Family Planning and Contraception: the History of Birth Control, the Menstrual Cycle and the Methods

A family planning and contraception lecture that opens with the learning objectives and a brief history of birth control, from the first silkworm-gut intrauterine device and the early eugenic sterilizations through the pill, the patch, the vaginal ring, the single-rod implant and the female condom. The menstrual cycle and the fertile window are then worked out from the life span of the ovum and the sperm and the day of ovulation, and the mechanisms of action lead into the methods: the traditional coitus interruptus, postpartum abstinence, polygamy and the lactational amenorrhoea method with its conditions and effectiveness, then the natural, barrier, hormonal, intrauterine and surgical methods.