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Unwanted Pregnancy
Unwanted pregnancy: Use of contraceptives
When rimple, newly married women, missed her periods, she decided to try out ' I-Pill ', an emergency contraceptive (EC). After repeated use of the pill failed to restore her period she consulted a doctor who found she is six weeks pregnant. She has to undergo an MTP as the overdose of EC pills she took could have harmed her foetus. Typically user of emergency contraceptives (EC) confuse it with the abortion pills that is to be taken after women misses her periods. EC pills cannot be substitute for regular oral or injectible contraceptives and should only be used in ' emergency '- after accidental unprotected sex. Long term use or over dose can be harmful and cause irregular menstrual cycles and side effects like nausea and vomiting.
No less than 78 per cent of pregnancies in india are unplanned and 25 per cent are unwanted despite the availability of contraceptives. Married or unmarried, if you don’t want a child, contraceptives can come to your rescue. The large majority of women need to relay on modern methods, including female sterilization, the UID and the pills. Oral contraceptives are most commonly prescribed form of birth control; advantages include reversibility as well as good tolerance and safety profile. Long-term contraceptives like subdermal depot compounds or hormone releasing pessaries in the uterus have been used on regular basis and seem a convenient alternative for birth control for long periods. Copper UIDs will be widely used in the future since copper UIDs are effective in preventing pregnancy for as long as five days after unprotected coitus. Hormonal tablets are less effective and should be taken as soon as possible after coitus.
Side effects of contraceptives
The time period of when to start taking a pill is important as every woman's menstrual cycle is different. Also, some women may be allergic to certain kinds of drugs. Issue such as weight gain, weight loss, acne increase or decrease and nausea are common with many types of contraception. Irregular bleeding or spotting may occur while you are taking birth control pills. Hormonal changes like acne, nausea, depression and dizziness may also occur. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or blood clot is diagnosed through a host of symptoms that include pain in chest, swelling and pain in muscles and legs and pulmonary and heart related complications. Alarm bell starts ringing; if you experience sharp chest pain, heaviness in the chest , sudden partial or complete vision loss, contact your doctor immediately.
Middle aged women
Intrauterine devices (IUD) are an excellent method of contraception in older women as they are long-lasting and effective. Specific contradictions include abnormal menstrual bleeding and the presence of fibroids distorting the uterine cavity. Condoms and spermicidal creams cream can also be considered as alternative. Spermicidal cream helps lubricate the dry vagina in older women; whereas condoms provide the protection against STDs and HIV infection. Estrogen-progesterone combined low-dose pills have been found to be safe for middle aged and pre-monopausal, non-smoking women, who don't have other risk factors such as smoking , obesity, hypertension, diabetes familial history of cardiovascular disease.
Adolescent's contraception
In general, sexually active unmarried adolescents are not seeking to become pregnant married adolescents do not wish to become pregnant early on, if they already have child, wish to delay second pregnancy. Unplanned pregnancies among the adolescents happens despite the best of contraceptive intentions and effectiveness of adolescent contraception remains below desired level. However, low pills contraception methods and barriers methods like condoms are recommended for this group. In case of accidental encounter, EC pills taken soon after contact but not later than 72 hours of the episode can help in most cases.
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