Health & Fitness: Birth Control: Vanishing Options

Lawsuits and other safety concerns mean new worries in bed

Rhonda Issler chose the Pill as her first contraceptive when she was a young adult in the early 1970s. But after five years, news of the Pill's potentially harmful side effects made her switch to an intrauterine device. Soon after, she suffered severe menstrual cramps and a pelvic infection. Issler eventually turned to the diaphragm, but she found its use messy and inhibiting. Now 33 and living in North Hollywood, Calif., the working mother of one relies uneasily on a combination of the rhythm method and the condom. "Birth control is a very important decision, but also a very frustrating one,"...

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