Hot Topic #8: Contraception – Getting Comfortable with the Options

Ask an undergraduate about contraceptive methods and you will no doubt hear two options: male condoms and contraceptive pills. What you are unlikely to hear is any mention of the diaphragm, spermicides, implants or any of the many other excellent methods on the market. This lesson is designed to increase student awareness of contraceptive options.

Preparation: 

• Assign Carroll’s Chapter 13 to be read prior to the class meeting
• Purchase samples of as many forms of contraception as possible. Demonstration versions of prescription contraceptives are available in a training kit from some Planned Parenthood offices http://www.plannedparenthood.org/central-new-jersey/contraceptive-teaching-kits-28718.htm?__utma=1.3149749047847530500.1249948910.1257966201.1257972094.12&__utmb=1.9.10.1257972094&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1257972094.12.11.utmcsr=google|utmccn=%28organic%29|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=planned%20parenthood&__utmv=-&__utmk=188446248
• Download contraceptive fact sheets from http://www.centerforhealthtraining.org/resources/index.html#cfs
• Create fact sheets as needed, including photos or illustrations for items that cannot be acquired.
• Place each sample, with packaging and fact sheet, in a brown lunch bag (create separate bags for variations on a type, i.e., spermicidal film, foam, gel, inserts). Include a bag with condoms and a dental dam to illustrate contraceptives used for STI protection.
• Remember to include factsheets for abstinence, natural family planning, withdrawal, outercourse, and sterilization. These bags will contain only the fact sheet.
• Include wet wipes and a condom demonstrator model (if available) among your supplies for this lesson
• On the chalkboard, write:

Method – Type – Purpose – Advantages – Disadvantages – Effectiveness – Fun

• On the chalkboard, write: Hormonal, Barrier, Chemical, Surgical, Behavioral

Procedure:

Ask students to explain the difference between contragestion and contraception?

If necessary, explain that contragestion is the method by which an early pregnancy is terminated via surgical or medical abortion.  On the other hand, contraception prevents conception. When used effectively, contraception can help females and couples avoid unplanned pregnancy. 

Activity:  Taking the Guesswork out of Contraceptives?

Keep the bags of contraceptive hidden.  Ask students to guess how many types of contraceptives are on the market today and what types of available. After a few guesses, display the bags and explain that there are five types of contraceptives:

1. Hormonal
2. Barrier
3. Chemical
4. Surgical
5. Behavioral

• Explain that each bag contains a method of contraception and some information about that method 
• Instruct students to find a partner and sit back-to-back
• Give each student a bag. If you have bags left over, save them to give to pairs that complete the activity faster than others. Give each person a wet wipe.
• Explain that one person in each pair will open the bag, read the fact sheet, and answer yes or no as the other person guesses what method is in the bag.
• When the method is guessed (or provided), the partners can face each other and examine the method. Encourage students to open packaging, squeeze spermicide into applicators, put condoms on the condom demonstrator, etc.
• Tell partners to switch roles and repeat the activity with the other bagged item.
• Walk around the classroom answering questions and pointing out information about the methods that students may have missed. Demonstrate how to eject foam from an applicator, correctly open a condom pack, etc. Encourage them to feel and touch the products to get over the “ick factor” many of them associate with spermicides.
• Instruct students to take notes about their items to share with the class. Their notes should include (point to chalk board):  Method (condom, IUD, etc.); purpose (protection from STI versus pregnancy); type (barrier, surgical, etc.); advantages; disadvantages, effectiveness rate, and fun. Explain that the “fun” category should include ways the method can involve both partners, i.e., shared costs, inclusion in foreplay.
• Invite pairs to stand in place or at the room’s front to share their findings with the class.
• Discuss whether some methods are more appropriate for young adults than others.
• Emphasize the use of condoms (male or female) and dental dams for STI protection.
• Emphasize the use of a backup method with over-the-counter contraceptives (e.g., spermicidal gel plus condoms)
• Address the issue of costs and the fact that if they get prescription methods and are on their parents’ insurance plan, their parents will find out. Suggest Planned Parenthood or the campus health center as possible alternative sources of affordable contraceptives.

How do you bring hot topics into your Human Sexuality classroom? How can you refine a lesson based on the Carroll text? I invite you to contact me for help.

Melanie J. Davis, MEd, CSE  teaches Human Sexuality as well as Marriage and the Family at Moravian College. She is a doctoral candidate in Human Sexuality Education and is the owner of Honest Exchange LLC, a sexuality consulting and resource development practice based in Somerville, NJ. Melanie is a partner in the New Jersey Center for Sexual Wellness, located in Bedminster, NJ.