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Perfect use means "the user did not make any mistakes". A woman who gets pregnant after forgetting to take the pill one day is a "typical use" birth control fa

Perfect use means "the user did not make any mistakes". A woman who gets pregnant after forgetting to take the pill one day is a "typical use" birth control failure; a woman who becomes pregnant because her natural hormone levels are such that the birth control pill (consistently taken at the same time every day) doesn't render her infertile is a "perfect use" birth control failure. Similarly, couples who intend to use condoms but occasionally forget (or get carried away etc.) would be "typical use", but a man with a cat-like barbed penis which makes holes in condoms could still qualify as "perfect use".

SilasX 12y ago
That always struck me as strange, to "not using it" as using it. It's like the reverse of the tactic of saying that the fried chicken is healthy if you don't eat the skin.
- cperciva 12y ago
  I believe the medical community refers to this as "patient non-compliance". It's an important factor for doctors to consider; it often makes sense to prescribe a "worse" medication if the "more effective" medicine has side effects which often cause patients to stop early or to skip or forget doses. New formulations of drugs are often advertised to doctors as being just as effective as previous versions but with "improved patient compliance" due to easier dosing schedules (e.g., daily instead of every 8 hours) or fewer side effects.
mjevans 12y ago
In response to the question of 'typical use', I think that it also depends on the context of birth control. There are types of birth control which are somewhat passive; they are renewed at a pre-defined interval which is not related to intercourse. Therefore, considering other types which are only necessary to be applied during the window of intercourse, 'normal use' might reasonably include times where that was the /plan/ but for which the users 'forgot'.
baddox 12y ago
There's a comment worth reading all the way to the end.
- cperciva 12y ago
  I like to think that all of my comments are worth reading to the end!
  - baddox 12y ago
    I'll skip right to the end from now on, to know what I'll be getting myself into.

SilasX 12y ago

That always struck me as strange, to "not using it" as using it. It's like the reverse of the tactic of saying that the fried chicken is healthy if you don't eat the skin.

cperciva 12y ago
I believe the medical community refers to this as "patient non-compliance". It's an important factor for doctors to consider; it often makes sense to prescribe a "worse" medication if the "more effective" medicine has side effects which often cause patients to stop early or to skip or forget doses. New formulations of drugs are often advertised to doctors as being just as effective as previous versions but with "improved patient compliance" due to easier dosing schedules (e.g., daily instead of every 8 hours) or fewer side effects.

mjevans 12y ago

In response to the question of 'typical use', I think that it also depends on the context of birth control. There are types of birth control which are somewhat passive; they are renewed at a pre-defined interval which is not related to intercourse. Therefore, considering other types which are only necessary to be applied during the window of intercourse, 'normal use' might reasonably include times where that was the /plan/ but for which the users 'forgot'.

baddox 12y ago

There's a comment worth reading all the way to the end.

cperciva 12y ago
I like to think that all of my comments are worth reading to the end!
- baddox 12y ago
  I'll skip right to the end from now on, to know what I'll be getting myself into.