Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Barrier methods of birth control: Pros and cons
By Mayo Clinic staffBarrier methods offer both advantages and disadvantages. To help you decide if they're right for you, keep the following points in mind:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| They're reversible and easy to discontinue if you decide you want to become pregnant. | They require advance planning. |
| Condoms are proved to protect against STDs, including HIV. | Condoms may decrease sensation during sex. |
| Several of the methods, including the condom and spermicide, are inexpensive and available without a prescription. | The cervical cap and diaphragm may be difficult for some women to insert properly, leading to higher failure rates. And both are available only by prescription. |
