Originally posted by fieldarchy
So, in sum, I don\'t get how anyone can get pregnant when using protection and using it properly. It\'s 99.99999999% effective when used properly.
There are certainly a lot of people who deserve censure for not using birth control or being too careless about it. However, the reality is that no method of birth control provides that level of protection, particularly under real world conditions.
The pill has a .3% - .5% chance of pregnancy assuming _perfect use_. For the pill, perfect use would include taking it every single day _at the same time every day_. Modern low does pills can lose effectiveness if you\'re off by even four or five hours one day. They might not work if you have to take antibiotics, or you have diarrhea and fail to absorb the pill that day. Actual use failure rates for the pill are from 5-8%. And that\'s assuming you can use the pill. Smoke? Over 40? You\'ve got years of fertility to get through pill-free.
Implant methods are much more effective since there\'s much less room for user error, but it\'s not like everyone can use those, either. They can cause depression. They\'re contra-indicated for people with a variety of medical conditions.
Sterilization for either gender isn\'t even 100% guaranteed. If you can\'t use a hormonal method and you\'re not ready to get sterilized, the last of the most reliable methods is the IUD, which I happen to think is great, but isn\'t the right answer for a lot of people. (It increases risk of infections, so you need to be monogamous. It also has a risk of sterilization, so they prefer to only give it to women who\'ve already had one child. Plus its incredibly painful to have applied if you haven\'t already had a kid. Trust me on that one. ;->) It\'s also not 100%, I knew a guy who was a product of an IUD pregnancy.
And the above are the really reliable methods. A condom is only slightly more effective than withdrawal (my parents\' method, so you can tell how well _that_ works ;->). A diaphram + spermicide is LESS effective than withdrawal. Doubling up and using a condom + something else improves efficacy, though
the chart of birth control efficacy I\'m looking at right now doesn\'t have stats on that.
I\'m not trying to defend the trainwreck that is the Spears family, just pointing out that no birth control method is guaranteed, and lots of them probably have much higher failure rates than people think they do. I know some of those rates were a shock to me when I researched this a few years ago.