A woman tends to choose birth control based on what she considers to be the most convenient and effective method for her. However, it's important to weigh carefully the risks and side effects of each method.

Contraceptives were used during the month of conception in 48% of unintended pregnancies.¹

• Male Condom: 82-98% effective at preventing pregnancy,⁵ 60-79% effective at preventing STDs.²
• Female Condom: 79-95% effective at preventing pregnancy.⁵
• Diaphragm or Cervical cap: 84-94% effective at preventing pregnancy.⁵
• Birth Control Pill: 91-99% effective at preventing pregnancy.⁵ Multiplies risk of heart attack by up to 2.3 and risk of stroke by up to 2.2.⁶ A World Health Organization Class 1 carcinogen for increasing risk of breast and liver cancers.⁷
• Depo-Provera Shot: 94-99% effective at preventing pregnancy.⁵ Associated with decreased bone mineral density, weight gain and increased risk of breast cancer.⁸
• The Patch: 91-99% effective at preventing pregnancy.⁵ Multiplies risk of stroke by 3.2.⁶
• Implant: 99% effective at preventing pregnancy.⁵ 47% implant users experience adverse effects, including severe acne and weight gain.⁹

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States.³ It can lead to cervical, oral, and/or rectal cancer. Incidence of HPV–related oral cancer has increased by 225% from 1988 to 2004.⁴ No method of contraception provides total protection from HPV.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) are infections spread by sexual contact with skin, genitals, mouth, rectum, or body fluids.

Click here to read a full report, "Prevalence of sexually transmitted infections among female adolescents aged 14 to 19 in the United States."

What is Your STD Risk Ratio?

Sex is fun. It's in the moment. It's a gratifying experience with little consequence... that you can see right now anyway. But with every seemingly good thing can come unintended results, and those can sometimes be more than you bargained for - like an STD.

Take a moment to ask yourself these 3 questions:

1.     What are my life goals?

2.     What are some ways my sexual behavior is helping me reach those goals?

3.     What are some ways my sexual behavior is hindering me from reaching those goals?

Minimize your risk: according to the Center for Disease Control, “A reliable way to avoid transmission of STDs is to abstain from oral, vaginal, and anal sex or to be in a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner.”

Women today are inundated with the labor and delivery stories of family, friends, and even strangers from across the globe.  With the media leaving nothing to the imagination, it’s easy to understand why anxiety related to childbirth is very common in women.¹  A survey conducted by UK’s Pregnancy and Birth found that 87% of pregnant women were terrified of the idea of giving birth.²

The fear associated with the unknown and anticipation of pain are normal.  However, in some cases, rather than endure the stress of labor and delivery, women will elect to terminate an otherwise wanted pregnancy.³

The severe fear of childbirth, called tocophobia, effects between 13%-20% of fertile women.⁴  Symptoms include:

• restlessness
• nervousness
• sleeplessness
• crying episodes
• increased heart rate at the thought of labor
• change in eating habits
• change in physical activity¹

If you’re experiencing any of the above symptoms or other pregnancy related stress, please contact us for a free consultation.

Today’s adolescents are dealing with more sexual pressures than ever.  By age 15, parental influence is eclipsed by the social weight of peers.  Yet even with increased pressure, teens are often choosing not to engage in sex.  In a recent study of over 4500 U.S. teenagers aged 15-19, sexual activity declined from 1988 to the 2006-2010 period from 51% to 43% in girls and 60% to 42% in boys.¹

The top reasons stated by both male and female teens for abstaining from sexual intercourse were religious and moral reasons, having not found the right person, and not wanting to get pregnant.²  Whatever your reason for waiting, the choice is yours. Be empowered to decide what the future holds for you.  Real choices.  Your decision.

The short answer is yes, it could.  However, there is much research that still needs to be done on this topic.  “Despite strong recommendations for substantive research, and the clear need for women to have accurate information as they execute their autonomy, current data remain sparse, studies are small and methodologically flawed, and the conclusions are often intertwined with the political agendas of their authors and publishers.”¹

Complications that can arise from induced abortion, such as infection and damage to the uterus, are the main cause of future risk to women.  In the case of medical abortion, the risks for these complications are increased  in women who have a high risk of uterine rupture; an intrauterine device (IUD) in place; uncontrolled high blood pressure; diabetes, certain heart or blood vessel diseases; severe liver, kidney or lung disease; take a blood thinner or certain steroid medications; or smoke heavily.²

First-trimester surgical abortion by dilation and curettage (D&C) “can result in uterine synechiae (or Asherman’s Syndrome), which increase the risk of subsequent midtrimester spontaneous abortions and low birthweight deliveries.”³  Incompetent cervix is also a preterm birth risk associated with surgical abortion. “Symptoms related to cervical incompetence were found among 75% of women who undergo forced dilation for abortion.”⁴

With any type of abortion, “if the abortion is infected or complicated by pre-existing and nontreated STD’s, risks of secondary infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and fetal loss increase.”⁵  Studies have consistently shown that induced abortion increases the incidence of subsequent preterm delivery and also depression⁶, which can ultimately effect a woman’s decision to have more children in the future.

CompassCare is a non-profit organization providing non-biased information that supports a woman’s truly informed choice.  Schedule a free consultation.

The illicit use of drugs - prescription, over-the-counter or illegal - during pregnancy can greatly affect the health of both the fetus and the mother.  If you’ve been using drugs and are pregnant, contact your health care provider right away.

Maternal Risks

• Studies show that women who use illegal drugs such as heroine, cocaine or marijuana during pregnancy are more likely to have sexually transmitted diseases, such as syphilis, gonorrhea, hepatitis and HIV.  STD’s pose serious risks to the mother, including damage to reproductive organs, compromised future fertility, cancers, and even death.
• Women who use street drugs are also more likely to have psychiatric and emotional disorders, pregnancy-related bleeding, and other pregnancy complications.¹
• Women who smoke are twice as likely to experience premature rupture of membranes (water breaks early), placental abruption, and placenta previa during pregnancy.²

Fetal Risks

• In-utero drug exposure can result in delayed fetal development, nutritional deficiencies, hypertension, life-threatening vascular issues and spontaneous abortion.³
• Infants who are born to women who abuse drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, are at a greater risk for withdrawal symptoms, delayed social development, congenital malformations, SIDS,⁴ and FAS.⁵
• Because of the potential consequences to the unborn, 15 states actually consider substance abuse during pregnancy child abuse.⁶

If you’re pregnant and concerned about your use of drugs, contact us for a free consultation.

Providers often will not furnish a full range of facts when prescribing Combined Oral Contraceptives (COC), basing the information given on their own professional opinion rather than a well-balanced presentation of the data available.  Ultimately, it’s your responsibility to read the fine print.

Types of Oral Contraceptives
There are two main types of oral contraceptives: Progestin Only Pills (POP) and estrogen-progestogen pills (COC, or combined oral contraceptives).  Of these, COC’s are far more commonly prescribed. “Worldwide, more than 100 million women – about 10% of all women of reproductive age – currently use combined hormonal contraceptives”.¹

How COC’s Work
Combined oral contraceptives are blend of synthetic estrogen and progesten.  Unlike other forms of contraception that prevent sperm-egg contact, COC’s use a very different, 3-fold approach to birth control. The Physician’s Desk Reference states, “although the primary mechanism of [combination oral contraceptives] is inhibition of ovulation, other alterations include changes in the cervical mucus, which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus, and changes in the endometrium, which reduce the likelihood of implantation.”²  In other words, if the pill’s first two methods - inhibited ovulation and thick cervical mucus - fail to deter fertilization, its final measure of defense will cause any fertilized eggs to be prematurely aborted.

Efficiency Ratings
The pill is 92–99% effective at preventing pregnancy with perfect use.³  With typical use, 8 out of 100 women using a COC will become unintentionally pregnant each year.⁴  Common medications can decrease the effectiveness of oral contraceptives, including certain types of antibiotics and particularly, St. John's wort. COC Health Risks One thing your doctor probably didn’t tell you is that the estrogen in COC’s is a known human carcinogen, listed among such cancer-causing agents as arsenic, tobacco and asbestos.⁵  According to the National Cancer Institute, COC’s “increase a woman's risk of cervical cancer, breast cancer, and liver cancer."⁶  The prevalence of HPV, a leading cause of cervical cancer, is also found to be higher among oral contraceptive users.⁷

Smoking while using COC’s increases your risk of heart attack, blood clots and stroke, especially in those over 35 years of age.  You are up to 8 times more likely than a non-user to develop a blood clot, even if you don’t smoke.  The risk is up to 3 times greater for those who use COC’s containing a progesterone called drospirenone.⁸

Schedule your free consultation.

Although condoms may help to reduce the risk of contracting STD’s in general, the fact is that they cannot protect you from specific types of infections.  For example, in the case of genital ulcer diseases (such as herpes and syphilis) and HPV (human papillomavirus), “latex condoms can only protect against transmission when the ulcers or infections are in genital areas that are covered or protected by the condom.”¹  Contagions are often present in the area surrounding the condom, even when visible signs of infection are not present.  In these cases, condoms are useless against the transmission of the disease.

It should also be noted that non-latex condoms do not protect against STD’s at all.  Trojan labeling states that, “natural membrane condoms only help to protect against pregnancy and are not recommended for the prevention of STDs.”  For those who are thinking about using polyurethane condoms, studies are still “being done to determine the risks of pregnancy and STDs, including HIV infection (AIDS)”.²

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, many of the available studies intended to prove the efficacy of any kind of condom are simply “not designed or conducted in ways that allow for accurate measurement of condom effectiveness”.³  Simply put, the accuracy of what has been published cannot be measured against your individual circumstances and personal risk.

Total abstinence is the only 100% guaranteed method of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy.

Despite the advocacy of condom use to reduce your risk of acquiring an STD, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states, “there's no absolute guarantee even when you use a condom”.  Even the CDC does not embrace the term safe sex, calling it “less risky” sex instead.1

What they also fail to mention is what “risky” really means.  As determined by the National Institutes of Health, “overall, the condom's effectiveness at preventing HIV transmission is estimated to be 87%, but it may vary between 60% and 96%”.2  These numbers don't even factor in the element of exposure over time.

In an International Planned Parenthood Federation Medical Bulletin, the author, Willard Cates, states that, “the risk of contracting AIDS during so-called ‘protected sex’ approaches 100 percent as the number of episodes of sexual intercourse increases.”  According to the graph submitted by Cates below, you will inevitably, eventually contract HIV/AIDS, even with perfect condom use.

Risk of contracting HIV) vs. Exposure (the number of sexual encounters). Note how the right side of the ellipse (“protected sex”)
rises to meet the left (“unprotected sex”) at a point which represents 100% risk.3

HIV is one of over 25 sexually transmitted infections that can have a serious impact on your future reproductive and overall health, especially if left untreated.  Pregnant women are particularly at risk.  The only way to avoid contracting a potentially deadly infection is to abstain from sexual activities.

Find out more about common STD’s and their related conditions here.

Concerned about your sexual or reproductive health? Schedule your free consultation.