Beyond the Pill: Exploring Your Long-Term Contraception Options

Family planning has been hailed as one of the primary achievements in public health, as women gain better control over the timing and extent of their family-building. And this achievement is further enhanced by the many different forms of birth control — it’s no exaggeration to say that there’s an option for most every family planning goal. 

Thanks to this availability, more than 60 million women in the United States report using contraceptives, from on-the-spot condoms to longer-acting contraceptives. 

If your goal leans more toward long-term protection, the team of reproductive experts at North Atlanta OB/GYN wants to review a few great contraception options that go beyond the pill. Let’s take a look.

Long-acting reversible contraceptives

We want to explore a category of birth control that we call long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), which includes intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants. These methods, as the name implies, protect for years, yet can be reversed to restore your fertility.

In the first group of LARCs, we have two types of IUDs, which are small devices that we insert into your uterus:

Hormonal — These IUDs release progestin (a synthetic version of progesterone), which influences ovulation, thins your uterus lining, and thickens the mucus around your cervix to prevent sperm from getting through.

Copper — Wrapped in copper, this IUD repels sperm and thickens the mucus around your cervix.

When it comes to implants, these are tiny, matchstick-sized rods that we insert just under your skin where they slowly release progestin. This hormone prevents pregnancy by thickening the mucus around your cervix to repel sperm, and it also prevents ovulation.

Both IUDs and implants offer anywhere from 3-12 years of pregnancy protection and are 20 times better than birth control pills, patches, and vaginal rings. This reason is that IUDs and implants offer a near-perfect 99% protection rating, and there are no user error issues, such as forgetting to take pills.

And, when you’re ready to start a family, all we need to do is remove the implant or the IUD, and your fertility should be back on track.

Sterilization — tubal ligation and vasectomy

The other type of long-term birth control is a more permanent solution meant for people who have taken family-building off the table.

Procedures can put an end to your ability to get pregnant on both sides of the gender equation:

• Tubal ligation — We clip a woman’s fallopian tubes to prevent a fertilized egg from reaching her uterus.
• Vasectomy — The vas deferens are clipped in a man’s testicles to prevent sperm from being expelled through ejaculation.

While we can reverse each of these procedures, the reversal process is far more complicated, and success is far from guaranteed. It’s best to identify these as irreversible for decision-making.

Getting you the birth control that is right for you

If you’re still not sure which choice is best for your health and family-planning goals, we’re happy to sit with you to review these long-acting birth control options in more detail.

To get started, contact us by phone or online today at our office in Atlanta, Alpharetta, or Marietta, Georgia, to schedule an appointment.