Not even one week ago I posted on facebook a link to Kindaras' blog post on birth control and contraception #knowyouroptions. This blog post via Kindara is all about knowing your options to avoid pregnancy or even help you to fall pregnant naturally.

Now fast forward 5 days and there is an article in Metro a national newspaper here in Sweden that is shunning the idea and more importantly suggesting that the best way to avoid becoming pregnant is to take some form of pill or by using some sort of hormonal or copper spiral.

The part of this story that really opens a very important issue is when the 'expert' suggests that the hormones that a female ingests via the pill (p-pill) are almost natural because they are created to act exactly the same as what our bodies make naturally. The thing is they are not. They are synthetic forms of hormones acting similarly to what we make naturally and therefore have similar but different effects. Note also that the pill has been around for the past 50years and research being done has found many correlations to different cancers and blood clotting.

The next point is that condoms are "not the safest method of contraception", which I guess most people can agree with, but if used correctly condoms are not only a safe method but also protect against infectious diseases, which are some of the most widespread diseases of our time!

Then comes the take-home point, that women especially 'young girls' should not use 'natural cycles apps' or 'Fertility awareness methods' because "many women don't work like clockwork" and that "ovulation can be greatly affected by stress". These facts are very true I only need to think of my most recent infertility case to be aware of the effects a stressful society has on a women’s cycles. But these are not reason enough to suggest that we should not try to find balance and understand our cycles. That we should not learn to understand when we ovulate, and when we are safe to have sex without resulting in a pregnancy. This is even more imperative for young girls.

The amount of women I meet that have no idea when they ovulate, have no understanding of what their cervical secretion means and have no idea of how there temperature changes throughout their cycle is mind boggling and incredibly worrying.

Why not educate young girls how to track their cycles? To understand the ebb and flow of their periods? To take control of their own bodies? To give us, the female the responsibility of our bodies!
Why should we be so worried that they (young girls) won't understand and they might make a mistake? There are enough 'mistakes' every day to suggest that the current methods are not really helping against this.

We all know that taking a pill every day at a particular time can be tough for some, and that using condoms at short notice even tougher for others, but how about being so aware and knowledgeable of your own body that the stress and pressure of the maybes are taken away?

It's up to you to decide how you look after your body. I just become disappointed that mass media doesn't even suggest to think for yourself, to understand your body. Instead molds us into beliving that the best way to look after our bodies is to give it synthetic hormones that cover any current problems and help us to forget that our body and our health are our responsibility.

Take control of your body and #knowyouroptions. Education is the key ;)