Perhaps one day you might be ready to build a family, but that day isn’t here yet, and you want to protect yourself against an unplanned pregnancy.
More than 65% of reproductive-aged women in the United States use contraception to prevent pregnancy, and two of the more common choices are intrauterine devices (IUDs) and the birth control implant.
If you want to learn more about either of these great options, you’ve come to the right place. Dr. Chetanna Okasi and the team at Women’s Wellness MD, offer comprehensive family planning and contraception services. In the following, we explore some key benefits of IUDs and the implant to help you make the right decision for your goals.
Let’s first spend a moment reviewing exactly how IUDs and implants work to prevent pregnancy.
The implant, which, as the name suggests, is a small, matchstick-sized rod that we implant just beneath the skin in your upper arm. The implant, which is sold under the brand name Nexplanon®, slowly releases progestin into your system, which stops pregnancy in three ways:
Between these three actions, the Nexplanon implant offers a near-perfect efficacy rating of 99%.
Now let’s turn our attention to IUDs, which are small, T-shaped devices that we insert into the uterus. IUDs come in two formats:
The progestin in the hormonal version of the IUD works to prevent pregnancy in the same way that we just described above with the progestin implant.
With either format, IUDs offer near-perfect 99% protection ratings.
Since there are so many different types of birth control, we often use different categories to group them. A good example of this are contraceptives that qualify as both long-acting and reversible, and IUDs and implants are the two choices in this category.
Also called LARCs, this is a popular category, and about 10.5% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 rely on either an IUD or the implant as a birth control.
The benefits of LARCs are baked right into the name — they last a long time, and we can reverse them easily. For example, the Nexplanon implant offers up to 5 years of protection and, any time you want to restore your fertility, we can remove the implant.
IUDs offer anywhere from 3 to 12 years of protection and, here again, all we need to do is remove the device to restore fertility.
Aside from being very good at what they do, lasting longer than other forms of birth control, and being easily reversed, other benefits come with implants and IUDs.
For example, both the implant and hormonal IUD can regulate abnormal periods and lighten heavy periods.
The IUD can also be an emergency contraception for up to 5 days after unprotected sex. Speaking of sex, please note that neither the implant nor the IUD protects against sexually transmitted infections.
Lastly, these forms of birth control are relatively hassle-free — once they’re in place, there’s nothing more you need to do.
So, if you’d like to take the next step and visit us to figure out whether you’re a good candidate for an IUD or the implant, contact us by calling one of our offices in Columbia or Greenbelt, Maryland, or by using our online booking feature.
