Here are five ways birth control can actually be sexy.
1. You can choose a birth control method that allows for spontaneity
An easy way to use birth control and keep the passion alive at the same time is to pick a type that allows for spontaneity — like the pill, an IUD or a patch. "Birth control pills are sexy because they mean you can have sex any time without worrying about pregnancy," says Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D., a psychotherapist known as "Dr. Romance" and the author of Money, Sex and Kids: Stop Fighting about the Three Things That Can Ruin Your Marriage.
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2. You can incorporate it into sex
Why not make using birth control part of the action in bed and actually incorporate it into foreplay and sex? "Anything can be sexy if you look at it that way," says Tessina. "Make using condoms fun by integrating it into sex. She can put the condom on him in a playful way."
3. It can become part of an elaborate fantasy
You can also make birth control the focus of a fantasy you and your guy dream up together, which can go a long way in turning it into a sexy part of being intimate.
"Couples can fantasize about having power over the birth control device, which is usually a very erotic experience," suggests Jeanette Raymond, Ph.D., a licensed couples therapist and the author of Now You Want Me, Now You Don't!. "[It could be about] the penis piercing a diaphragm, the condom getting torn and the pill having to do double duty — stuff like that."
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4. It can be used in role play
If you want to get even more daring, you could try a little role-playing game with birth control. Take turns pretending to be doctor and patient or pharmacist and customer — or couple buying birth control in the drugstore and getting so excited that they tear each other's clothes off right then and there. No matter who you choose to be, the scene turns very steamy very quickly. See how sex-kittenish birth control can be? Your bedroom romp "becomes 'play' and that's great for sex," Raymond explains. Meow.
5. You can pretend it isn't there
If risk-taking turns you and your guy on, this one is for you. You could pretend you're having unprotected sex to bring out those fantasies of the forbidden that can be such a thrill in the bedroom. In reality, you are using birth control — you're just imagining that you're being "bad" by ditching it. After all, what's more exciting than throwing caution to the wind and living on the edge? You daredevil, you.