Contraceptives

Are you taking an oral contraceptive ?

Are your teenage hormones raging?

Hormones are chemicals that send information between cells and organs to control our body’s processes. The sex hormones that cause such a ruckus in puberty are crucial to the reproduction process in men and women. The contraceptive pill plays its monthly role in this relay system by tricking the body into thinking it’s pregnant.

Contraceptive pills are one of the most popular types of female contraceptive in use today but do you know HOW and WHY they work? No, I don’t just mean “oral contraceptives stop ovulation” or “they thicken the cervical mucous”, I mean WHAT HAPPENS in various parts of your body, including your pituitary gland, when you swallow a synthetic hormone (present in the contraceptive pill) and HOW does that actually change your body’s normal functions each month to significantly ‘reduce’ the chances of you getting pregnant.

In my hunt to discover a simple explanation to this question that I could pass onto you, I feared a medically ‘high brow’ (and boring!) answer. However, I found this excellent little animated film that does the job nicely.

If you are interested in really knowing what is going on inside you when you take an oral contraceptive pill, then I think you will find the film below easy to understand. To watch it you will need Flash5 plug in though, which you can get HERE for free if it’s not already installed on your pc.

The information you will discover will also make sense of those side effects that sometimes sneakily accompany the contraceptive perk- not that this makes them any less acceptable but at least you’ll be a ‘know -it-all’ when you next talk to your doctor about birth control! Who knows, you may even find another contraceptive pill suits you better after you’ve been able to ‘take charge’ of the discussion? I cannot emphasize strongly enough though, the need to have a good back up stock of condoms, especially if you have multiple partners, this site is reliable and has quality stock if you wish buy on line.

HOW THE PILL WORKS - The film window is a bit small but there is a zoom button and the option of watching another film on how the female reproductive cycle works too. Just click on the picture when you get to the site.

For detailed information on use and side effects of oral contraceptive pills, here are some popular brands :

ALESSE, DESOGEN, LEVLEN, MIRCETTE, OVRAL and ORTHO TRI-CYCLEN