Contraception –
It includes all measures temporary or permanent, designed to prevent pregnancy due to the coital act.
Objectives of conception control:
1. To bring down the birth rate to a realistic minimum during a given period of time.
2. To bring about social changes like:
a. Educate and Motivate the sexually active and fertile couples
b. Promote Small family norm
c. Increase literacy rate
d. To raise the marriageable age (18 yrs for women and 21 yrs for men)
e. To increase access of family planning services.
Ideal contraceptive:
A– Acceptable
B– Having non contraceptive benefits
C– Cheap
E– Highly effective (100%)
2S– Safe and Simple to use
2R– Reversible, Requiring minimal motivation, maintenance and supervision.
Contraceptive effectiveness:
The failure rate of any contraceptive is calculated in terms of pregnancy rate per hundred women years (HWY) of use.
Formula (Pearl Index)
Pregnancy failure rate/HWY=
(No. of accidental pregnancies X 1200) / (No. of patients observed X months of use)
Interpretation of the formula:
if <10, then the contraceptive method has high effectiveness.
if >20, then the contraceptive method has less effectiveness
–Mrunali Gondane