What do you do when you have unprotected sex? Do you use a personal remedy? Do you pray? Or do you reach out to a more experienced friend that provides you with a solution? Or do you have a secret that no one else knows about? All these and many more questions run through my mind when I hear of cases of unprotected sex and the various steps people go to after having it.

Talking about personal remedies, I’ve heard people use salt and water immediately after sex, what it does, I don’t know, but most people who use it believe it helps to flush out the residue of the male semen. I’ve also heard of a popular solution used for indigestion as contraceptives and I sometimes wonder if these people using it actually know what they are doing. These homemade remedies have not been scientifically proven and I’m sure most of them don’t even work, and there have also been cases of death or complications due to the wrong prescription or dosage.

We all know that it’s better to be safe than sorry if you know you’re not ready to raise a child, have protected sex and vice versa. But what happens when you were caught up in the moment and forget to use protection, this is where you employ emergency measures and that is what we’ll be discussing today.

Contraceptives are used to prevent pregnancy and some protect against Sexually Transmitted Infections(STIs). Some of the most popular types of contraceptives include

1. Condom: The most common. It prevents pregnancy and also protects against STIs.
2. Intrauterine Device(IUD): The most effective and it also prevents pregnancies.
3. Oral contraceptive pills: It prevents pregnancy.
4. Implant: Also prevents pregnancy.
5. Emergency contraceptive pills: Often called the morning pill, it also prevents pregnancy.
6. The ring.

The above listed and many others are the available contraception methods but there are some that are emergency ones. The good news is that the emergency contraceptives have 80%-99% effectiveness. Research has shown that emergency contraceptives have been around for over 20years and yet people still use the wrong things at the expense of their lives. I’ll be enlightening you on some of the emergency contraceptives you can use after having unprotected sex.

There are two major types; the IUD and the emergency contraceptive pills.

1. The Intrauterine Device(IUD): The IUD is the most effective of the emergency contraceptives as it has a 99% chance when used within 5days of having unprotected sex. It can be hormonal or non-hormonal IUD. The only difference between this duo is that the non-hormonal is hormone-free. It is actually like a long tube with thread woven around it inserted into the woman’s private organ. So with this, you have nothing to worry about when in the heat of the moment.
2. The emergency contraceptive pill is also known as the morning-after pill can be used to reduce the risk of an unplanned pregnancy and should also be taken within 5days of the act.

As effective as these contraceptives are in the prevention of unwanted pregnancy, they don’t protect against STIs, so it’s important to take a test and probably get treated if infected after unprotected sex.

Before deciding to use any of these measures, kindly visit a medical practitioner to know which is suitable for your body. This is because what works for your friend or colleague might not work for you so its very important you understand your body type. I hope you found this helpful.