How Does Birth Control Work?

There are huge varieties of birth control methods because there are lots of different ways to disrupt the process of sperm-egg fertilization.

LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Contraception: the use of devices, drugs, or surgery to prevent pregnancy - also known as birth control.
- Progestin: the synthetic form of progesterone, a sex hormone that plays a role in the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.
- Gametes: haploid reproductive cells including sperm and eggs.

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CREDITS
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Kate Yoshida | Narrator
David Goldenberg | Script Writer and Director
Lizah van der Aart | Storyboard Artist
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke
Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes
Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich
Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

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REFERENCES
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Special thanks to Louise Langheier for her input.

[MinuteEarth]

Thanks to commenters for pointing out that ectopic pregnancy is not a potential complication of a vasectomy! We'll update the chart.

[Wulfjager]

The most effective way ive managed to prevent pregnancy is never leaving my bedroom to meet an egg producing human

[Talador]

This 3 minute video does more than most schools in the USA

[Donerci_Pikacu_Usta]

1:36 I like sperms emotions changes depending on where they got stop. Neat detail.

[ishh]

God bless the Internet, hopefully saving a bunch of teenagers with these nuggets of knowledge that they should be teaching in school

[nebulan]

The day after pill acts similar to some of the hormonal birth control. There's no reason to ban the day after pills because they don't end a pregnancy. They prevent one from starting.

[jellyfishjames]

Ectopic pregnancy is only a potential complication in Tubal Ligations. Not in Vasectomies.
Anything that obstructs the fallopian tubes increases the risk of ectopic pregnancy, because the fertilized egg will be unable to travel to the uterus, and will implant (usually) in the fallopian tube. Tubal ligation does this but it should keep sperm from passing as well, just not always.
Vasectomies act on the vas deferens in the male so there's no increased risk of ectopic pregnancy.

[knutz]

The giant cork is a master class in comedy.

[MaddoxEzman]

Why is my virgin single ass getting this recommended for no reason? I feel personally attacked 😂

[NickWrightDataYT]

3:06 sorry...vasectomies can cause ectopic pregnancies?? Are you sure that isn't a copy-paste error from the Tubal Ligations column?

EDIT: For those who don't know, MinuteEarth confirmed that this was a mistake. They said they'll update the chart.

[DepressivesBrot]

As a further note on Tubal Ligation, it's getting more common to just remove those tubes completely since that's more reliable than tying them and also removes them as a potential cancer risk.

[flyingbicycles]

Y’all need a follow up video explaining what the %effectiveness metrics mean. Because IIRC, it doesn’t mean “every time you have sex it reduces the change of pregnancy by X%” it means “over the course of many years of using this method it reduces your chance of pregnancy by X%” which is a VERY different metric.

I.e. condoms with 85% effective rate. To the untrained eye, that statistic implies that 1/6 condoms just don’t work. Such a product is basically worthless… but that’s not what 85% means. It means couples who use condoms as their only form of birth control conceive 85% less often than couples who do not. This number actually goes up to 98% less for “perfect usage”, so the biggest risk of condom wearing is user error, not product error

[bitviper]

1:15 Also because some trials of male birth control ended with those men becomes sterile, depressed, or ending their own lives.

[Nabend]

Small point: In the table at the end under "Need a Health Care Provider to Get It?" The No's should be in green and the Yes's should be in red.

[marcopineapple]

As someone who has their biology exam tomorrow, thanks a lot. I liked how you made this part clear for me.

[AleksHQ]

I dont know why I'm watching this

[PILOSOPAUL]

the fact that I saw the hyena there, on this particular episode abt reproductive health, brought back so much trauma when i first saw the hyena episode and the vivid description of their birth T.T

[Tsusagi]

Disclaimer: don’t use a vaginal condom and condom at the same time. Because of latex on latex friction will cause this protection to tear

[taimunozhan]

The table at the end lists ectopic pregnancy as a possible side effect of vasectomy, I suppose that's a mistake, is it?

[rosieg]

Here before all the Handmaid Tale wannabes arrive. Birth control helps keep people healthy, and does more than just prevent babies, even though preventing unwanted babies is important to.