Contraception is the bane of many a womanÂ’s life, although we have come along way from earlier centuries when everything from tar (to block the upper cervix) and lime juice were the only options it is still fraught with difficulty from health worries to unwanted pregnancy

For women in long –term relationships where they are completely assured about their partners sexual health (and this may include regular HIV testing)), who may be worried about the affects of the pill but don’t want to use condoms what is the choice?Persona is high tech upgrade on the complicated rhythm method. Persona works on the principle that for most days in the month you do not need contraception and by monitoring hormone levels Persona can tell you when these days occur.It’s not cheap but it is affective, as long as you understand that it has a 94% effectiveness rate. This means out of 100 women who use persona, as the only method of contraception, for one year 6 will get pregnant. Put it another way that means 1 in 17 women may get pregnant. Its makers, Unipath, initially marketed persona, as being as reliable as condoms. Although no longer used in promotional literature, Unipath stand by this claim. However, good quality condoms, used properly and consistently, report as giving less than 6% (and as low as 2%) pregnancy rates in the year of use.How it worksPersona is a small white hand held monitor which reads test sticks. The disposable test sticks use collect hormones from your urine at the beginning of the day. The monitor reads the sticks, learns about your monthly cycle and gives you advice for each day. Green days are days when no contraception is needed while red days require contraception. It is relatively simple if you read the instructions a few times and before your period, this may seem like telling you grandmother to suck eggs but the first time I used it I put the test stick in the monitor the wrong way round and couldn’t understand why it didn’t work. In the first month you will need to test 16 times so the monitor can build up a picture of your cycle. You test the first day after you cycle begins and can programme a window for testing which gives you a four hour period in which to test. For example if you programmed the monitor at 10 am this means you can test (using your first pee of the day) anytime from 8 am to 12 p.m.After your first cycle you will only need to test on 8 days every month and, apart from that, all you have remember is to press a button every month and check the monitor every time you plan to have sex. DrawbacksPersona is not cheap. The monitor and first testing kit costs about £64.95 and thereafter it costs about 9.95 a month for the test sticks.It cannot be used by people with unruly cycles or cycles that do not fall into the 23 – 35 day range, although it makes allowances for this happening occasionally.Persona is not suitable for couple who would find find an unplanned pregnancy completely unacceptable.Nor can it be used by women who are breast feeding, taking HRT, infertility treatment or using the pill (you will need to come off it first) and certain medications can effect the way persona works. As such it is advisable to speak to your pharmacist, Doctor or the persona careline before shelling out what is a considerable sum of money.AdvantagesIf, like me you are a women in her thirties, in a long term relationship, and can deal with the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy then persona is a relatively simple method which doesn't interfere with your body. Although its not 100% effective the risk is low enough for myself and my partner to be comfortable with.Visit the unipath website for more information.