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You know, hormonal birth control often reduces or inhibits sexual desire or arousal for the person using it, too. For some people, pretty substantially. It does so because of what it does to a body hormonally: the only way condoms inhibit arousal or libido is if a guy using them (or opting not to)…

If you’re considering the contraceptive patch as a birth control method, or already use it and want more information.

If you’re considering the vaginal ring as a birth control method, or already use it and want more information.

Contraception. In many ways, it’s the bane of my existence. Kids are just not part of my plan right now, and as much as I wish it were possible, the technology to shut my ovaries off at will for any length of time has not yet been developed. (Anyone who figures out how to do that will have my eternal gratitude. I might even make them cupcakes, I would be so grateful.) So, seeing as how I’m with a partner of the opposite sex, some sort of pregnancy prevention is required.

From Reuters, today: A large real-life test of birth control methods found more U.S. women got pregnant while using short-acting methods such as pills, patches and vaginal rings — and the failure rate was highest when they were used by women under 21. “We found that participants using oral contraceptive pills, a transdermal patch or a vaginal ring had a risk of contraceptive failure that was 20 times as high as the risk among those using long-acting reversible contraception,” said the research team.

Worried you might be pregnant? Evaluate your risk, find out what steps you may need to take next, check in with your feelings and by all means, breathe. We’re here to walk you through it.

If you’re a young person, you may not know it, but you can probably access methods of birth control without your parent’s permission, and even for free! Here’s a starter guide for those in the United States, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, South Africa and India.

“Birth control” or “contraception” simply means any number of methods a person may or does use in order to try to prevent pregnancy. So, condoms are birth control. The pill is birth control. IUDs are birth control. The Depo-Provera shot is birth control. Withdrawal is birth control. If you choose…

It is important to understand that the each pill in your packet has basically enough hormones for 24 hours. When you’re late or miss one, your hormone levels can drop. So then what ends up happening is that when you take the late (or missed) pill and then take your next one at what is supposed to be…

We get asked about this a lot; about whether once you have a more effective method of contraception than condoms, like a hormonal method or IUD, if they’re still needed to prevent pregnancy. The only right answer to that question, no matter who asks it, is that it really depends on what you and your…

It’s fine to start on day two. Really, it’s okay to start at any time in your cycle. It’s just that the pill will become fully effective more quickly if you start at certain times rather than others. If you start within the first six days of a period, your withdrawal bleed (the “period” that happens…

As you may know, at Scarleteen we do not yet endorse suppressing menstruation/continuous birth control – using a hormonal method of birth control in order to skip withdrawal bleeds/periods – for women under 18, because there still is yet to be any study done or published with adolescent women to evaluate if it is safe or medically sound for those in that stage of physical development.

Recently, the cost of hormonal forms of birth control such as the pill and the patch, among others, have skyrocketed. At least if you’re buying them from a campus health clinic. Up until this year, pharmaceutical companies gave colleges deep discounts on contraception. Time Magazine explains why costs have gone up so much and The Chicago Sun-Times gives an example of the consequences.

We get a lot of questions at Scarleteen from folks who are worried about periods that are MIA (missing in action, for us civilians). Sometimes there’s a pregnancy concern, and sometimes not; but even if you’re not sexually active, a missing period can be worrying.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty difficult to give you exact odds when it comes to your pregnancy risk here. There are so many factors influencing things that it’s really difficult to be precise about it. However, if you are having genital contact without a condom and you are not taking your pill…

Some people can take longer than others to adjust to hormonal birth control. In fact, that’s why you’ll usually hear that you should be ready to deal with some weirdness for the first 1-3 months when you start hormonal birth control. Remember that with the pill you’re essentially adding lots of new…

Generally speaking, when you start missing pills in the middle of a cycle (especially if you miss lots of pills) some weirdness with your withdrawl bleed is to be expected. By not having those extra hormones in your body, it’s impossible to guess what was going on with your natural hormone levels…

You know, sex really is supposed to be fun, so while it is absolutely wise to do all you can to prevent a pregnancy, there are ways to do that which don’t have to be so involved or be a big buzzkill. Condoms, when used properly, are highly effective: around 98% effective with perfect use. Perfect…

In order for oral contraceptives – the birth control pill – to be effective, they need to be taken every day. Missing one every now and then so long as you make it up within a day or so won’t likely compromise your effectiveness all that much, but if you’re missing a few pills regularly, that’s…

You’re considering a method or practice of pregnancy prevention, and want need to decide if you want to use a hormonal or nonhormonal method.

You are not responsible for a parent having an idea about who you are that’s about who you have been as a child, who they seem like they might want you to be, or who they think you are but are not anymore, and may – and in this case, probably – never have been. I hear you expressing what sounds…

Everyone is different when it comes to hormonal/menstrual cycles, and there certainly are people who experience more intense effects of physical and psychological changes throughout their cycle than others. Experiencing changes in your mood, how your body responds to different kinds of touch, and…