use
Intrauterine Devices + Male Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.88% effective with typical use
Intrauterine Devices + The Sponge = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.87% effective with typical use
Intrauterine Devices + Female Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.83% effective with typical use
Intrauterine Devices + Emergency Contraception* = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.8% effective with typical use
Intrauterine Devices + Withdrawal = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.78% effective with typical use
Intrauterine Devices + Spermicide = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 99.77% effective with typical use

Minipills
99.7% effective with perfect use - 90% effective with typical use
Minipills + Cervical Barriers = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.6% effective with typical use
Minipills + Male Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 98.5% effective with typical use
Minipills + The Sponge = 99.97% effective with perfect use - 98.4% effective with typical use
Minipills + Female Condoms = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 97.9% effective with typical use
Minipills + Emergency Contraception* = 99.97% effective with perfect use - 97.5% effective with typical use
Minipills + Withdrawal = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 97.3% effective with typical use
Minipills + Spermicide = 99.95% effective with perfect use - 97.1% effective with typical use

Spermicide
82% effective with perfect use - 71% effective with typical use
Spermicide + The Contraceptive Implant = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 99.97% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Intrauterine Devices = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 99.77% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Depo-Provera = 99.94% effective with perfect use - 99.13% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Combination OCP = 99.94% effective with perfect use - 97.68% effective with typical use
Spermicide + The Contraceptive Patch = 99.94% effective with perfect use - 97.68% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Minipills = 99.95% effective with perfect use - 97.1% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Male Condoms = 99.64% effective with perfect use - 95.65% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Fertility Awareness = 99.64% effective with perfect use - 94.2% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Female Condoms = 99.1% effective with perfect use - 93.91% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Emergency Contraception = 98% effective with perfect use - 92.75% effective with typical use
Spermicide + Withdrawal = 99.28% effective with perfect use - 92.17% effective with typical use

The Sponge
91% effective with perfect use - 84% effective with typical use
The Sponge + The Contraceptive Implant = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.98% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Intrauterine Devices = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.87% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Depo-Provera = 99.97%effective with perfect use - 99.52% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Combination OCP = 99.97%effective with perfect use - 98.72% effective with typical use
The Sponge + The Contraceptive Patch = 99.97%effective with perfect use - 98.72% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Minipills = 99.97% effective with perfect use - 98.4% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Male Condoms = 97.7% effective with perfect use - 97.6% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Fertility Awareness = 99.82% effective with perfect use - 96.8% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Female Condoms = 99.55% effective with perfect use - 96.64% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Emergency Contraception = 99.01% effective with perfect use - 96% effective with typical use
The Sponge + Withdrawal = 99.64% effective with perfect use - 95.68% effective with typical use

The Vaginal Ring
99.7% effective with perfect use - 92% effective with typical use
The Vaginal Ring + Male Condoms = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 98.8% effective with typical use
The Vaginal Ring + Female Condoms = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 98.32% effective with typical use
The Vaginal Ring + Emergency Contraception* = 99.97% effective with perfect use - 98% effective with typical use
The Vaginal Ring + Withdrawal = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 97.84% effective with typical use

Withdrawal
96% effective with perfect use - 73% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + The Contraceptive Implant = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.97% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Intrauterine Devices = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 99.78% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Depo-Provera = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 99.19% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Cervical Barriers = 99.76% effective with perfect use - 96.22% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Male Condoms = 99.92% effective with perfect use - 95.95% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Combination OCP = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 97.84% effective
Withdrawal + The Contraceptive Patch = 99.98% effective with perfect use - 97.84% effective
Withdrawal + the Vaginal Ring = 99.8% effective with perfect use - 97.84% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Minipills = 99.99% effective with perfect use - 97.3% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + the Sponge = 99.64% effective with perfect use - 95.68% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Fertility Awareness = 99.92% effective with perfect use - 94.6% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Emergency Contraception = 99.56% effective with perfect use - 93.25% effective with typical use
Withdrawal + Spermicide = 99.28% effective with perfect use - 92.17% effective with typical use

* EC is not advised for frequent use while using other hormonal contraceptives, or unless the primary hormonal method was known or strongly suspected to fail. Since the effectiveness rate for emergency contraception is variable, we have used Plan B, and used the most effective rate (89%) as perfect use and the least as typical (75%). We do not list EC as a sole method of contraception because due to the amount of hormones in oral EC, the expense and the perfect use effectiveness rate being lower than all other methods perfect use rates, it is not intended nor designed for use regularly, nor is sole use as a habit something we advise.

Special thanks to Scarleteen volunteer Courtenay for the math formula and her assistance! The link to the original article is: http://www.scarleteen.com/article/reproduction/the_buddy_system_effectiveness_rates_for_backing_up_your_birth_control_with_a_s

Public schools and Sex-Ed

A Semina coil spring diaphragm on its introducer

About this photo: The silicone Semina diaphragm is used as a starter gas guard for students at St Lucy’s while training for underwater sex. The introducer on which this one is mounted helps women with short fingers or long vaginas to insert it correctly.

The Boston Globe

Students find more sex than education
By Joanna Weiss
December 12, 2010

IF TEENS AREN’T going to get sex education from their parents, and they aren’t going to get it from their schools, then they’re going to get it somewhere. From music. Or TV. Or each other. And so, according to high school students from Jamaica Plain, here are some things their friends think they know about sex: That you can’t get pregnant if you have sex in water. That if you have oral sex, you won’t get an STD. That there’s no point in wearing a condom because it will probably break.

Hear this, and some of the current statistics about teen health in Boston become a little clearer.

Teen pregnancy rates have dropped over the past decade — the result, public health officials believe, of the increased availability of chemical birth control. But chlamydia cases are rising at alarming rates, a sign that teens don’t understand that certain types of birth control — and certain types of sex — don’t protect you from disease.

In other words, the burden of contraception falls largely on girls. Acting alone leaves them vulnerable. And sex education, for girls and boys, is haphazard at best. Some kids happen to attend a school that offers a meager program. Some attend one of the handful of schools where the Boston Public Health Commission or some third party has a clinic. But many get nothing, or not nearly enough.

Now, students are asking for more; a coed group of teens from JP’s Hyde Square Task Force is lobbying for comprehensive sex ed, including information about healthy relationships and, yes, free condoms for all. Not a bowl of Trojans sitting on a shelf, but a couple of designated adults in every school — ideally, one male, one female — who could distribute condoms to kids who ask, without passing judgment.

The kids are committed; they’ve put together an honest, funny video that states their case. If politicians are willing to be just as brave, we’re in good shape.

And there are definite signs of hope. The Boston Public Schools recently created a new Health and Wellness Department. The school system is partnering with the public health commission to develop a system wide sex ed program. City Councilor Ayanna Pressley has scheduled a hearing on sex ed and condom distribution.

But this kind of talk makes politicians and the public skittish. So it’s worth reminding everyone of the facts. According to the public health commission, nearly 70 percent of Boston teens report having sex by the time they’re 18. About half of sexually active teens have had three or more sexual partners by age 17.

Studies of condom distribution programs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York schools have shown that making condoms easily available doesn’t increase the number of kids who have sex. It merely increases the number of kids who use condoms. And even kids who might use condoms, if they were close at hand, will tell you they won’t bother to ask a stranger at the drugstore to open a locked cabinet.

They might, however, ask an adult they trust. And while it’s easy to say they ought to be asking their parents, Massachusetts law does not require parental consent for access to contraception or reproductive health, says Deborah Allen, who heads the health commission’s Child and Adolescent Family Health Bureau.

Besides, as teens from the Hyde Square Task force said, there are often giant barriers to talking about sex at home. Sometimes, it’s a matter of culture. Sometimes, it’s logistics: parents work two jobs, teens are caring for younger siblings, and there isn’t much time for sensitive conversations.

As Pressley and Allen point out, many parents have been asking for sex ed in Boston schools, too. They understand that kids need all the help they can get, combating a culture that makes sex look cool, or lets boys convince girls that sex is the best way to prove their love. As 17-year-old Samantha Brea said, “A lot of songs just talk about sleeping with all of these women. You don’t have a song saying, ‘Oh, let me put on a condom before I sleep with you.’ ’’

The music industry isn’t very good at education. That’s what schools are for.

Personal Comment: Here in Vegas our school district’s sex education curriculum remains unchanged — it is abstinence based, although students do learn about contraception. Can you imagine an abstinence based sex-ed program in Vegas? Through our clinic we try to encourage the patients to teach their children about responsible birth control and STI protection. At St Lucy’s because the girls are all taught intimate skills in conjunction with the other arts we take comprehensive sex education very seriously.

Lactation & text message reminders

Testing her milk ducts

Lactation and menstrual sex: Returning readers will recall that I’m lactating. I’ve never been pregnant. It was induced lactation caused by nipple manipulation when I was a latex-model for a Canadian fetishwear company during the summer when the ballet company I was with was on holiday. On balance I enjoy being milked so much that the bother is worth it. I have it controlled so I’m able to maintain my figure by taking L-dopa (an off label use) to control my prolactin level. The only side effect from the dopamine so far is that in addition to controlling my milk production so my breasts don’t grow above a B-cup it increased my libido! Go figure!

To keep up my milk production I’m eating an additional 750 calories per day and I need to stay well hydrated especially since I dive so much which is also dehydrating because of the water pressure. I’m looking forward to menstrual sex this weekend with one of my stallions who enjoys breast feeding as well swimming in the Red Sea.


iHealthBeat.org
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Text Message Reminders No More Beneficial for Users of Birth Control

Women who receive text message reminders to take oral contraceptives are no more likely to do so than women who do not, according to a study published in the September issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, MedPage Today reports.

For the study, researchers at Boston University recruited 82 birth control pill users from a local Planned Parenthood clinic. The women were given oral contraceptives from an electronic monitoring device that reported missed pills in real time through wireless transmission.

The women were divided into one group that received daily text message reminders to take the pill, while a control group created their own reminder system, such as through a cell phone or clock alarm.

The researchers found that missed pills were common regardless of whether the women were reminded via text messages (Phend, MedPage Today, 8/24).

Melody Hou -- lead author of the study and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Boston University School of Medicine -- said that 68% of women in the control group adhered to their own reminder system, which could account for the lack of significant difference between the two groups (Hobson, "Health Blog" Wall Street Journal, 8/23).

Only 16% of the study's participants had "excellent adherence," meaning they missed no more than one pill per cycle on average (MedPage Today, 8/24).

Hou added that no particular method has shown to be effective in reminding women to take their oral contraceptives.

The use of text messaging to remind patients about health-related behaviors is being tested in other areas as well, including for HIV treatment ("Health Blog," Wall Street Journal, 8/23).

Personal comment: Perhaps I’m too old to be that much into gadgets, but the outcome of this experiment doesn’t surprise me. At St Lucy’s we try to get students to sync their pill taking to some activity that they do at the same time every day, bathe, brush their teeth etc. I think there are too many things that can go wrong with a reminder message to a student’s cell; forget to carry the cell, drop it, the battery dies etc. A woman has to have a commitment to using her contraceptive method correctly and if she must take an oral contraceptive then linking her daily pill taking to a personal activity each day is the best way for a woman to remember.

Madison Diocese and birth control

Wisconsin CycleBeads

WOMEN”S RIGHTS
By Kendall McKenzie
August 13, 2010

Wisconsin Catholic Diocese Covers Birth Control, Plans to Fire Employees Who Use it

A Wisconsin state law that took effect Jan. 1 requires any commercial insurance policy with drug benefits to include prescription contraceptives in their coverage. While this is a fair and reasonable piece of legislation, the Catholic Diocese in Madison, Wisconsin, is telling employees they'll be fired if they utilize it.

The idea that a woman might be able to control her own reproductive organs was apparently so offensive to certain Catholic organizations in Wisconsin that they first tried to circumvent the law by becoming self-insured, but the costs ultimately proved to be financially unsustainable. So though the diocese will now be legally obliged to provide contraceptive coverage, they’ve made it clear they’re also going to create consequences for taking advantage of it. Diocesan spokesman Brent King noted that should an employee exercise their right to obtain birth control, they would be subject to counseling and ultimately termination if they “refuse to get in line with Catholic teaching” and abide by the contraception prohibition.

Aside from raising obvious privacy and logistical issues (the diocese has admitted they really have no way to monitor employees’ contraceptive use unless it’s voluntarily revealed), the fight against birth control and its role in sexual “immorality” seems to ignore the pesky reality that many women rely on it for reasons that have nothing to do with preventing pregnancy. In fact, as many as one-third of birth control prescriptions are written for non-contraceptive benefits, which include treating anemia, acne, premenstrual symptoms, and painful and heavy periods. The refusal to allow women access to contraception is nothing new, but it's becoming more and more detrimental and, quite frankly, silly, as additional benefits to using birth control continue to appear.

The bottom line is birth control, whether or not it’s being employed as contraception, is basic health care that 99% of women have used in their lifetime. Mandatory coverage laws recognize this, as well as help alleviate the financial burden of preventing pregnancy that is often placed squarely on the shoulders of women. It’s a damn shame that instead of embracing this common sense legislation, Catholic leaders are using it to threaten their employees.

The diocese’s little “pick one: medicine or work” ultimatum is an excellent example of why "legal" doesn't necessarily mean "accessible." The idea that reproductive health care like contraception and abortions are just ours for the taking whenever we need because the law says so is pervasive and dangerously misleading. Birth control may be our legal right, but that means nothing if it's too expensive, difficult, or fraught with social consequences to obtain. A woman shouldn’t have to choose between her health and her job.

Personal comment: Church officials in the Madison Diocese and elsewhere need to focus on the problem of pedophilic priests and not try to insert themselves into women’s reproductive health care.

Obesity and birth control

The weight loss drug Qnexa

The Wall Street Journal - Business
July 13, 2010
By Jennifer Corbett Dooren Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

FDA Says Obesity Drug Works But With Side Effects

“WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that a proposed Vivus Inc. (VVUS) weight-loss drug resulted in "significant" weight loss, but the agency raised questions about the drug's long-term side effects.

The questions from the FDA aren't related to Qnexa's effectiveness, which has been proved in multiple clinical trials, but rather to the side effects of a drug that the agency is assuming may be taken indefinitely. Specifically, the panel pointed to increases in anxiety, sleep disturbances and depression, and debated usage by pregnant women.

Qnexa faces a review by the FDA's endocrinologic and metabolic drugs advisory committee Thursday. The panel of non-FDA medical experts will vote then on whether it thinks Qnexa should be approved by the larger FDA in a decision expected by late October.

Tuesday, the FDA posted its review of the product, which totaled 248 pages, on the agency's website.

Shares of Vivus rose 12.4% to $11.98 in early trading Tuesday. Wall Street analysts said the documents weren't particularly negative in their tone or content, but they warned that there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the panel's ultimate outcome.

A Vivus spokesman said the company looks forward to answering the FDA's questions at the panel, but he declined to comment further.

In its safety review of Qnexa, the FDA said it saw increases in heart rate among patients taking the drug but that the clinical significance of the finding is unknown.

The agency also said it saw increases in anxiety, sleep disturbances and depression among patients taking Qnexa compared to placebo but said the overall incidence of such side effects were low. The agency noted, however, that four to seven times as many patients taking the highest dose of Qnexa dropped out of the study because of anxiety-, sleep-, or depression-related side effects.

The FDA's review of Qnexa and the advisory committee meeting are being watched carefully by other companies with obesity drugs in development. Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s (ARNA) lorcaserin will face an FDA panel in September, and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.'s (OREX) Contrave is tentatively scheduled for a December panel review. The three drugs use different methods of damping appetite.

The other two stocks also rose Tuesday. Arena added 9.2% to $4.14, while Orexigen jumped 19% to $4.94.

The development of obesity compounds has been a tough area for companies since the fen-phen drug combination was taken off the U.S. market in 1997 after one of the medication's components was linked to heart-valve damage.

In 2007, an FDA panel unanimously rejected Sanofi Aventis SA's (SNY, SAN.FR) obesity drug Acomplia on concerns that the drug increased the number of psychiatric events, such as depression and suicidal thinking, among users. Sanofi later withdrew its application seeking FDA approval for the drug, and Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Merck & Co. (MRK) scrapped plans in 2008 to continue developing similar drugs.

However, given that one-third of Americans are considered obese, companies successful at gaining FDA approval could tap a large market.

Qnexa is a controlled-release formulation that combines low doses of two older drugs: the stimulant phentermine, which cuts appetite, and topiramate, which increases the sense of feeling full. Topiramate is sold under the brand name Topamax by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to treat migraines and seizures.

Said the FDA: "Both drugs have reasonably well-established safety profiles because of their widespread use."

But because of the heart problems seen among patients taking fen-phen, the FDA looked at such side effects that might be attributed to phentermine and whether psychiatric side effects and birth defects potentially linked to topiramate would be seen among patients taken Qnexa. The agency noted that current evidence indicates the increased risk for heart-valve problems was attributable to fenfluramine and not to phentermine, one of Qnexa's components.

The FDA said heart palpitations were seen among 1.8% of Qnexa patients compared to 0.8% of patients taking a placebo. Patients taking Qnexa also experienced an increased heart rate. The agency said the clinical significance of the events "in terms of hard cardiovascular outcomes in the overweight and obese population is unknown."

The agency said it was concerned about a "large potential" for women to become pregnant while taking the drug as 34 pregnancies were seen in clinical trials despite instructions to use birth control and obtain a pregnancy test at each doctor visit. Of the 19 pregnancies carried to term, no birth defects were seen, although studies of topiramate in animals have shown it can cause birth defects.

Vivus is seeking a more relaxed birth-defects designation in its application, but FDA documents said the proposed labeling could be confusing to physicians and patients of child-bearing age. The FDA recommended that Qnexa be labeled as pregnancy category X, which means that the risk of using of the drug during pregnancy "clearly outweighs any possible benefit."

Two main clinical studies involving Qnexa were submitted to the FDA. The studies compared about 2,200 patients taking three doses of Qnexa to about 1,500 patients on a placebo, or fake drug, for 56 weeks.

The FDA said patients in the highest dose of Qnexa lost an average of 10.6% of their starting body weight, compared to an 8.6% loss for the middle-dose of Qnexa, 5.1% for the lowest dose and 1.7% for patients on placebo.”

Personal comment: My circle has no problem with obesity. Actually, with the calories we burn our problem is to keep our weight up healthily. I posted this article because we are seeing a lot of women coming into the clinic for help with weight reduction. And obesity and weight loss meds can decrease the effectiveness of hormonal birth control. In addition some weight-loss medications can cause birth defects. Weight loss can also decrease the effectiveness of cervical barrier methods of birth control because a woman’s reproductive anatomy changes with weight gain or loss. A diaphragm should be checked for correct size for every +/- 7 to 10 pounds of weight change and a cervical cap should be checked for every +/- 14 to 20 pounds of weight change. That’s why if a woman plans to lose a lot of weight our clinic recommends she use FC2 condoms until her weight stabilizes because they are safe, effective, aren’t weight sensitive and better tolerated by male partners.

Religious fundamentalists and ‘Personhood’

STI protection a latex condom

News from the Birth Control Wars – Pt. II

The Las Vegas Sun
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 1:27 p.m.

Nevada court hears ‘personhood’ measure appeal

Proponents of a ballot initiative to reshape Nevada abortion law asked the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to focus on the eight words that they said clearly define their goal.

"The term 'person' applies to every human being," Personhood Nevada leader Olaf Vancura said afterward, using the same eight words outside the state high court that are the focus of his group's appeal. He wants to be allowed to collect signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot.

In court, an American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada lawyer told the seven justices that voters wouldn't know that amending the Nevada Constitution to define "personhood" as beginning at conception would let advocates advance efforts to ban abortions, restrict common forms of birth control and affect end-of-life questions.

"These are hot-button, critical issues," ACLU attorney Lee Rowland said, urging the state's only appellate court to uphold a lower court ruling in January that the initiative is vague and violates state law limiting ballot questions to one subject.

"There needs to be some information in there that lets the voters know what's going on," Rowland said.

Justices appeared skeptical of overruling the lower court based on Personhood Nevada lawyer Michael Peters' argument that the lower court judge erred in examining anything more than the legality of the wording.

Justice James Hardesty asked Peters if there was a difference between considering the constitutionality of the proposed initiative and determining whether it "impacts other provisions in our laws beyond the stated purpose of the initiative."

"You're limited in looking at, in this case, the eight operative words in determining the single subject," Peters responded. "It's an 'on-its-face' analysis."

"Does this fully inform the voters, ultimately, as to what they're voting on, what they're amending in the Constitution?" Justice Michael Douglas asked. "Or is it so open-ended that they're not sure what the meaning is?"

Peters told Douglas, the first black justice on the Nevada Supreme Court, that the initiative aimed to extend civil rights to a person at conception.

"In essence you're asking us to define when life begins," Douglas said. "Does it do that? Is it clear in all cases?"

"It does define human beings and when life begins," Peters responded.

More than 50 people ranging from right-to-life advocates to Planned Parenthood representatives filled the courtroom gallery for the oral arguments in Las Vegas.

A day earlier, another branch of the national organization Personhood USA gained enough signatures to put an anti-abortion proposal on the Mississippi ballot in 2011.

A similar proposal goes before Colorado voters this fall, and Personhood USA leader Keith Mason said signatures were being gathered for constitutional amendments in Missouri, California, Florida and Montana. Mason tallied about 40 states in which the organization was working toward changing laws.

Rowland urged the Nevada high court to consider the effects of eight words "that are only fleshed out and that only have meaning once you read the description of effects."

"So your argument is that the sentence encompasses more than a single subject?" asked Hardesty, who posed most of the questions during the 30-minute hearing.

"Absolutely," Rowland replied. "Allowing it to go through simply because of its brevity, I think, poses a very real danger to the citizens of Nevada, which is that the initiative process starts to be used for vague, semantic and theoretical ideas."

Personal comment: “Amending the Nevada Constitution to define "personhood" as beginning at conception would let advocates advance efforts to ban abortions, restrict common forms of birth control and affect end-of-life questions.” More right-wing-nuts at work!

If ‘personhood’ is defined as beginning at conception will that mean that the 20 to 30% of the fertilized eggs that aren’t implanted or that are spontaneously aborted (miscarried) many of which a woman is unaware of will require funerals? If so, how will anyone know? Will Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, James Dobson or other men of that persuasion (the Conception Cops) be checking every woman’s required pregnancy test to see who conceived? Additionally ‘personhood’ would set the stage to promote the erroneous claim by radical conservatives that hormonal birth control is an abortifacient!



DA's sex Ed warning befuddles Wis. teachers, kids
Associated Press
By Todd Richmond, April 9, 2010

MAUSTON, Wis. – Mike Taake has taught sex education for 30 years, and he says he knows what doesn't work: just telling kids to wait.

The Mauston High School health teacher has used abstinence-only and comprehensive curriculums, and he said students need all the information they can get about sex to make the best choices. But teaching them about contraceptives could land him and other teachers in court.

Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth last month sent a letter to area school districts warning that health teachers who tell students how to put on a condom or take birth-control pills could face criminal charges. The warning has befuddled teachers, school administrators and parents in Southworth's poor, rural county.

"Seems like a step back in time," Taake said of Southworth's logic.

Southworth, a Republican and a Christian evangelical, took issue with a law Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle signed in February requiring schools that teach sexual education to adopt a comprehensive approach.

Southworth warned that teaching a student how to properly use contraceptives would be contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months behind bars and a $10,000 fine. He said it would be promoting sex among minors, who are not legally allowed to have sex in Wisconsin.

"It puts the school kind of in the middle between two sides, between the government and state telling us what should be taught and what people think should not be taught," said Scott Lenz, a health teacher in the New Lisbon School District. He said he would teach contraceptive use if he got the approval of his school board.

Southworth said he doesn't want to drag teachers into court but feels he was ethically responsible for warning them of the new law's potential consequences. He urged the school districts to refrain from offering sex education courses until the Legislature repeals the law.

"Listen, there's a real problem with the law," he said. "I didn't pick the fight. The Legislature dumped it in my lap."

Southworth didn't cite evidence in his letter showing that teaching someone to use contraceptives makes them more likely to have sex. But in an interview Thursday, he pointed to Milwaukee Public Schools, which teach a comprehensive sex education curriculum but still struggle with high teen pregnancy rates. Sex education experts, however, say many social factors influence teens' decisions to have sex, including lack of parental supervision and poverty.

Janine Geske, a Marquette University law professor and former state Supreme Court justice, said she didn't understand Southworth's legal logic. She said that if he tried to prosecute a teacher for adhering to guidelines approved by the Legislature and governor, the case would likely be dismissed.

"To be frank, I can't follow exactly what he's trying to get at," Geske said. "If a teacher is educating a student pursuant to state law ... I don't see how under any examination (that) could be criminal."

The state Legislative Council, a group of attorneys that provides legal advice to state lawmakers, issued a statement Friday saying it also believes teachers who follow the state guidelines would be safe from prosecution.

In Wisconsin, children under age 17 who have sex with each other can be prosecuted as juveniles. Seventeen-year-olds who have sex with one another can be convicted as adults of a misdemeanor.

Wisconsin schools aren't required to teach sex education. But under the new law, which was backed by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, schools that do must teach a range of topics, including the benefits of abstinence, the proper use of contraceptives, how to make responsible decisions and the criminal penalties for underage sex. Parents can choose to keep their children out of the classes.

Juneau County lies in the woods and bluffs about halfway between Madison, the state capital, and the Minnesota border. The teen birth rate here in 2008 was nearly 34 per every 1,000 births compared with the state rate of nearly 31 per 1,000, according to a report last year by the county and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

The county is about evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. Voters narrowly backed former President George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections, but sided with President Barack Obama in 2008.

Southworth says he's not trying to bolster his reputation as a social conservative for a potential run for higher office, his stance has proved popular with anti-abortion groups.
Matt Sande, the legislative director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, which opposes the new law, said every district attorney in Wisconsin should follow Southworth's lead.

"We commend him for his courage, his frankness in exposing the consequences of this irresponsible new law," Sande said. "If I were a district administrator, I would want to know the impact."

And Janet McCauley, a speech teacher in the Mauston district, said she thinks the new sex education guidelines promote "sexual curiosity" and that Southworth's warning was necessary.

"This is dangerous to our young people. I just think the whole bill wasn't thought out enough."

But many parents said they were befuddled by Southworth's warning.

Audrey Jensen, whose 16-year-old daughter, Justina, is a sophomore at Mauston High School, said Southworth is trying to censor what students learn, usurping the role of parents. Children will have sex regardless, she said, and they need all the information they can get.

"I think he's actually a little unrealistic," said Jensen, 47. "Obviously he doesn't remember being a teenager."

Mauston High School quarterback Brady Nelson, 16, said sex education doesn't encourage teens to do it and Southworth should leave health teachers alone.

"It teaches you more about the bad side of it than the good," he said. "You're not going to learn any other way. You can't really charge a teacher for teaching us about the ways of life."

Taake said he intends to teach contraceptive use and isn't worried about being prosecuted.
"It's not just teaching them how birth control works. It's everything else that goes with it," he said. "To arrest me for teaching correct birth control and the student makes the wrong decision and gets pregnant, that's not my decision."

Personal comment: “Southworth, a Republican and a Christian evangelical” is undoubtedly attempting to burnish his conservative credentials with the intention of a career in politics. In the process he is trying to limit the effectiveness of his communities Sex Ed program by throwing up legal straw men and that’s a huge shame. It’s this sort of thinking that has kept the unintended pregnancy rate in the U.S. so high. Religious narrow-mindedness gives organized religion a very bad name.

The Sex Talk

A selection of birth control methods

Study: Parents' Sex Talks With Kids Happening Too Late
Time Magazine
By ALICE PARK Mon Dec 7, 12:00 am ET

The sex talk is never easy. It's not comfortable for anyone involved - parents are afraid of it, children are mortified by it - which is probably why the Talk so often comes after the fact. In the latest study on parent-child talks about sex and sexuality, researchers found that more than 40% of adolescents had had intercourse before talking to their parents about safe sex, birth control or sexually transmitted diseases.

That trend is troublesome, say experts, since teens who talk to their parents about sex are more likely to delay their first sexual encounter and to practice safe sex when they do become sexually active. And, ironically, despite their apparent dread, kids really want to learn about sex from their parents, according to study after study on the topic.

"The results didn't surprise me," says Dr. Mark Schuster, one of the authors of the new study, published in Pediatrics, and chief of general pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston. "But there's something about having actual data that serves as a wakeup call to parents who are not talking to their kids about very important issues until later than we think would be best."

The study involved 141 families enrolled in the Talking Parents, Healthy Teens program, organized by the University of California Los Angeles/Rand Center for Adolescent Health Promotion and overseen by Schuster. Parents and their children, aged 13 to 17, responded to questions about 24 issues regarding sex and sexuality, including how women become pregnant, body changes that occur during puberty, how to use condoms and birth control, as well as issues around homosexuality.

Researchers asked both parents and their children, separately, when they had first discussed each topic, and compared that information to teens' self-reports about their engagement in three specific categories of sexual behavior - hand-holding or kissing; genital touching or oral sex; and intercourse. Families were surveyed four times, once at the beginning of the study, then again at three, six and 12 months.

By the end of the study, more than half of the parents reported that they had not discussed 14 of the 24 sex-related topics by the time their adolescents had begun genital touching or oral sex with partners. Forty-two percent of girls reported that they had not discussed the effectiveness of birth control and 40% admitted they had not talked with their parents about how to refuse sex before engaging in genital touching. Nearly 70% of boys said they had not discussed how to use a condom or other birth control methods with their parents before having intercourse. Yet only half of the boys' parents, by contrast, said they had not discussed condom use or birth control with their sons

That difference highlights a primary problem in the parent-child dialogue about sex. "A lot of parents think they had a conversation, and the kids don't remember it at all," says Dr. Karen Soren, director of adolescent medicine at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. "Parents sometimes say things more vaguely because they are uncomfortable and they think they've addressed something, but the kids don't hear the topic at all."

It's incredibly difficult to broach the topic of sex, admits Soren, who has three children of her own. "Your kids look at you like you're crazy, and you feel like you want to run," she says. "But it's important because we know good parent-child interaction gives kids better resiliency later on in life."

As the latest study shows, parental talks about sex and sexuality need to occur much earlier than they do, but that doesn't necessarily mean that parents have only one shot at getting it right. To make things easier, and to take some of the pressure off of the situation, say experts, parents should think about sex talks as an ongoing dialogue, rather than one uncomfortable discussion that they must cross off their list. And they should keep in mind that they've probably internalized the same discomfort and avoidance that their own parents displayed in talking about sex - but sex talks needn't be so fraught. Experts also say that parents should discuss certain issues with their children at age-appropriate times, and that the discussion should evolve as children mature. "A 12-year-old will look at sex very differently than a 15- or an 18-year-old," says Soren. "For kids between 10 and 13, the idea of sex grosses them out. So you're probably not going to tell a 13-year-old necessarily all about different methods of birth control."

Instead, the conversations should focus on what the child is capable of absorbing, and what the child asks about. Parents should also take advantage of every excuse to broach the difficult subject - a mention of sex or sexuality on a TV show, a pregnancy in the family, sex education classes in school, or a visit to the doctor around the time of puberty. "If you just get over the hurdle of starting, then once the conversation gets going, you often find it's easier than expected," says Schuster. "So use any excuse you want, but just get over the initial hurdle and start talking to your kids, because it's really important."

Personal comment: I think it is very important to have girls inoculated with the series of HPV vaccine injections (I prefer Gardasil) at least by the age of 13. That young a girl can be easily tempted to ignore what her parents say and follow the urges of her hormones. And, I think she should have condoms available as well so that if she is tempted her partner doesn’t give her something to remember him by, like an STI or pregnancy. Putting off the talk, or talking in general terms really isn’t helpful in teaching teens the basic contraceptive information they should know when growing up in a sex saturated culture like ours.

Cervical barrier Contraception 101

The human cervix on day 7 of a menstrual cycle

The image above shows the cervix and the opening (the os) in its center that leads to the uterus, on day 7 of a menstrual cycle shortly before the woman becomes fertile. The camera is looking at the cervix as a doctor would while the woman is on an exam table with a speculum inserted to hold her vagina open. The cervix is the conical protrusion from the back end of front wall of the vagina. The back side of the rim of a diaphragm fits into the posterior fornix (the area behind the cervix) which is the dark area under the cervix in this pic. The front rim of the diaphragm tucks into her pubic notch just above her pubic bone. The bladder is above the vagina’s anterior wall (at the top pf the pic) and the colon is behind the vagina’s posterior wall (at the bottom of this pic) In cervical barrier contraception a diaphragm or cervical cap with spermicide in the dome covers the cervix to prevent sperm from passing through the opening in the cervix and reaching the woman’s fallopian tubes where, when she is fertile, it can remain motile and potent for 7+ days waiting for the woman to release an egg.

A selection of contraceptive diaphragms and cervical caps

Cervical barriers: The above image shows a selection of contraceptive cervical barriers used to protect a woman’s cervix during sexual intercourse. The cervix fits under the dome of the barrier which seals against the wall of the vagina or directly against the cervix. The eight barriers shown in the image are, from left to right:

Top row: The Ortho All-Flex, an arching-spring diaphragm and the Cooper/Surgical (Milex) silicone wide seal diaphragm.
Second row: Prentif cavity rim cervical cap and the FemCap
Third row: Lea’s Shield and an Ortho coil spring rim diaphragm
Bottom row: A Semina silicone diaphragm made in Brazil and an Oves cavity rim cervical cap.

Discontinued or otherwise unavailable barriers: The Prentif cap and Lea’s Shield are no longer generally available and Semina and Oves are only available in the U.S. in clinical trials.

A complete FemCap with the removal strap still attached

FemCap: FemCap is the best barrier for protection during dive-sex because it can be used at any depth and is the only barrier that provides meaningful thrust buffering. In the image above the wider brim, shown on the left, is worn against the back wall of the vagina. The removal strap is often trimmed off which gives the wearer and her partner a bit more room when the male is big relative to his partner’s vagina. The outer walls of the brim seal against the walls of the vagina and the dome covers the wearer’s cervix.

An All-Flex diaphragm compressed for insertion

All-Flex diaphragm: All-Flex is the Ortho-McNeil version of the arching spring rim diaphragm and the type most often prescribed by experienced barrier fitters. That’s because it has a stiffer spring that can be worn by women with poor vaginal muscle tone and because since it folds in two planes (see the image above) into a crescent it is easier to get the back rim of a compressed All-Flex behind the wearer’s cervix. The All-Flex reduces the number of times women insert their diaphragms improperly and are therefore unprotected.

Birth control at St Lucy’s: I have started my Contemporary Sexual Health class for students who will be entering the school for the Summer term. CSH is a mandatory course given the temptations available in the surrounding area. Though compulsory almost all the students are very interested in learning how to protect themselves during recreational sex.

St Lucy’s policy on the use of contraceptives is where possible to minimize the use of hormonal contraception. For some few women hormones are necessary to regularize their cycles or control heavy bleeding, but St Lucy’s believes in teaching discipline and learning to use a cervical barrier correctly does teach discipline. Used correctly a properly fitted diaphragm or cap is (at St Lucy’s) actually better than the pill for teens because a large percentage of teens don’t take their pills correctly. The student’s barriers come with RFID chips so we can track who is wearing their protection and who isn’t and the ones who aren’t get penalty points which bring them in line quickly. And, of course a diaphragm can be used to minimize the mess during menstrual sex. Both diaphragms and caps can be used to protect against over-pressure events during dive-sex but a diaphragm is effective only to a depth of 10m when the rim starts to distort due to the pressure.. A strapless FemCap is better than a diaphragm for dive protection because there is no limit to the depth at which it can be used and it also provides thrust buffering if the woman’s pelvic anatomy is small in relation to her partner.