Birth control: What are the options?
10/9/2025 by Danielle O'Laughlin, P.A.-C.
Many forms of birth control can be used for pregnancy prevention. In addition to pregnancy prevention, some forms of birth control can help control menstrual bleeding, improve gynecologic symptoms and have other non-contraceptive benefits.
Finding the proper birth control depends on a patient's preference, age, past medical history and risk factors. The recommendations for specific birth control options compared to others may rely on whether the patient has a history of:
- Clotting disorder/history of blood clots.
- Cardiovascular disease.
- Migraine with aura.
- Cancer.
- Tobacco use.
- Obesity.
- Severe liver disease.
- Autoimmune disease.
- And other conditions that should be discussed with your clinician.
For birth control options that contain estrogen and progesterone, these include most of the oral birth control pills, the ring or the patch. Depending on the type of birth control, the estrogen and progesterone can also help improve irregular or heavy menstrual periods, pelvic pain, premenstrual symptoms, acne, abnormal hair growth and mood.
- Pill: taken once per day.
- Ring: changed every three to four weeks.
- Patch: changed once per week.
For birth control options that contain progesterone only, these include certain types of oral birth control pills, the shot, the subdermal contraceptive (arm implant) and many of the intrauterine contraceptives.
Progesterone-only options do not contain estrogen, so they can be used while breastfeeding as they do not affect milk supply and can be used when estrogen is contraindicated, as in many of the health conditions above.
- Pill: taken once per day.
- Shot: given every three months.
- Subdermal (arm) implant: changed every three years.
- Intrauterine contraceptive: changed every three, five or eight years, depending on the type.
For non-hormonal options, these include the copper intrauterine contraceptive and the many barrier methods such as condoms, diaphragms, spermicides, sponges and natural family planning. The non-hormonal options can be used for any patient where hormones are contraindicated, not tolerated well or when the patient desires regular menstrual periods.
- Copper intrauterine device: changed every 10 years.
- Barrier methods: used with each sexual encounter.
- Natural Family Planning: monitored daily.
Danielle O'Laughlin, P.A.-C., is a physician assistant in the Division of Community Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care in Rochester, Minnesota. In addition to her role in primary care, she is the team lead of the Primary Care Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic and works as the Clinical Skills Co-Director at the Mayo PA Program.