Birth Control Basics
Right now, as we speak, some shit-for-brains on Capitol Hill are trying to make decisions about what birth control we should be allowed to use while actually knowing nothing about it. This will be no surprise to anyone who has now or used to have a uterus or any of the reproductive organs that’ll get you assigned female at birth, because everyone has been doing this to us for forever.

Last semester I took a class to train how to teach sex ed. The undergraduate students in the class submitted questions that the graduate students would then have to research and answer. For your benefit, here is my paper on birth control:
How exactly does fertility control work?
People who can get pregnant have a wide variety of options when it comes to fertility control. Planned Parenthood, the United States’ largest low-cost family planning provider, lists eleven different forms of fertility control.
Under each form, there are a multitude of prescriptions, variations, and methods to match the thousands of different bodies that folks have. In general, all of these options work on the same principal: keeping a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine lining. Some methods do so by accelerating the shedding of the uterine lining, some by halting the progress of the ovum through the fallopian tubes, and some by preventing sperm from reaching the ovum.
Because these methods work before a fertilized egg has implanted into the uterine lining, they are not abortions. Pregnancy does not begin until the egg is implanted into the uterine lining.
In the event that a person is not able to effectively prevent both a) the fertilization of the egg and b) the implantation of that fertilized egg in the uterine lining, they will become pregnant. If this person does not wish to be pregnant, they might then seek an abortion: that is, a medical procedure to evacuate the uterus.
If you use birth control, are you at greater risk for infertility?
Any infection in the reproductive track might cause infertility, whether contracted at the insertion of an IUD or during sexual intercourse. That is, you are at only marginally greater risk for infertility when you are using birth control than you are otherwise. (Guttmacher)
The most effective way to prevent pregnancy besides abstinence is through surgical methods, such as tubal litigation or vasectomy. These forms of birth control do cause infertility, on purpose. (Planned Parenthood)
How many days a month are girls able to get pregnant?
It is different for every person, but usually three to five days a month. People are most fertile when an ovum is released from the fallopian tube. Sperm can stay active for more than two days, so when using the calendar or fertility awareness method are advised to abstain from sex for three days before ovulation and three days afterwards, totaling about eight days a month. (Bruess and Schroeder).
At what age do men and women stop being fertile? How does a woman know if she is not fertile?
People with uteri stop being fertile at menopause. Menopausal symptoms include hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and ultimately the cessation of periods. Even after menopause, it is important to continue using condoms and other methods to prevent the spread of STIs and STDs. The average age for menopause for American women is 51. Women will stop being fertile when they stop ovulating, which they will recognize when they stop menstruating. (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology)
There is no similar demarcation for men, however sperm cells begin decreasing in quality for most men around the age of 35. As the man gets older, his sperm become less mobile which makes it more difficult for them to reach the egg, and in turn make it more difficult for the sperm to fertilize an egg. (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology)
What is in vitro fertilization?
In vitro fertilization is a medical procedure wherein eggs are combined with sperm outside of the body, and later implanted into the uterus. This is a method of conception suitable for people who have had tubal litigation, have difficulties conceiving without medical assistance, or have advanced in age.
What is the number one fertility control method today and why?
Sixty-seven percent of women who practice contraception currently use hormonal methods. Nearly 26 percent of contraceptive users use daily oral contraceptives, while 25 percent rely on tubal litigation. Nonpermanent, hormonal methods, such as IUDs or birth control implants, are popular because of the relative ease in acquiring them and the many different prescriptions that exist to meet every need. (Guttmacher Institute)
Some religious people strongly believe that by preventing a pregnancy a person is in a sense still aborting a child. How would you explain logical science behind how this may or may not be true?
If we understand fertilization as the moment of conception, then preventing fertilization is not aborting a child. Each of the reproductive cells has only half of the chromosomes necessary for development, so by preventing the egg and sperm from meeting, you are preventing even the possibility of conception. (Science News)
Should a person in poverty be made to get a vasectomy or her tubes tied if she has a certain number of children if they are on government assistance in other countries?
It is unnecessary to make long term birth control mandatory for people in poverty or receiving public assistance: in the United States, women who are on public assistance or living below 150% of the federal poverty level are more likely to use a highly effective form of birth control. (Guttmacher Institute). The average family on public assistance has only 1.4 children. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Why hasn’t an effective male birth control (besides condoms) been found?
Less research has been put into male birth control. Commonly found methods that have been discovered have high rates of pain or irreversibility. The ease and relative efficacy of condoms makes such research generally unnecessary.
Do you feel birth control is a susceptible form of fertility control?
Some forms of birth control are “susceptible” in that if not used correctly, they can still result in pregnancy. However, with the exception of abstinence, every form of hormonal, barrier, and surgical birth control are more effective than any form of behavioral fertility control. That is to say, for example, that oral contraceptives are more effective than withdrawal or fertility awareness.
What influence does culture have on fertility control?
Culture can make people feel shame about using birth control. For example, many young people report feeling embarrassed when they purchase condoms. In many instances, the same health centers that provide abortions often provide other forms of birth control, so when people gather at clinics to protest abortion access, they make it more difficult for those who are seeking reproductive health care to do so. (Pickett and Wilkinson)
In some cultures, purposefully impeding fertility is seen as wasteful, promiscuous, or unfeminine. Femininity is seen as contradictory to sexual self-efficacy and sexual experience: that is to say, teenage girls understand femininity to be synonymous with sexual inexperience and not asking for anything in particular during sex. (Impett et al)
References
Contraceptive Use in the United States. (2017, September 21). Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-use-united-states
Correction: Contraceptive Failure in the United States. (1992). Family Planning Perspectives, 24(1), 19. doi:10.2307/2135720
Cunningham, A. (2017, August 25). Birth control research is moving beyond the pill. Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/birth-control-research-moving-beyond-pill
Emergency contraception: Side effects of emergency contraceptives (the morning after pill). (n.d.). Retrieved March 03, 2018, from http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/ecsideeffects.html
Gold, E. B. (2011). The Timing of the Age at Which Natural Menopause Occurs. Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America, 38(3), 425–440. doi:10.1016/j.ogc.2011.05.002
How effective is emergency contraception? (2017, August 11). Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/how-effective-emergency-contraception/
Impett, E. A., & Peplau, L. A. (2003). Sexual compliance: Gender, motivational, and relationship perspectives. Journal of Sex Research, 40(1), 87–100. doi:10.1080/00224490309552169
Impett, E. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2006). To Be Seen and Not Heard: Femininity Ideology and Adolescent Girls’ Sexual Health. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35(2), 129–142. doi:10.1007/s10508–005–9016–0
Menopause. (2017, November 30). Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.womenshealth.gov/menopause
Parenthood, P. (n.d.). Official Site. Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.plannedparenthood.org/
Passero, W. D. (1996). Spending Patterns of Families Receiving Public Assistance. Monthly Labor Review, 21–28. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1996/04/art3full.pdf.
Pickett, K. E., & Wilkinson, R. G. (2015). Income inequality and health: A causal review. Social Science & Medicine, 128, 316–326. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.12.031
Poppick, L. (2017, June 07). The Long, Winding Tale of Sperm Science. Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-finally-unravel-mysteries-sperm-180963578/
The Menopause Years. (2015, May). Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.acog.org/Patients/FAQs/The-Menopause-Years
Parenthood, P. (n.d.). Official Site. Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.plannedparenthood.org/