Contraception options compared

This page is reference information compiled from the cited sources. It is not medical advice. For any decision about health, diagnosis or care, consult a qualified professional.

What it is

Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Planning, making available, and using human birth control is called family planning. Birth control methods include barrier methods, hormonal birth control, intrauterine devices, sterilization, and behavioral methods. They are used before or during sex, while emergency contraceptives are effective for up to five days after sex. Birth control methods can be divided into male contraception and female contraception. Common male contraceptives are withdrawal, condoms, and vasectomy. Female contraceptive options include contraceptive pills, hormonal or non-hormonal intrauterine devices, patch, vaginal ring, diaphragm, shot, implant, fertility awareness, and tubal ligation.

Key facts

The most effective methods of birth control are sterilization by vasectomy in males and tubal ligation in females, intrauterine devices, and implantable birth control. This is followed by hormone based methods including contraceptive pills, patches, vaginal rings, and injections. Less effective methods include physical barriers such as condoms, diaphragms and fertility awareness methods. The least effective methods are spermicides and withdrawal by the male before ejaculation. Sterilization is highly effective but is not usually reversible, while all other methods are reversible, most immediately upon stopping them. Safe sex practices, such as with the use of condoms or female condoms, can also help prevent sexually transmitted infections. Other birth control methods do not protect against sexually transmitted infections. Emergency birth control can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 to 120 hours after unprotected sex. Some argue not having sex is also a form of birth control, but abstinence only sex education may increase teenage pregnancies if offered without birth control education, due to non compliance. Effectiveness is generally expressed as the percentage of women who become pregnant using a given method during the first year. It is sometimes expressed as a lifetime failure rate among methods with high effectiveness, such as tubal ligation. The most effective methods are long acting and do not require ongoing health care visits. Surgical sterilization, implantable hormones, and intrauterine devices all have first year failure rates of less than 1 percent. Hormonal contraceptive pills, patches or vaginal rings, and the lactational amenorrhea method, if adhered to strictly, can also have failure rates of less than 1 percent during the first year, or during the first 6 months for the lactational amenorrhea method. With typical use, first year failure rates are considerably higher, at 9 percent, due to inconsistent use. Other methods, such as condoms, diaphragms, and spermicides, have higher first year failure rates even with perfect usage. After stopping or removing many methods of birth control, including oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices, implants and injections, the rate of pregnancy during the subsequent year is the same as for those who used no birth control. While all methods of birth control have some potential adverse effects, the risk is less than that of pregnancy. Hormonal contraception is available in oral pills, implants under the skin, injections, patches, intrauterine devices and a vaginal ring. They are currently available only for women, although hormonal contraceptives for men have been and are being clinically tested. There are two types of oral birth control pills, the combined oral contraceptive pills and the progestogen only pills, sometimes called minipills. If either is taken during pregnancy, they do not increase the risk of miscarriage nor cause birth defects. Both types of birth control pills prevent fertilization mainly by inhibiting ovulation and thickening cervical mucus. They may also change the lining of the uterus and thus decrease implantation. Their effectiveness depends on the user's adherence to taking the pills. Combined hormonal contraceptives are associated with a slightly increased risk of venous and arterial blood clots. Venous clots, on average, increase from 2.8 to 9.8 per 10,000 women years, which is still less than that associated with pregnancy. The effect on sexual drive is varied, with an increase or decrease in some but with no effect in most. Combined oral contraceptives reduce the risk of ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer and do not change the risk of breast cancer. They often reduce menstrual bleeding and painful menstruation cramps.

Source: Birth control (CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikipedia)), retrieved 2026-11-06.