Emergency contraceptives

Sex Ed and Chill

This episode was supposed to be the aftermath of The Party, but it's really a mashup of The Breakfast Club and Mean Girls (and we love it!). Join us as we discuss Season 2 Episode 7 of Sex Education and explore the topic of emergency contraceptives.

Content warning for this episode: this episode contains discussions of sex, sexuality, sex education, abortion, contraceptives, self-harm, and sexual assault.

This episode's topic talk on Emergency Contraceptives is a bit shorter than normal because Matt didn't do his best work on the research for the episode (he's sorry!) and so we had to cut part of the conversation because it perpetuated one of the myths that surrounds EC: that regular use is in some way worse or more harmful than 'normal' birth control. Studies seem to show that this isn't the case, and this myth is one of the main reasons for lower uptake of emergency contraceptives. The main drawback to using them regularly is that they aren't as effective as other contraceptives (like regular birth control medication or condoms), so using it regularly leads to a higher risk of unwanted pregnancy (although the difference is small). So while ECs are not recommended for regular use for reasons of preventing unwanted pregnancy, it's not because they're bad for you. Thanks Mabel for calling it out while we were recording!

Resources around this topic:

• The Facts About Emergency Contraception
• Emergency contraception: dispelling the myths and misperceptions
• Emergency Contraception (WHO)

Also the acronym that Mabel was looking for was LARC: "Long acting reversible contraception" https://www.fpnsw.org.au/factsheets/individuals/contraception/long-acting-reversible-contraception-larc