Do you often forget to take vitamins every morning? Do you always forget where you’ve left your keys? During your birth control planning, you might consider how your absent-mindedness or bad memory might play into which method you choose. Some methods, like taking the pill, require that you remember to take it every single day, and often at the same time of day. Others, like the sponge, require some careful time calculations concerning timing. If you’re really absent-minded or just aren’t sure you can schedule things so accurately, you may need to examine other options.
If your birth control plans focus on the pill, then your risks if you forget depend partly on what kind of pill it is, and where you are in your cycle. If you’re using a combination estrogen-progestin pill, you have some latitude, since it helps prevent ovulation along with affecting cervical mucus to prevent sperm from reaching the egg.
Nevertheless, certain days in the cycle are more dangerous to forget than others, and while you “catch up,” you require other forms of birth control as a backup for a few days. With progestin-only pills, you could be at risk of becoming pregnant within hours, not days, of forgetting.
The birth control ring would be one option that might work better with your memory problems, though you still need to remember a schedule. It is inserted and left for three weeks, then removed for the week of your period. And after that, another ring is inserted for another three weeks. This is another option to consider in your birth control planning. But it may still not be as workable as something like injections by your doctor, which would occur every month or every three months.
Birth control planning that doesn’t involve having to remember something every day can also be done by other means. The birth control sponge is a soft piece of polyurethane foam containing spermicides, but can only be inserted up to six hours before you get frisky, and needs to remain in place for another six hours afterward. But if you tend to be spontaneous, or are likely to forget to insert the sponge as your romantic date progresses, then there could be problems. Something that depends on less accurate scheduling is undoubtedly a better method to choose.
Click here to read more about the many ways of preventing pregnancy, and how they stack up in terms of reliability and side effects.