How do people stay childless / childfree for 20 plus years?

[sunshineandstarsgirl]

What contraception do they use? Is the pill and condom the most effective if used together? I don't want any children, so was wondering what protection to use?

When they say a method of contraception is 99% effective, it doesn’t mean you get pregnant every hundredth time you use it. It means that if 100 couples use it for a year, one of those couples will have one unwanted pregnancy during that year. So if you pick any of the methods in the 90s and follow the instructions exactly you have a good chance of being fine even without using two methods.

Maybe they avoid everyone with a penis?

Just a heads up - a more sensitive thread title might have been 'what's the most effective form of long term contraception?' Generally speaking childless people are not childless because they've really nailed how to avoid pregnancy. Child free people might be, though.

Mirena Coil

Whilst no contraceptive method is 100% effective, you can increase your chances by using a non-user dependent method like a long acting reversible contraceptive. I used the implant for well over a decade with no unwanted pregnancies. Of course, this won’t protect you from STIs so you need to use condoms as well. If you’re not sure, have a word with your GP or sexual health clinic, they are the experts and can talk you through your options.

implant

Mirena coil seconded

Mirena

Condoms worked for us for 21 years. Then I got pregnant first cycle. I never got on well with hormonal contraception.

Coil

But if you are in a relationship then one of you would be best to get sterilised. It’s much less invasive for men.

Not having sex?

Agree with mirena coil, get through the discomfort if you have any, no periods bonus! X

My best friend and her husband decided they definitely didn’t want children so her dh had a vasectomy. They had 45 years of very happy marriage before his death. She was an early years teacher and loved children but never wanted any of her own.

Most men I know who do not want any or any more kids have a vasectomy.

Long term contraceptives like coils and implant take away human error like forgetting to take it but nothing is 100%. I have the implant

I was on the pill for years and years. Used that solely, but took it religiously.

Now use a mix of condoms and avoiding fertile window. Now that my eggs are expiring, I'm contemplating ttc - no idea how successful that will be.

Condoms. Three DCs, all planned, condoms only form of contraception used for over 20 years.

Abstinence is the only completely reliable way. But most will be using a combination of the the methods already mentioned above. Or they can’t have children.

Thank you for that. I agree. For some women it isn’t a choice they made. Personal I found blocked fallopian tubes to be the best contraceptive.

Copper IUD in my case for a long time, now a Mirena IUS, no pregnancies for 25 years and counting (already had children so neither childfree nor childless but free of further pregnancy).

Abstinence. Not that it was a choice as such.

Infertility - my angry uterus offs all my pregnancies very reliably before 6 weeks. I am so mad at how much money I have wasted on condoms in long term relationships!

Copper coil
I was incredibly unlucky and got pregnant on the pill using a condom so I had a coil fitted

Condoms, then pill, then depo-provera, then condoms again, then vasectomy. Thirty years of success between them, with no doubling up apart from a few weeks post-vasectomy til his test came through clear.

tubal ligation