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Home > Augmentation > Contraceptive Jewelry: Family Planning Gets Fashionable with Discreet Designs

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Home›Augmentation›Contraceptive Jewelry: Family Planning Gets Fashionable with Discreet Designs

Contraceptive Jewelry: Family Planning Gets Fashionable with Discreet Designs

By M. Christian
July 1, 2019
1689
0

Birth control never looked so good.

Contraceptive Jewelry

Way back in 1896, architect Louis Sullivan expressed the idea that what something does should be the driving force in what it looks like.

The thing, though, about “form follows function” is that sometimes the function—whether it be architecture, engineering, or anything else—forgets that the function has to involve the wonderfully messy, if not completely eccentric, nature of human beings.

Jewelry as birth control

But Mark Prausnitz and his fellow researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology found a way to combine the function of birth control with an effective form—while making the solution absolutely lovely and stylish.

In a press release, Prausnitz explained why they specifically chose to provide doses of contraceptive hormones via jewelry pieces:

“Because putting on jewelry may already be part of a woman's daily routine, this technique may facilitate compliance with the drug regimen. The more contraceptive options that are available, the more likely it is that the needs of individual women can be met.”

Made up of a series of layers—one that adheres to the specially designed jewelry, a second that’s attached to the wearer’s skin, and a third that carries the medication—the design takes the idea of birth control patches and combines it with an aesthetically pleasing delivery system.

Focus on earrings

Vertical Earring

While other forms of jewelry were considered, Prausnitz, working with Laura O'Farrell and Mohammad Mofidfar, determined that earrings were the best option.

“The advantage of incorporating contraceptive hormone into a universal earring back is that it can be paired with many different earrings,” Prausnitz added.
“A woman could acquire these drug-loaded earring backs and then use them with various earrings she might want to wear.”

Though no human trials have been conducted, the team published a report on its work in the Journal of Controlled Release in March.

The team added that the contraceptive jewelry could especially benefit people who don’t have regular access to long-term birth control.

More importantly, Prausnitz acknowledged that the system is worthless if it's something that people just won’t use.

“We would have to make sure that this contraceptive jewelry concept is something that women would actually want and use.”

Jewelry is for everyone

Contraceptive Earring

While Prausnitz and his team should be acknowledged as developing a unique and possibly very effective way of delivering birth control to people who find taking regular doses difficult or are living in countries where long term options are hard to come by, their focus is remarkably sexist.

The fact is, making slow-release birth control available in attractive packages is something that would benefit everyone—not just Prausnitz’s concept of femininity.

Earrings can, after all, be worn by anyone of every conceivable gender. Besides, playing with their concept doesn’t take a massive amount of imagination to see it being included in rings, wrist bands, anklets, and even body piercings.

It might even be possible to integrate it not just into things we wear on our bodies but into our clothing as well: a bra, for instance, or underwear where medications are delivered through carefully selected points where skin meets fabric.

As technology advances, it might even be possible to embed microelectronics as well as the needed birth control medication to remind the wearer that it’s time to recharge or replenish their dosages.

There’s even the possibility that the same kind of device could be integrated into something like a smartwatch. This supposed gadget would not just monitor the user’s health and sexual activity, but also deliver kinds medications—such as anti-anxiety, hormones, and chemicals for sexual enhancement, as well as birth control dosages—as needed.

Form, function, and people

Contraceptive Earring Patch

While the function of a device should always be included in its form, it’s also true that both are useless if people won’t use them.

Though the team’s work might be limited by narrow views of gender, Prausnitz and other researchers could very well have opened a door to a future where sexual health and birth control could be as easy as putting on an earring, or slipping on a watch—no matter a person’s sex or gender.

Image sources: Georgia Institute of Technology

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.

M.Christian's Books (Sizzler Editions)
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