You can’t get pregnant during your period.
While it’s hard to get pregnant during your period there are many women who use their period as a form of contraception. For some women with shorter intervals between periods (for example 21 days between each period) these women ovulate on day 7 or 8 so they are prone to getting pregnant at the end of a long period. Ovulation is the 24-hour window when the egg is available for the sperm to fertilize. With fewer days between each period, you will ovulate earlier in the month. For women who have a period every 21 days and a period lasting 7 days they can get pregnant on day 5, 6 or 7 if they have unprotected sex. Even though the risk is small, pregnancy can happen since sperm can live for 3 days!
If you douche after sex, you won’t get pregnant.
Just say “no” to douching when it comes to preventing pregnancy and cleaning the vagina. Douching is a bad habit and a ridiculous myth of contraception. Douching is a premade cleaning mixture that comes in a plastic bottle that can be squirted high up into the vagina. This internal vaginal cleaning is not a recommended routine to keep the vagina smelling fresh and clean. The active cleaning ingredients used in most douches can upset the healthy vaginal discharge and pH balance and create a yeast or bacterial infection. There is never a reason to douche your vagina!
The withdrawal method is a reliable birth control method.
The withdrawal method is not a reliable birth control method. It tends to be passed on as a great birth control method by your group of best girlfriends. Right before ejaculation your partner might have released some fluid called “pre-ejaculation” which is the liquid that comes out of the penis before ejaculation. The liquid may have active and viable sperm that can make you pregnant.
You can’t get pregnant if you are breastfeeding.
If you haven’t had a period after giving birth, an unplanned pregnancy is more likely since you ovulate before getting a period. Most women do not understand that you can get pregnant before having your period return. During the postpartum recovery, you think you can’t get pregnant until a period returns at regular intervals. Unfortunately, this is not the case, ask anyone who has had children less than 12 months apart! Health care providers have to educate women during the standard 6 week post-delivery visit to discuss birth control practices and pregnancy prevention.
You can smoke while on the birth control pill.
If you smoke and are over the age of 35y it is not safe to take the birth control pill. The hormones in the pill can make your blood thicker than usual causing hyper-coagulation, which is the medical term for causing excessive clotting that can cause blood clots. Women who are high risk for blood clots include those with a using estrogen containing birth control and women who smoke cigarettes over the age of 35y. Smoking and the pill have never been a safe combination.
If you have a history of blood clots you can take the pill.
Blood clots can develop in the veins in your legs and block the blood flow in different parts of your body depending on where the clot travels. The clot can travel to your lungs (pulmonary emboli or PE) or your brain causing a stroke. Blood clots are extremely dangerous, even deadly in unusual cases.
The hormones in the pill can make your blood thicker than usual causing hyper-coagulation. If you have already had a blood clot you cannot take the birth control pill since it will increase your risk of having this dangerous medical condition. Women who are high risk for blood clots or have actually had one cannot take the birth control pill.
If your partner tells you they are negative for sexually transmitted infections you don’t need to use a condom.
Unfortunately, sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) are on the raise. Condoms are often used as a form of birth control and a way to prevent STI’s. Even if your partner goes to his/her doctor to get an STI check-up and gets a clean bill of health, there is still a chance to contract a STI’s through sexual activity. HPV and HSV are 2 viruses that are difficult to find during a routine checkup on a man penis or woman’s vagina unless there is an active wart or lesion. These 2 viruses’ can be transmitted through sexual contact even if tested negative during a physical exam. Following the practice of “safe sex” and using condoms is still the best way to prevent sexually transmitted infections even if your new partner tests negative for STI’s during a pre-sex health care checkup.
The pill will make me fat!
Study after study does not show weight gain to be a side effect of the birth control pill. The adolescent period and going off to college is when most women start the pill and this is also a time that young women tend to gain weight.
IUDs can cause infertility and should not be used by women who haven’t had children.
European countries have as many as 20% of women using IUD’s while American’s have only 3% of women using IUD’s even though it has just a 1% failure rate as contraception compared to the 9% failure rate of the birth control pill. The modern-day IUD’s have an excellent safety record and are now commonly recommended to women of all ages, whether you have been pregnant or not. The intrauterine device (IUD) is an effective, safe and long-term contraception. IUDs are small, flexible plastic which fits nicely inside the uterus. Almost all women including teenagers now make great candidates for the IUD. The current IUD’s, Paraguard, Mirena, Kylenna, Liletta and Skyla, have been well-studied and are completely safe. In a recent Committee Opinion on adolescents and Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC’s), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommend the IUD as a “first-line” option for all women of reproductive age.
You need to take a break if you have been on the pill a long time.
There is absolutely no medical reason to support this. Oral contraception has many health benefits—in addition to being a great birth control. For most women, the health benefits outweigh the risks.
Something is wrong with me if I am not getting a period every month while taking the birth control pill.
One of the side effects of the birth control pill is a light or non-existent period. For many, this is a welcomed side effect especially if your periods are traumatic! When some women stop taking the pill, their periods may take 1 to 3 months to return to normal. Many young women start the pill in their teens before they know whether or not they have regular or irregular periods. So when they decide to go off the pill if they have irregular periods, it is not caused by the birth control pill. The birth control pill doesn’t cause you not to have a period. It may be once you are off the pill you may find you have an underlying hormonal problem that has been masked by taking the birth control pill. If this is the case, you should alert your health care provider.
