Family planning methods

Birth control and family planning is something I definitely wanted to address on my blog, because I feel it's something that is woefully misunderstood by many woman out there. Many women (myself included) have begun to use hormonal birth control without fully understanding the effect that it has on their bodies or the mechanisms that it uses to prevent pregnancy. My goal in these posts is that women become better informed about the options that are available to them, and that no matter the decision they make in the end, that they are informed about the risks and benefits. This is a part of my goal of intentional living: to truly stop and think about my decisions before jumping into them.


Family planning methods can be broken down into six basic categories: natural, hormonal, barrier, permanent, emergent, and abstinence. We will be discussing these in depth in the near future, but for now, a quick summary:

Abstinence is, of course, the only method that is 100% foolproof, but most of us find it less than acceptable as a means of birth control!

Barrier methods are any non-hormonal device that is used to avoid pregnancy or the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. These include the male condom, female condom, spermicides (foams, jellies, films, tablets, and suppositories), sponges, cervical caps, and diaphragms.

Hormonal methods include birth control pills, the "mini-pill," birth control injections, vaginal rings, transdermal patches, intrauterine devices, and implants.

Emergent methods describe the "morning after" pills.

Permanent methods are the sterilization implant, and tubal ligation or vasectomy.

Finally, natural methods can include any combination of NFP (natural family planning) methods, including the fertility awareness method (FAM), cycle beads, the rhythm method, standard days method, two-day method, Creighton model system, Billings method, and basal body temperature (BBT) method.