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How do contraceptives work? - NWHunter

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Contraceptives are designed to prevent pregnancy in three basic ways: they either block sperm, disable sperm before they reach the uterus, or suppress ovulation. But is one strategy better than the other? And how does each one work? NWHunter describes the mechanics behind different kinds of contraceptives.

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Additional Resources for you to Explore
Throughout history, men and women have looked for ways to have more control over whether their physical unions produced another human being. Even in ancient times many techniques were used in an attempt to prevent pregnancy such as the use of alligator dung and honey. A brief video highlighting ancient methods can be found here.

You can also read an interesting review of the book Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. This chronicles both the types of contraceptives used throughout history as well as the prevailing laws and attitudes toward their use at during those times.

Religious beliefs throughout the world influence the use, availability and acceptance of contraceptives methods. Whether or not to use a contraceptive can be a divisive matter in religion and in personal relationships. Take a look at this ethics guide to contraception to find out more.

There has also been much discussion involving contraception and women, which is not considered a right in many areas of the world. In 1916 Margaret Sanger, eventual founder of Planned Parenthood, was jailed under the Federal Comstock Laws for distributing pamphlets that informed women about birth control.

Debate continues to this day regarding whether employee’s medical benefits for contraception should be covered by the employer, a question which has been the subject of judicial debate as high as the United States Supreme Court. Read more about it here

No birth control method is perfect, and there are varying degrees of effectiveness for each method. This link clarifies effectiveness for both perfect and practical use of many common methods of birth control. "Effectiveness figures are based on 100 couples using the method for a year and show the percentage of women who do not get pregnant while using the method for 1 year."
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Most of the reliable contraceptive choices today are available for women only. Given that interest in contraception has a history of thousands of years, stretches across many cultures and is strongly influenced by religious beliefs, why do you think there hasn’t been as much success in discovering a reliable contraceptive method for men?
07/18/2016
Avatar for Yusuf Khan
Yusuf Khan • LESSON IN PROGRESS

Male condoms are ubiquitous and due to the 98% theoretical effectiveness, there hasn't been a great need for finding a replacement.
The major difference is that female contraceptive methods cover a range of lifestyles, and options for men for each of these cases should be provided.
Male contraception has to be evaluated with regards to factors such as disease transmission, frequency of intercourse, trust in partner's contraceptives, and more.

09/24/2016
Avatar for Kaitlan Horvath
Kaitlan Horvath • LESSON IN PROGRESS

Since condoms have such a high rate for prevention which is almost 98%, there has not necessarily been a need to search for other methods. However with women not only do they need to be able to cover all the different lifestyles women have, but due to all the side affects, women are more inclined to search out other methods of contraceptives in an attempt to prevent permanent affects that men don't have to concern themselves with

10/03/2016
Avatar for Evelina Sandulyak
Evelina Sandulyak • LESSON IN PROGRESS

There hasn’t been any contraceptive drugs for men is because it's different when it comes to suppressing an egg versus sperm. For example, “… blocking the production of millions of sperm per day in men versus preventing the release of one egg per month in women is just more complicated, biologically speaking (Mullin, 2020).” Again, since there are more complications with trying to suppress sperm production that is why the two effective methods for men are a ****** and vasectomy. Also, as mentioned before there is little to no funding available for clinical trials to be done on different contraceptive methods for men. To conclude this discussion these are some of the reasons why there hasn’t been as much success in discovering other reliable contraceptive methods for men.

09/23/2020
Avatar for Cindy del Rosario
Cindy del Rosario • LESSON IN PROGRESS

I agree with you regarding the need or great demand for finding a replacement to male condoms. Some other theories I have as to why this hasn't been done is due to the fact that it seems to be viewed a little bit more as a woman's obligation to prevent pregnancy. Also, I would be interested in the data that shows the percentage of men who are willing to use this very effective method.

09/25/2020 • 
IN RESPONSE TO Yusuf Khan Show the comment
Avatar for Nobleman Soule
Nobleman Soule • LESSON IN PROGRESS

It's very easy to see why there hasn't been much success in advancements towards male contraceptives for numerous reasons. The ****** in particular (while it could DEFINITELY be improved) is a very successful contraceptive despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary. 82% effective in real life terms is still very effective. Another reason is perhaps lack of motivation to improve on male contraceptives from a marketing standpoint as well as just how advanced female contraceptives are already. These are not excuses but mere observations. It's also somewhat "easier" to block out 1 egg vs millions of sperm as detailed by Mullin.

09/26/2020

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TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator NWHunter
  • Script Editor Eleanor Nelsen
  • Director Draško Ivezić
  • Designer Draško Ivezić
  • Sound Designer Jure Buljević
  • Narrator Julianna Zarzycki
  • See more creators