When discussing birth control options with my patients, the diaphragm often comes up. The most important thing to know about using a diaphragm is that it’s most effective at preventing pregnancy ONLY when used with a spermicide. If you have a sensitivity or allergy to spermicide; the diaphragm may not be for you. Also, the …
Continue ReadingAnother type of birth control — IUD.
Decisions about birth control can be very stressful. Although birth control pills are praised widely on television commercials, magazine and internet ads, not all women react so positively to birth control in their system. Not all women act like the actresses in the commercials. We often see women coming to us complaining about changes in …
Continue ReadingNatural family planning.
We have long known that hormonal birth control (pill, ring, or patch) can have an adverse effect on sexual functioning for some women. Hormonal birth control can decrease testosterone levels and increase a protein (SHBG) that binds to testosterone, inhibiting its function. Having sub-optimal testosterone levels can negatively affect sexual functioning. Therefore, we often recommend …
Continue ReadingBirth control recall.
Pfizer announced the recent recall of birth control pills. 28 lots of the brand name and generic tablets were recalled in total. Apparently, there was a mix up at the processing plant and some of the packs have tablets that are out of sequence and contain an inexact count of inert or active ingredient tablets …
Continue ReadingSex and pregnancy — the male perspective.
A lot has been written about sex and pregnancy from the female perspective. Often women feel awful in the first trimester, better and possibly fabulous in the second trimester and huge in the third trimester. These are obviously generalizations, but on the whole this is what many women experience. And as these changes ebb and …
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