[castalia]

Any other woman here not taking the birth control pill due to its potential to cause complications? If not, do you use other methods of birth control instead of the pill? I am in my late 20s and have never taken it nor do I plan to take it in the future.

[Silverity]

My friend doesn't use it because of the cancer risks (she doesn't plan to have children so she is already at higher risk of some cancers), she uses condoms instead.

[mieu]

My sister had blood clots with the pill (ortho tricyclen, which is the staple 'starter' up here) and switched to another without complications. Like any hormone medication, there's danger, but thankfully there's a huge variety if you come across a complication that might be formulary-related. She used condoms while she was trying other types.

[Kricket]

I'm not on the pill, but I still use hormonal birth control (nuvaring) which can cause clots. My risk factor is fairly low to start with so I feel okay with it.

[mieu]

	Originally Posted by Kricket To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I'm not on the pill, but I still use hormonal birth control (nuvaring) which can cause clots. My risk factor is fairly low to start with so I feel okay with it.

+1

I loved Nuvaring and was quite upset when my insurance company decided to stop covering it :[

[Kricket]

	Originally Posted by mieu To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	+1 I loved Nuvaring and was quite upset when my insurance company decided to stop covering it :[

It's still pretty expensive even though my insurance covers a portion, $30/mo compared to the $5/mo I was paying for ortho tricyclen, but I am willing to pay it in order to avoid missed pills and wild rage fits. Man the pill messed me up.

[Pingo]

I have been on several different kinds of birth control pills and have had terrible experiences on almost every kind I've tried. I went off of the pill a year ago and I will never go back on again.

The pill caused me to have a number of negative side effects, which included:

-complete loss of sex drive (this is not even a listed side effect but I know I am not the only one who has experienced this. My sex drive returned full force within a month or so of getting off the pill)

-It turned me into an emotional train wreck (I was pretty much a monster, I would have mood swings and get angry very easily. This, too, went away after I stopped taking it.)

-Depression (this also completely went away after discontinuing the pill)

-nausea/diarrhea (diarrhea was pretty much constant)

-Acne (although the pill can help some people get rid of acne, for me it made it worse).

-painful intercourse (due to inability to self lubricate...probably related to loss of sex drive, also hormonal changes can cause skin around vagina to become irritated).

I realize that side effects vary from person to person, and there are some women who can take the pill no problem at all with very few side effects. I would not recommend the pill to anyone after my experience with it. Now I rely on condoms, which I find are working okay for me.

[altoid]

Originally Posted by Pingo To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

The pill caused me to have a number of negative side effects, which included: -complete loss of sex drive (this is not even a listed side effect but I know I am not the only one who has experienced this. My sex drive returned full force within a month or so of getting off the pill) -It turned me into an emotional train wreck (I was pretty much a monster, I would have mood swings and get angry very easily. This, too, went away after I stopped taking it.) -nausea/diarrhea (diarrhea was pretty much constant)

I was on ortho-tri cyclen lo for a while and had these same problems, along with wicked migraines (insane pain coupled with weird visual disturbances) and weight loss (most people report weight gain but I lost 20 pounds, and was on the low end of a healthy weight range to begin with). It killed my sex drive too (which I suppose is good at preventing pregnancy, so the pill worked in that regard), and I also had the emotional crying-ball-of-rage problems (which is another way it prevented pregnancy). It took several months after getting off the pill before I really felt like myself again. Like others have said, everyone is going to respond differently to hormonal contraceptives, but they're not for me.

[Harmony]

I've been on various different birth control methods... Ortho-Tri-Cyclen didn't work for me. It wreaked havok on my cycle. Seasonale was probably my preferred BC pill up until now. I did the patch for awhile, but it irritated my skin. I can't say I really had any side effects with any of my birth control. I'm currently using Mirena. I was hesitant, but my doctor reassured me that the really bad side effects of it are rare.

[FruitLoop]

Any of the Women I have been around had fairly severe negative effects from oral contraception.

There is now a reversible vasectomy, so men should be using that - it's a far better idea that trying to dick with Womens bits, because they'll bite back, like most other womens parts.
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[Fecal McAngry]

Not female, but IUDs are highly underrated.

[Noelle]

I personally don't take any because I am worried about the side effects. However, I am in the researching phase because I have to do something about this anemia. I've been supplementing myself a lot, and I'm worried it's not working as well as I want it to. I currently use condoms.

I had decided on an IUD, but the doctor was hesitant to give it to me because I've never had children. (And never really want to.) I'm still researching all options.

[Amphorian]

I tried the patch and two types of pills because of endometriosis.

Patch:

-Rash

Yazmin

-Period came every two weeks

Yaz (lower dose of Yazmin)

-Blood clots
-Migraines
-Loss of sex drive
-Fatigue

I wasn't using the pills for birth control. So my period over time also got messed up with Yaz, because I was taking it every day for three months, then going off of it to have my period. And because it gave me fatigue my daily ritual of taking the pills would get messed up, and I would end up taking pills at different times of the day, or accidentally skipping a day fairly often. Which later on would make me have no period at all for up to four or five months.

Later on I read up more on Yaz and the side effects. Apparently there was more side effects that have been noted but were not printed on the sheet you get with the pills. Some women randomly died from taking Yaz. So really do your research before taking any pills.

[Storm]

Never had a problem with any hormonal treatment past the first month of adjustment. Nothing besides copper IUDs or surgery work as well as hormonal treatments.

[s4nder]

I don't get why people would use contraception that messes with their hormones and causes various health problems when condoms are readily available. Do you fuck so much you can't afford condoms?

[mieu]

	Originally Posted by s4nder To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I don't get why people would use contraception that messes with their hormones and causes various health problems when condoms are readily available. Do you fuck so much you can't afford condoms?

The people who use it are those for whom it doesn't "mess with their hormones" in a significant way nor "cause various health problems."

[plotthickens]

	Originally Posted by Noelle Winters To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I had decided on an IUD, but the doctor was hesitant to give it to me because I've never had children. (And never really want to.) I'm still researching all options.

	Originally Posted by Storm To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Never had a problem with any hormonal treatment past the first month of adjustment. Nothing besides copper IUDs or surgery work as well as hormonal treatments.

I HIGHLY reccommend sterilization. Sex on contraception was worrisome. Now it's not. That alone makes it sooo much better! Next to surgical sterilization, today's IUDs are great. They're what OBGYNs get themselves: they have near-infallible failure rates. If I weren't sterilized, I'd go IUD.

	Originally Posted by s4nder To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I don't get why people would use contraception that messes with their hormones and causes various health problems when condoms are readily available. Do you fuck so much you can't afford condoms?

I would double or triple up on protection. Can't speak for others, but getting pregnant was a major fear for me. Condoms fail in practice something like 15% of the time, so if you have sex 76+ times, statistics-wise you're in deep water. Better to have multiple fallbacks.

The pill SUCKED. I lost friggin' hair! Argh.

[Storm]

	Originally Posted by plotthickens To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I HIGHLY reccommend sterilization. Sex on contraception was worrisome. Now it's not. That alone makes it sooo much better! Next to surgical sterilization, today's IUDs are great. They're what OBGYNs get themselves: they have near-infallible failure rates. If I weren't sterilized, I'd go IUD.

I've been nervous about IUDs because I hear they have a fair chance of causing permanent sterilization, something I don't want at this time in my life. Although perhaps it has improved.

	Originally Posted by s4nder To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I don't get why people would use contraception that messes with their hormones and causes various health problems when condoms are readily available. Do you fuck so much you can't afford condoms?

	I would double or triple up on protection. Can't speak for others, but getting pregnant was a major fear for me. Condoms fail in practice something like 15% of the time, so if you have sex 76+ times, statistics-wise you're in deep water. Better to have multiple fallbacks.

Plotty is right in that condoms have a typical failure rate of 15%, but it's 15% over a year of use, not one time. If it was 15% failure rate each time, then using condoms would be more risky than not using anything (80% of women using no contraception get pregnant in a year, which works out to a 12.5% chance of getting pregnant within a month). Obviously 15% chance is a much better number than an 80% chance, and if you only have sex occasionally or your also concerned about STDs, then condoms are a great choice (1.4% of getting pregnant if you're only having sex for a month). But if you're having sex regularly, that 15% suddenly seems pretty risky. To get this out of pure theory, imagine that once a year you are given a die. You can choose the condom die which has 20 sides, 3 of which are "Pregnant" sides. Or you can choose the pill die which has 20 sides, only one of which is a "Pregnant" side. Which dice would you rather roll? Better yet, you could choose to roll them both, and then both sides have to show up "Pregnant" for you to be pregnant. Of course, there's also the IUD die which has 100 sides, and only 1 side of which is "Pregnant."

[Silverity]

	Originally Posted by plotthickens To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I would double or triple up on protection. Can't speak for others, but getting pregnant was a major fear for me. Condoms fail in practice something like 15% of the time, so if you have sex 76+ times, statistics-wise you're in deep water. Better to have multiple fallbacks.

Oh good, I'm not the only one ^^;

I get SO anxious when I only use a condom that there is 0 enjoyment in it for me. I've been curious about IUDs but I'm allergic to metal so I don't think the copper one is an option for me, and since the other is hormonal I just haven't bothered because I'm already taking a hormonal contraceptive. I'm pretty lucky though, no issues with the pill at all.

[gestalt]

The best form of birth control may actually for men.

Inject a gel polymer into the vas deferens that electromagnetically tears apart sperm material as sperm get shot by. That's the way to go:
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. Still in trials though.

[plotthickens]

Thank you, Silverity, Storm, it's good to know I wasn't the only one.

Storm, IUDs have gotten so very very good lately that they are the most commonly-used contraceptives by OBGYNs. Way, way better than the old styles. Worth looking into!

Your die was good (though perhaps underestimated?), and here's a chart to go with:


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Dude, RISUG is still in trials.

[SacrificialLove]

When I was a teen, I was totally creeped out by the idea of introducing artificial (or natural, for that matter) hormones/substances/drugs/whatever into my perfectly healthy body, as a way to avoid pregnancy, LOL. It just wasn't my cup of tea. When I was about 20 years old, I discovered Fertility Awareness (sans condoms)/Natural Family Planning, which is what I currently use as birth control, when needed.

If you're interested, I'll post some links.
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[DrAwkward]

I can't imagine what older birth control pills were like since they were on average 3x stronger(with more estrogen) than they are now because even ultra low dose really messed with my head.

I think a lot of women who take the pill don't realize that some of the emotional issues they're having are due to the pill at all.

And so many take it. I would never go back on it but I had a bad physical reaction anyway. No blood clot but legs were swelling up too much, the doc said I was reacting like someone who was over 35 and a smoker would, I was 23 and a non smoker.

[Storm]

Originally Posted by SacrificialLove To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

When I was a teen, I was totally creeped out by the idea of introducing artificial (or natural, for that matter) hormones/substances/drugs/whatever into my perfectly healthy body, as a way to avoid pregnancy, LOL. It just wasn't my cup of tea. When I was about 20 years old, I discovered Fertility Awareness (sans condoms)/Natural Family Planning, which is what I currently use as birth control, when needed. If you're interested, I'll post some links. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

25% typical-use* failure rate, and you can't have sex for half the month:


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If you don't mind not having sex for that amount of time, and getting pregnant isn't a big deal to you, then it's probably a good option. Probably not a good option for someone who absolutely does not want to get pregnant and doesn't want to have to abstain for 2 weeks out of the month.

*Always use typical use, we are not goddesses.

[DrAwkward]

Originally Posted by Storm To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

25% typical-use* failure rate, and you can't have sex for half the month: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. If you don't mind not having sex for that amount of time, and getting pregnant isn't a big deal to you, then it's probably a good option. Probably not a good option for someone who absolutely does not want to get pregnant and doesn't want to have to abstain for 2 weeks out of the month. *Always use typical use, we are not goddesses.

I was way too scared to try anything like this, I can't say I completely regret taking the pill for the time period that I did because I know if I had relied on anything else I might have a little one running around right now.

I am so, so, so glad I made it past early adulthood without that happening.