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Contraceptives (mechanical barriers, hormonal, surgical)

Let's explore what contraceptives are & the different types. Created by Mahesh Shenoy.

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Video transcript

please note that this video has sexual health content sexual intercourse can cause two big problems one are sexually transmitted diseases in short we call them as STDs and second it can also cause unwanted pregnancy and so in this video we'll talk about how contraceptives can help us avoid these but before we begin let's talk a little bit about these two unwanted pregnancy I'm sure you can understand just because our bodies are sexually mature doesn't necessarily mean that we are ready for the responsibility of a baby right so there could be so many reasons we wouldn't want one so that's that and STDs as the name suggests these are the diseases which are transmitted due to sexual intercourse and this happens because during the intercourse there's exchange of bodily fluids between the people involved just to give you some examples of sexually transmitted diseases gonorrhea and syphilis these are caused by bacterial infection and then we have AIDS and warts it's being one of the most dangerous ones it's in words which are caused by viral infection something you may need to remember alright so now let's talk about how do we prevent them well we can prevent them by using what we call contraceptives so what exactly are contraceptives well contraceptives in short can be thought of as methods or devices devices to prevent pregnancy to prevent pregnancy so contraceptives are mostly thought of in terms of unwanted pregnancy right so these are the things that we do to prevent pregnancy so how many types of contraceptives do we have well broadly we can classify contraceptives into three kinds let's move up and make space okay so we have mechanical barriers the hormonal methods and the surgical methods I'll start with the mechanical barriers what does that do well as the name suggests it acts like a barrier but barrier for what well it acts like a barrier for the fluids so it ensures there is no fluid exchange between the people involved so over here in sexual intercourse there will be no fluids no fluids exchanged so no fluid exchange okay and the example of that would be condoms so male condoms can be put on the top of penis or we can have also have female condoms which can be put inside the vagina in either cases it will ensure that there is no transfer of fluid from one body to another so this means the semen will never enter the vagina as a result the sperms can never ever reach the eggs preventing pregnancy and since there is no exchange of fluids this also means there is no it can prevent STDs right because we said earlier STDs come from the exchange of the fluids so it also prevents STDs now one thing I need to be very clear over here when I say the word prevent STD or prevent pregnancy I don't mean hundred-percent these things these contraceptives are never 100% alright so they just increase the chances or or I should say decrease the chances of pregnancy they decrease the chances of catching STD okay that's a thing is a better word to use over here anyways with that in mind let's move to the next method the hormonal method as the name suggests you know what this does I mean what we do over here in this we change the hormone levels we cause some kind of a hormone imbalance what does that do well you see in in female reproductive system it's the hormones that cause certain hormones that cause the release of eggs right so if we if we change the levels of those hormones which are responsible for the release of eggs then this can affect the release of egg altogether right so in in effect this these methods will affect the egg release egg release and let me quickly give you an example of how this can be done this can be done usually with the oral pills so some pills might change the hormone levels and make sure egg never gets released that way there will be no fertilization some other ones might make sure ensure that the egg if released dies immediately some will ensure that the egg will never be able to travel down the fallopian tube all the way to the uterus some might ensure that even though the it gets fertilized it will never be able to implant itself in the uterus so there are many many ways this can be done and so there are different different kinds of pills and since it's it's concentrating on the it's it's affecting the egg Leary's this means that it's done for women why not for men well because in women we just have one egg to concentrate on and it's a little easier in men we have millions of sperms and so it's very difficult to say make all the sperms inactive right so hormonal methods are usually for women and that now brings us to the third one the surgical method as the name suggests here some kind of surgeries need to be for performed now depending upon the kind of surgeries we can further classify it into two kinds so there are certain surgeries that can be done to have temporary contraceptives these are temporary methods oops temporary and there are some others which give permanent contraceptive permanent okay let's start with the temporary ones the most common temporary ones would be would be copper tees and I'll explain that in a second copper tees or loops loops so what do they do you ask well take the example of cooperative here is a picture of copper tea installed inside the uterus so it's called cooperative because it is t-shaped as you can see it's a it's very flexible than that's how you can insert it and it contains copper that's why copper tea the copper will tact turns out that the copper attracts the immune system and the immune system can kill stuff sperm cells that's one way to make sure the sperms don't reach and fertilize the egg some other copper tees might again cause some hormonal changes basically change the level of hormones and that could do something like maybe block off this cervix ensure that there's a lot of mucus over here and as a result the sperms will again not be able to enter all right loops also do something very similar they just have a little different shape but the whole idea as you can see is that that the whole idea is to kill this forms to make sure the sperms are not able to reach the egg and of course if you're wondering what's this thread like structure doing over here this is just to further further patient or I would say patient for that person or for the doctor to ensure that the tea whatever was installed is in place because sometimes it can be released and you might wouldn't you won't even know it so just to ensure that this is in place there is a thread like structure over there and so since these devices are put inside the uterus they're often also called intra intra uterine inside the uterus intrauterine contraception devices or you can also call intrauterine just devices right so the short form for that is IUD and you may hear about them IUDs IUDs basically means these temporary methods all right so now let's look look at the permanent methods the permanent records usually are vasectomy for males and two back to me for females okay again what are those well if you look at the male reproductive parts you might know that the sperms from the testes reach the penis why are this particular tube called the vast difference right so in vasectomy doctors will just cut this vast difference and put a knot over there so they will cut that and put a knot over there this will insure the sperms will never reach the penis and so they ejaculated fluid the semen will never contain sperms right so it's since we're cutting the vast difference it's called vasectomy and similarly trabectome is quite similar in Tubac to me what happens is we make a cut in the fallopian tube so again we make a cut in the fallopian tube and put a knot over there this is ensure that the released egg will never be able to reach the uterus and they'll be never be able to implant itself and grow over there so since we are cutting the fallopian tube we will call this the tube back to me all right now before we wind up a couple of things is in these methods these contraceptive methods although they prevent the might prevent pregnancy there is still bodily fluids exchanged over here because there are no barriers over here right that means these do not prevent STDs all right that's important do not prevent STDs and so to ensure that you know people don't catch STDs they always need to use mechanical barriers and secondly these things can definitely cause some side effects for example the skin could be allergic to the material used in condoms hormonal imbalance definitely causes some side effect and when it comes to surgery they can always be complications there can be irritations and so many things and so please take this as just theoretical advice if you need any practical advice you should definitely go and consult a doctor preferably a gynecologist I am NOT a doctor so this is not any this is not practical advice and lastly if you're talking about surgical method if the pregnancy has already started and the surgical method can also include abortion and of course you might know that some people have misuses in the past to kill off female fetuses because they only wanted boy babies and that has had a drastic consequence on the sex ratio in some places there are a lot of males compared to females which is bad and it's for that reason now it's illegal in India to find out the sex of the feeders before the baby is born all right so that's pretty much it let's quickly summarize what we learned we saw that sexual intercourse can cause sexually transmitted diseases some are transmitted by bacteria some are transmitted by viruses and they happen because of the exchange of body fluids and another thing is it can cause unwanted pregnancy so to avoid them we have something called contraceptives which are usually thought to be methods or devices which prevent pregnancy so from pregnancy point of view they are usually thought of and there are three major kinds the mechanical barriers which include condoms they allow no exchange of fluids so they prevent pregnancy and also prevent STD and then we have the hormonal methods in which the hormones of the usually the female hormones are altered not altered their that cause an imbalance over there which can affect the egg release and can make ensure no fertilization takes place usually include the oral pills and we also have the surgical methods the temporary ones where you insert some devices inside the uterine which kills up sperms like copper tees and loops and we also have the permanent ones we have surgeries which ensure there is no transfer of sperms from the from the testes to the penis or we make sure that the egg cannot reach the uterus