Talk:Birth control/Archive 2

I don't think that Abstinence should itself be a top-level topic just to discuss abstaining from intercourse in order to avoid conceiving a child. Abstinence can mean abstaining from about anything: from meat if you're a vegetarian, from alcohol if you're a teetotaler, etc. If we don't want these to be subpages of contraception, perhaps that should be something like 'Abstinence as contraception'... although some opponents to contraception may see abstinence as an alternative to contraception, rather than a form of it.

Abstinence can mean the avoidance of many different things [1], but in ordinary use, I think it almost always means abstinence from sex, with abstinence from alcohol a distant second; see [2]. "Abstinence from alcohol" has other descriptive terms ("sobriety," "teetotalism"), and "sexual abstinence" has one very important synonym: "chastity." But the latter has many religious connotations that the former doesn't have.

So, I'd propose the following article titles:

abstinence a pointer page, pointing to sexual abstinence, chastity, and either sobriety or teetotalism
sexual abstinence for a discussion of the sociology of sexual abstinence
chastity for a discussion of religious and moral aspects of sexual abstinence
either sobriety or teetotalism for a discussion of anti-alcoholism

--[[Larry Sanger]

Thanks for putting my abstinence comment up on the main page. I also like the article titles you proposed. In my experience, chastity is used to refer to 'sexual purity', which would be sexual abstinence for those unmarried, and sexual faithfulness to one's spouse for those married. I think that was the second entry for chastity at dictionary.com. But it still seems very appropriate to link to the topic from the Abstinence page.

A related topic might be fasting, as in temporary abstinence from food, or just from certain types of food, for a limited period of time, whether for religious or medical reasons.

--Wesley

Can I suggest the first sentence of the intro be changed to read "Birth control is the practice of reducing probability of pregnancy or ending an unwanted pregnancy." Birth control is not a method, technique, device or drug. Moriori 03:08, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I like the synopsis of the Catholic Church's position that is given, but I think other religions should be covered as well, particularly the other major ones (Islam, Hinduism, etc).

I did not include specific references in my explanation of the history of birth control but plan to put them in later. I've seen reference to the things I wrote in several written sources, but it probably isn't authoritative. The history of the condom is a particular favorite for manipulation. Jeeves 01:48, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Some numbers...

Table 1

Perfect and typical first-year failure rates of currently available male contraceptive methods

Method	Perfect use failure rate, %	Typical use failure rate, %
None^†	80-90	80-90
Abstinence	0	Unknown
Coitus interruptus	4	20
Male condoms (latex)	3	14
Vasectomy	0.10	0.15

First-year rate. ^†Unlimited, unprotected intercourse in otherwise fertile women. (Data from Trussell [<a name="IDAM2QJE"></a><a onclick="LoadInParent('/1534-5874/2/338#B20'); return false;" href="/1534-5874/2/338#B20">20</a>].)

consider the addition of a natural method.

Sterilization is commonly associated with Surgical sterilization, and yet, other methods of sterilization exist which should be listed.

Temporary male sterilization by radiant heat. (ie. Hot Tub, Iron Radiator, etc.) Ideological inversion of medical/traditional fertility advice.