Family Planning

Family planning means making a conscious decision about whether or not you’d like to have children, how many you’d like to have, and how closely you’d like to space your pregnancies. It also includes taking action to make your decision a reality.

For women who want to focus on their education or career before having children, family planning often means finding the right type of birth control to avoid unintended pregnancy.

For women who are ready to start having children, family planning may entail helping women overcome fertility issues or finding an effective way to space pregnancies; for those who know they’re done having children, it means taking steps to ensure they won’t become pregnant.

For women who don’t want to have children at all, family planning means avoiding pregnancy, either by relying on regular birth control or using some form of permanent contraception.

The team at GYN Choices of Central Jersey provides a variety of comprehensive family planning services in East Brunswick, NJ, including:

• Preconception counseling
• Infertility evaluation and care
• Birth control consultation
• Prenatal and obstetric care
• Early pregnancy termination

One of the best ways to control the timing and number of pregnancies you have is by finding the birth control method that works best for you. GYN Choices of Central Jersey offers all forms of contraception, including:

• Hormonal methods
• Long-acting reversible contraception (LARC)
• Barrier methods
• Emergency contraception
• Permanent birth control

To help you choose the birth control method that’s right for you, your gynecologist will consider your age, medical history, and current health, as well as your future family planning desires.

When you’re sexually active as a young adult, effective family planning can give you the time and space you need to determine whether or not parenthood is ultimately something you want to pursue.

Family planning includes asking yourself if your personal life goals leave you with enough time, energy, and financial resources to start a family. If you’re certain you want to have children, family planning can also give you enough time to put yourself in an ideal position to become a parent.

Once you’ve started having children, family planning allows you to control the spacing of your pregnancies. Avoiding closely spaced pregnancies can be healthier for both you and your children.

Apart from complete abstinence, family planning is also the best way to avoid unintended pregnancy, so you won’t have to consider options like adoption or abortion.

To find out more about the benefits of effective family planning strategies, [am_location loc='1']call GYN Choices today.

When a woman starts thinking about how to prevent pregnancy, two options may come to mind. The first is to use a condom (which has other value besides pregnancy prevention). The other is to take oral contraceptives. In fact, birth control pills may be the most popular form of birth control. That doesn't mean it's the right choice for you. It actually doesn't even mean that birth control pills will be the most effective option for you you, either. When you talk to your trusted gynecologist about birth control, they may ask you to consider several influencing factors. These include:

• Overall effectiveness. This may include the manner and frequency of usage.
• Convenience. Must you use the method every time you have sex or take a pill every day for the method to work?
• Is the method reversible, and, if so, how quickly do its effects reverse?
• How long might it take to become pregnant after stopping this method?
• What are the side effects?
• Is this birth control method affordable?
• Does this birth control method offer protection against sexually transmitted infections?
• What does it take to discontinue this type of birth control?

No single type of birth control is ideal for every woman. Your doctor at GYN Choices of Central Jersey can discuss your options with you based on your preferences and short and long-term goals.

Pregnancy takes a lot of moving parts. Still, most couples conceive successfully. It just takes some time. There are two ways in which to look at how long it takes to get pregnant.

In the broader sense, it can take six months to a year for a couple to conceive. Back to those moving parts and multiple factors that influence conception.

In the direct sense, it takes about a week for conception to occur when all circumstances align. After having sex, the sperm spin their way up through the cervix into the fallopian tubes. They can survive there for up to 72 hours. There, they wait for the egg to pass by on its way from the ovaries. This is an important detail to know because it indicates why it isn't mandatory to wait until ovulation to have sex when you're trying to conceive. In fact, a woman is more likely to conceive when sperm are already present in the reproductive tract at the time that the egg is released from the ovaries. When sperm and egg meet and the egg is fertilized, it can take up to another three days for the egg to divide and become implanted in the uterine lining. It is at that time when the body's production of hormones surge to support a viable pregnancy.

If, after six months of unprotected sex, you have not become pregnant, contact us! Your experienced gynecologist can discuss the next best step.