Hey Dr Sue — What Kind Of Birth Control Do You Most Recommend To Women In College And Why?

I don’t mean to sound like a wise ass, but my standard answer to this question is “whatever someone is going to use consistently and correctly.”

I can recommend a lot of different methods, but if someone tells that they don’t like the idea of a method (some people are freaked out about the idea of having things inserted in their body), or using a specific method goes against their religious/cultural beliefs, or they tell me that they won’t remember to use it the way they’re supposed to, then my recommendations are useless.

Because here’s the thing — a method can be super effective in the perfect world, but the effectiveness rate drops dramatically when we look at real people actually using it in the real world.

Take external condoms for example. Perfect world — 98% effective.

Once we add in humans who are, well, humans who make mistakes, that number drops to 82%. That’s 18 women getting pregnant in a year using condoms as their method of contraception.

Now if you ask me what are the most effective methods for preventing an unintended pregnancy, I have to go with one of the LARCS.

A LARC is a Long Acting Reversible C ontraceptive. LARCs include the contraceptive…