Forget teen pregnancy, folks. Now that we’ve exploded the myth of the “epidemic” of teen pregnancy, let’s move on to the over-40 crowd. Women in their forties have a higher rate of unintended pregnancy than women in their thirties, whether married or single. Women in their forties also have higher rates of STIs including HPV, according to this month’s Ladies Home Journal story, “The Grown Up’s Guide to Birth Control”:

“Many perimenopausal women think they can’t conceive,” says ob-gyn Andrew M. Kaunitz, MD, of the University of Florida College of Medicine, in Jacksonville. “That’s not true.” And even if you’re not done having kids, you may not be using the best birth-control method for you. Unless you have a medical issue, the smartest way to choose contraception is by considering where you are in life right now.

For those of us over 40, the Ladies Home Journal rocks the birth control method information by laying down our options (though the title is just a tad bit demeaning to women under 40, no?). The article provides information on: contraceptive choices for single women on the dating scene, to mamas who have just had kids and need some postpartum options, to married women (like myself) who are done with childbearing (DONE…oh, sorry) and need reliable birth control, to perimenopausal women and beyond. The piece also offers brief information on what forms of birth control you might want to avoid at different stages of your over-40 life. The Today Show covered the article as well:

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