From: utzoo!decvax!genrad!wjh12!foxvax1!glh
Newsgroups: net.singles
Title: birth control effectiveness
Article-I.D.: foxvax1.1073
Posted: Thu Apr 21 17:58:15 1983
Received: Fri Apr 22 04:21:45 1983

Please excuse the intrusion by an "outsider", but the net.singles
headlines on birth control caught my attention.

"Birth control effectiveness" is a concept or a statistic which is
applicable only to a large population. Aside from questions about
proper implementation of the method, there are reasons to doubt
whether the numerics are applicable to a SPECIFIC couple. In the
figures I have seen, if one couple had several children over a period
of years while many others had none, the method would be given a
high numeric.

This factor can be described by standard deviations etc. but I haven't
seen good data from which I could draw conclusions.  The doctors I have
met in this field have not been very impressive, and in fact until
recently the US live birth statistics haven't been very good (I recall
a ranking of about 7th a few years ago).

In our case (referring to my wife and I), our family grew to contain
three children, paced by various birth control measures, with a fourth
child as an unexpected bonus. I was astonished in every case, especially
the fourth, by the apparent ease with which conception occurred. Whether
the birth control effectiveness numerics applied to us or not I don't
know, fortunately the birth defect statistics may not have as all
of our chlidren are normal, healthy and a source of great pleasure to
us.

This note is not intended to evoke a specific response, rather to
pass along a point of view which I now have a certain appreciation for
but certainly did not as a single.

Father of four boys (9->3)