What do you think?
Rate this book
In Our Control: The Complete Guide to Contraceptive Choices for Women
The efficacy and risks of different birth control options are dramatically different today from what they once were thanks to scientific advances and increased awareness of STDs and other factors. In the most comprehensive book on birth control since the 1970s, women's health activist Laura Eldridge discusses the history, scientific advances, and practical uses of everything from condoms to the male pill to Plan B.
Do diaphragms work? Should you stay on the Pill? What does fertility awareness really mean? Find these answers and more in In Our Control, the definitive guide to modern contraceptive and sexual health. Eldridge presents her meticulous research and unbiased consideration of our options in the intimate and honest tone of a close friend. Eldridge goes on to explore large-scale issues that might factor into women's birth control choices, urging her readers to consider the environmental impacts of each method and to take part in a dialogue on how international reproductive health issues affect us all.
Whether you're looking for your first birth control method or want to know more about your current contraceptive choice, In Our Control offers the cutting edge information and practical wisdom you’ll need to make empowered decisions about your sexual health.
Do diaphragms work? Should you stay on the Pill? What does fertility awareness really mean? Find these answers and more in In Our Control, the definitive guide to modern contraceptive and sexual health. Eldridge presents her meticulous research and unbiased consideration of our options in the intimate and honest tone of a close friend. Eldridge goes on to explore large-scale issues that might factor into women's birth control choices, urging her readers to consider the environmental impacts of each method and to take part in a dialogue on how international reproductive health issues affect us all.
Whether you're looking for your first birth control method or want to know more about your current contraceptive choice, In Our Control offers the cutting edge information and practical wisdom you’ll need to make empowered decisions about your sexual health.
- GenresNonfictionFeminism
369 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 9, 2020
"To be informed consumers, to truly exercise our freedom of choice, we must trust ourselves. And to build that trust, we must understand how our birth control works in and on our bodies; research the available contraceptive options independently of advertisements and doctor's visits; and take into account the complicated, sometimes disturbing, history of how birth control came to exist as it does today."
Last year I read several books on the history of birth control. This book focuses more on the different contraceptive options that are on the market, how they have been tested, and how they typically affect their consumers. It's not a perfectly in-depth book, but there's so much information to process about the birth control movement that I didn't expect one book to be the end-all, be-all on this topic.
One thing I personally found interesting was that, if birth control pills were moved to being over-the-counter, insurance would no longer cover their purchase. Previously I had wanted them to be over-the-counter to make them more accessible (and help impoverished women avoid costly doctor visits), but realizing that insurance would not help with buying over-the-counter birth control made me rethink that idea.
Last year I read several books on the history of birth control. This book focuses more on the different contraceptive options that are on the market, how they have been tested, and how they typically affect their consumers. It's not a perfectly in-depth book, but there's so much information to process about the birth control movement that I didn't expect one book to be the end-all, be-all on this topic.
One thing I personally found interesting was that, if birth control pills were moved to being over-the-counter, insurance would no longer cover their purchase. Previously I had wanted them to be over-the-counter to make them more accessible (and help impoverished women avoid costly doctor visits), but realizing that insurance would not help with buying over-the-counter birth control made me rethink that idea.
September 11, 2019
I'm very interested in this subject but a lot of parts were boring to me. Kinda dated. I don't like her use of the word "non-white." I know I would hate to be called "non-male.” really hard for me to be motivated to read this book. She also said that being on the pill tricks your body into thinking that you're pregnant which isn't true. Can't say I really recommend.
Read
July 29, 2010IN OUR (BIRTH) CONTROL
Reviewed by Elizabeth Kissling
Laura Eldridge’s new book In Our Control: The Complete Guide to Contraceptive Choices for Women isn’t kidding with that subtitle. The last time I remember reading so much detail about contraceptive options was poring over Our Bodies, Ourselves when I was in my 20s.
Eldridge reviews every method of birth control known to modern woman–and, importantly, some that aren’t widely known. She even briefly reviews the history of contraception in 19th and 20th centuries, reminding us that birth control is not a new invention. People, especially female-bodied people, have struggled to control their fertility from pretty much the first moment humans figured out how it worked.
In Our Control differs from Our Bodies, Ourselves in offering more than just the mechanics of both hormonal and barrier methods: Eldridge provides a history of each method and analysis of the political and cultural contexts of their use in the 21st century U.S.
For example, the chapter about the morning-after pill (also known by either the brand name Plan B or as emergency contraception, EC) discusses the political battle to achieve Federal Drug Administration approval, including Susan Wood’s resignation from the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health over what she believed to be “willful disregard of scientific evidence showing Plan B to be safe.”
Eldridge extensively addresses the relationship between birth control and menstruation, focusing one chapter specifically on the use of hormonal contraception to reduce or eliminate menstrual cycles. She draws upon a wide range of resources to illustrate the cultural attitudes and contexts of menstruation, from stories of the role of birth-control pill co-developer John Rock’s Catholicism in the three-weeks-on/one-week-off dosing of the first pill to a Saturday Night Live parody of advertising schemes for menstrual suppression drugs (with Annuale, you’ll menstruate only once a year, but hold on to your f—ing hat!).
The book also covers environmental impacts of contraception, the politics of HPV vaccinations, ongoing research into a birth control pill for men and natural methods of birth control such as fertility awareness–which Eldridge carefully distinguishes from the much-maligned “rhythm method.” She notes that the method approved by the Catholic church is properly called a calendar-based method and involves estimating when ovulation occurs and avoiding sex during that time. Fertility awareness, however, involves a more complex, systematic attention to physiological markers of female fertility. It requires careful monitoring of waking temperature, vaginal sensation, position of cervix and cervical fluid, as well as dates of menstrual flow and sexual activity. Eldridge cautions that fertility awareness is too complicated to be taught in a short chapter, and that observing and charting one’s cycle must be done “for a significant amount of time before you begin to rely on it for contraception.”
Laura Eldridge learned women’s health writing at the side of the late women’s health advocate and activist Barbara Seaman, and it shows. She contextualizes her work with her own experience and preferences, but provides thorough documentation so that women can more easily make their own decisions. This is women’s health activism at its best. Feminism isn’t just about choices, but about having access to information and resources to make informed, authentic choices–and that is only possible when reliable and comprehensive information is widely available.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Kissling
Laura Eldridge’s new book In Our Control: The Complete Guide to Contraceptive Choices for Women isn’t kidding with that subtitle. The last time I remember reading so much detail about contraceptive options was poring over Our Bodies, Ourselves when I was in my 20s.
Eldridge reviews every method of birth control known to modern woman–and, importantly, some that aren’t widely known. She even briefly reviews the history of contraception in 19th and 20th centuries, reminding us that birth control is not a new invention. People, especially female-bodied people, have struggled to control their fertility from pretty much the first moment humans figured out how it worked.
In Our Control differs from Our Bodies, Ourselves in offering more than just the mechanics of both hormonal and barrier methods: Eldridge provides a history of each method and analysis of the political and cultural contexts of their use in the 21st century U.S.
For example, the chapter about the morning-after pill (also known by either the brand name Plan B or as emergency contraception, EC) discusses the political battle to achieve Federal Drug Administration approval, including Susan Wood’s resignation from the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health over what she believed to be “willful disregard of scientific evidence showing Plan B to be safe.”
Eldridge extensively addresses the relationship between birth control and menstruation, focusing one chapter specifically on the use of hormonal contraception to reduce or eliminate menstrual cycles. She draws upon a wide range of resources to illustrate the cultural attitudes and contexts of menstruation, from stories of the role of birth-control pill co-developer John Rock’s Catholicism in the three-weeks-on/one-week-off dosing of the first pill to a Saturday Night Live parody of advertising schemes for menstrual suppression drugs (with Annuale, you’ll menstruate only once a year, but hold on to your f—ing hat!).
The book also covers environmental impacts of contraception, the politics of HPV vaccinations, ongoing research into a birth control pill for men and natural methods of birth control such as fertility awareness–which Eldridge carefully distinguishes from the much-maligned “rhythm method.” She notes that the method approved by the Catholic church is properly called a calendar-based method and involves estimating when ovulation occurs and avoiding sex during that time. Fertility awareness, however, involves a more complex, systematic attention to physiological markers of female fertility. It requires careful monitoring of waking temperature, vaginal sensation, position of cervix and cervical fluid, as well as dates of menstrual flow and sexual activity. Eldridge cautions that fertility awareness is too complicated to be taught in a short chapter, and that observing and charting one’s cycle must be done “for a significant amount of time before you begin to rely on it for contraception.”
Laura Eldridge learned women’s health writing at the side of the late women’s health advocate and activist Barbara Seaman, and it shows. She contextualizes her work with her own experience and preferences, but provides thorough documentation so that women can more easily make their own decisions. This is women’s health activism at its best. Feminism isn’t just about choices, but about having access to information and resources to make informed, authentic choices–and that is only possible when reliable and comprehensive information is widely available.
April 3, 2015
A decade ago, I had an exploratory laparoscopy and asked my gynecologist if she would complete a tubal ligation as well. She insisted that I wait a few years to think it over. I’ve always known I do not want children. I’ve never heard a biological clock ticking. When I saw a 29-year-old guy interviewed on The Today Show because he had elected to get a vasectomy, I fumed. Are all women supposed to WANT to give birth or expected to desire children? What could possibly be the reason why I was denied tubal ligation at 29 yet a guy could get a vasectomy? Our sexist society.
I am such an adamant safe sex advocate that I carry my own condoms with me. Two years ago, another gynecologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggested that I consider getting an IUD inserted for birth control. I hadn’t heard much about IUDs and now I’m considering getting one. In Our Control: The Complete Guide to Contraceptive Choices for Women by women’s health writer Laura Eldridge provided me with detailed and enlightening information about the IUD that I didn’t know. Eldridge covers the Pill, IUDs, Plan B [the morning after pill], HPV vaccinations and more. Women’s health-- particularly women’s sexuality and contraception-- is rarely addressed to the extent it should be.
Putting women in control of reproduction means addressing these social issues. Building reproductive freedom, including the ability to make contraceptive decisions, means working to give women—not the many cultural forces and people in positions of power around them—the ultimate right to make individual choices about pregnancy.
In Our Control doesn’t read like a scientific article but a wise and thoroughly researched expose on all aspects of contraception. Eldridge writes in a practical, often conversational format which should appeal to readers at all interest levels. This fascinating book presents women with the information they need to consider the appropriate contraception for their bodies. Every woman is different and every form of contraception isn’t the right one for every woman. Eldridge delves into the pros and cons, the history, and some future thoughts and goals of the medical community, the Big Pharmas and government agencies. In Our Control should be kept on one’s bookshelf for reference next to Our Bodies, Ourselves and FLOW.
I am such an adamant safe sex advocate that I carry my own condoms with me. Two years ago, another gynecologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggested that I consider getting an IUD inserted for birth control. I hadn’t heard much about IUDs and now I’m considering getting one. In Our Control: The Complete Guide to Contraceptive Choices for Women by women’s health writer Laura Eldridge provided me with detailed and enlightening information about the IUD that I didn’t know. Eldridge covers the Pill, IUDs, Plan B [the morning after pill], HPV vaccinations and more. Women’s health-- particularly women’s sexuality and contraception-- is rarely addressed to the extent it should be.
Putting women in control of reproduction means addressing these social issues. Building reproductive freedom, including the ability to make contraceptive decisions, means working to give women—not the many cultural forces and people in positions of power around them—the ultimate right to make individual choices about pregnancy.
In Our Control doesn’t read like a scientific article but a wise and thoroughly researched expose on all aspects of contraception. Eldridge writes in a practical, often conversational format which should appeal to readers at all interest levels. This fascinating book presents women with the information they need to consider the appropriate contraception for their bodies. Every woman is different and every form of contraception isn’t the right one for every woman. Eldridge delves into the pros and cons, the history, and some future thoughts and goals of the medical community, the Big Pharmas and government agencies. In Our Control should be kept on one’s bookshelf for reference next to Our Bodies, Ourselves and FLOW.
January 21, 2013
I feel like this book could have been a LITTLE bit more comprehensive, but instead of writing about just Contraceptive Choices (She writes about most of them, but not necessarily in an orderly way) She also writes about other issues connected to contraception. the history of contraception, HPV vaccine, Men's contraception, Environmental stuff, etc.
Pg 67
OCs may change the way your body metabolizes carbohydrates. This can have more serious implications that just excess fat: it makes it more difficult for your body to use sugar and increases insulin resistance…estrogen may increase glucose levels and decrease the body’s response, and progestin can caue the body to produce too much insulin…the pill affects the ability of women to gain muscle …non-OC women gaining more than 60 percent greater muscle mass than their OC counterpart…It is evident that the Pill interacts with weight, fat, muscle, and metabolism, and women deserve better research and more answers before their concerns on this subject are written off by doctors and health care professionals as misperceptions and self-fulfilling prophecies.
Pg 87
Each woman is unique, but unfortunately our contraceptive world treats women as if they are the same. The conversation should not involve arguing that one option is better than another. In fact, that is exactly the problem. What is necessary is that women and health care providers become open to the idea that considering an array of options, and embracing the necessary experimentation to discover which works best for each individual, is the best approach to contraceptive health.
Pg 67
OCs may change the way your body metabolizes carbohydrates. This can have more serious implications that just excess fat: it makes it more difficult for your body to use sugar and increases insulin resistance…estrogen may increase glucose levels and decrease the body’s response, and progestin can caue the body to produce too much insulin…the pill affects the ability of women to gain muscle …non-OC women gaining more than 60 percent greater muscle mass than their OC counterpart…It is evident that the Pill interacts with weight, fat, muscle, and metabolism, and women deserve better research and more answers before their concerns on this subject are written off by doctors and health care professionals as misperceptions and self-fulfilling prophecies.
Pg 87
Each woman is unique, but unfortunately our contraceptive world treats women as if they are the same. The conversation should not involve arguing that one option is better than another. In fact, that is exactly the problem. What is necessary is that women and health care providers become open to the idea that considering an array of options, and embracing the necessary experimentation to discover which works best for each individual, is the best approach to contraceptive health.
June 25, 2010
[Note: Only a few hours after I wrote this Goodreads added the cover art!] It's interesting that Goodreads doesn't display the cover for this book, because that is one of my only complaints with In Our Control. It depicts the flat belly of a white woman (at least that's how it appears), and anyone who knows anything about the feminist blogosphere remembers the debacle another publication with that same cover theme caused. I just hope that the cover doesn't alienate anyone who doesn't have a flat, white, female belly (so that means most people in the world), because I think this book is important for more than a narrow demographic, and after seeing Eldrige talk about this book at Bluestockings, I'm definitely a fan.
If you are someone who has ever agonized over contraception, this book will make you feel more empowered, although not less frustrated, probably, because the limited choices people have when it comes to contraception are one of the reasons Eldridge wrote this book. It is a good starting point for those interested in both the history and recent developments of birth control, so the further reading section is helpful if you want to then move on to a more specialized book. I myself realized how incredibly ignorant I am about about contraception (didn't even realize one leaves a diaphragm in for six hours after sex--it makes sense now, but I had never heard that), so this book was exactly what I needed.
If you are someone who has ever agonized over contraception, this book will make you feel more empowered, although not less frustrated, probably, because the limited choices people have when it comes to contraception are one of the reasons Eldridge wrote this book. It is a good starting point for those interested in both the history and recent developments of birth control, so the further reading section is helpful if you want to then move on to a more specialized book. I myself realized how incredibly ignorant I am about about contraception (didn't even realize one leaves a diaphragm in for six hours after sex--it makes sense now, but I had never heard that), so this book was exactly what I needed.
July 14, 2011
This book is an eye-opener. Just like the author, I assumed the standard option: the pill, was the best there was, without other really viable options. Now I know I was wrong, and I'm switching. Just like the author and many other quoted young women, I only came to realize with time what kind of side effects I've been putting up with. And even though my ob/gyn knew about these problems, she never said: "hey, let's dicuss the pill and your other options". Sure, the book is written for a primarily american public - health care options / funding is different in other countries. But the options aren't, necessarily. I also found the political and historical background interesting, even if it takes away space to maybe say more about the other contraceptive possibilities. But that's where the book recommendations come in.
September 8, 2011
This is a fantastic book, although I think the title is slightly misleading. It talks about the political, pharmaceutical, and social history of the pill; both benefits AND dangers of taking it often not shared with women; other contraceptive options that are often not promoted by doctors since they are not encouraged by pharmaceutical companies; how female reproductive health is used in politics; the role of both genders in reproductive choices (and lack thereof); the history of international policy around family planning. The writer did lots of research, all cited, and worked with Barbara Seaman - a leader in the women's health movement.
July 25, 2012
Every single woman, and every man who has or hopes to have sex with a woman, should read this book. It contains so much critical need-to-know info, it is really well written, and the authour presents everything in a very objective, nonjudgemental way, while still managing to instill her own opinion and add personal stories to the scientific information. Features really interesting chapters on the history of birth control, what's in the pill and how it works on your body, positives and negatives of various other birth control options, the history of menstruation and how it's been perceived/treated in society, controversy and development of birth control pills for men, etc.
December 12, 2013
This was a small book, but what a heavy read! It took me forever to get through the text. I originally thought that this would be more of an overview of contraceptives and maybe information on the reproductive system, but this book focused more on the history and political war regarding the birth control pill.
A lot of messed up stuff happened that the general public doesn't really know about from botched up experiments in the pharmaceutical industry, to population control, pollution... and more! This book covered a lot and a lot of these arguments are still relevant today.
It wasn't a bad read, but I do feel that the title was very misleading.
A lot of messed up stuff happened that the general public doesn't really know about from botched up experiments in the pharmaceutical industry, to population control, pollution... and more! This book covered a lot and a lot of these arguments are still relevant today.
It wasn't a bad read, but I do feel that the title was very misleading.
August 7, 2010
Whether you are looking for some basic advice about contraception or are interested in the politics behind birth control, Laura Eldridge's book "In Our Control" is a comprehensive, thorough look at all of the options available to women and the few available to men.
July 18, 2011
Every lady should read this book. It gave me the information I needed to back-up my decision to stop using the pill. It gives tons of information that ladies should know and most don't. I thought I was going to skip through it to sections relevant to me, but I read the whole thing.
August 11, 2010
B+ An interesting book that is part critique, part history of various forms of birth control.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews