Contraception: The Poll

rox i asked my doc about this some time ago, and she was really dismissive and not much help but basically said they're a pain because if you lose or gain a few kilos your diaphragm won't fit properly

my insurance covers it so i could just get a new one i think

Okay wummenz, I need some help or support or something. Have made two attempts at IUD insert, both FAIL b/c of nuliparousness and the size of the bottleneck in my uterus. First one was unmedicated and hurt like HELL while she fished around, second one with local anesthetic didn't hurt but couldn't get any instruments in there either.

Only remaining option in this vein is to try a medical dilation next month, the shots again, and if that doesn't work, that's it for me. I am p discouraged and was crying in the doc's office this AM -- have been on the ring for the last month but the estrogen is DESTROYING my normal feelings. Trying a mini-pill for 1 mo while I wait for THIRD IUD ATTEMPT.

Help me feel less bad maybe? WTF BODY

Ask your doc or np for some misoprostol to insert vaginally the night before. It will "soften" your cervix and hopefully make it easier to insert. Also ask for some vicodin and valium to take beforehand.

Yeah, waiting another month for that and tbh I REALLY wish they had done that first? If you know the procedure is problematic, why not schedule it all at once? I can take the day off, take the "MCG" (whatever that is), deal with it...not this three month-long Trail of Discouragement and fucking around with other methods of BC while I wait.

Ugh, this totally sucks for you. I worked in women's health forever so I knew what to ask for, considering I was nulliparous.

My first visit for an IUD insertion was a fail because I learned when I got there my insurance covered medication, but not "devices". So, unless I ponied up $1500, I was SOL.

Took me another 2+ years before I head good enough health insurance coverage to get the IUD.

Oh hell, that's just disgusting. Mine is at least covered by insurance, for which I'm grateful.

I'm going on a mini-pill for the next month, b/c at least if the 3rd try doesn't work, I will have found something potentially less disruptive to my normal chemistry. Any thoughts about Implanon?

aww that sucks Laurel. My gyn does not feel comfortable inserting IUDs in nulliparous women and refered me to a partner in her practice, who did an ultrasound to see if the, er, path was clear. It was, and he was OK doing it, but after further talks with doc I decided to just stay on the pill. Birth control options are still sucktastic imo. Surely we (and by "we" I mean MEN wtf) should have more to choose from by now.

Oh, and this medical office doesn't offer any services on the weekends, so for someone like me with only 2 days of bleeding, if it strikes on a wkend, you can write off THAT month for the insert attempt, too. Makes me so stressed and irritated, it puts me right off the whole reason for using bc in the first place.

Wait - did your doctor say that they will only insert it while you're having your period? Mine was inserted mid cycle and without any misoprostol and it was fine. I suspect that they would want to insert while you're on your period because the os would be more open but that might not be necessary if you take the misoprostol?

Also, do you know how experienced your dr is inserting IUDs? I ask because the rate of expulsion and insertion success is directly proportional to the number of insertions the particular doc has done so it's best to have someone who is really comfortable with the procedure. The NP who inserted mine does over 250 insertions a year.

I'm really sorry that you've had all this trouble and hope it goes better for you the next time around. :/

yeah, really, find an NP.

Who knew getting a diaphragm these days was so difficult? My doctor didn't know how to fit one, so sent me to another one; when I went to fill my prescription, they told me that they weren't made anymore (!) but did discover they were still and had to special order one...
My doc wanted me to stop using the pill as I am close to menopause. What other non-hormonal options (aside from condoms & sponge) are there these days?

Yeah they really don't use diaphragms much anymore. Cervical caps are still available and copper IUDs but that's about it (in addition to the ones you mentioned) in terms of non-hormonal options.

Cervical caps that are marketed as contraception, though?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervical_cap

At first when I read your post I was wondering what else you would use them for but I think maybe you were thinking of diva cup/keeper type things?

boyz r crazy

Yeah I was thinking of the cup.

Cup... cap... cut me some slack here.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/235939

^^newsweek about IUDs losing their stigma w/ 20somethings

c/d: finding used rubbers in your room during spring cleaning that you apparently forgot to throw away

i have a real bad short circuit in my brain that sometimes confuses/mispronounces IUDs as IEDs

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/001-0418082510-ied-cutout01.jpg

yeah, really, find an NP.

If you meant "nurse practitioner", most of the medical staff at my GYN are NPs, and my first insert attempt was done by an NP...the second was done by a doctor but apart from the fact that docs are allowed to use local anesthetic, it was no more successful.

Have been on the mini-pill since then but today, for the first time, I forgot to bring my pack to work, so now I'll be like 6 hours late and it's invalidated for at least 48 hours. I WANT OFF THE MERRY-GO-ROUND NOW PLS.

Great column about how boys know nothing about BC

“I was thinking you were just magical, like a unicorn,” he told her. “I mean, you hope one exists somewhere, but you never think you’ll get to live with one…a cool chick with no period drama that has sex all month long.” He added, “The guys thought I was making it up.”

Guessing he never had sex with his unicorn again.

like for me condoms r all abt not getting the clap, so contraception is really weird to hear abt. the first line in the think i linked to upthread is like "most women spend 30 years trying not to get preggers" which is fucking mad tbh

If guys worried more about contraception (in addition to worrying about the clap) there'd be a lot fewer dazed looking dudes in my waiting room...

yeah but i am a homo tho and not really anticipating any major changes in the male reproductive system soon.

evolution happens everyday!

Aside from raw sexism, is there a reason male birth control hasn't made any real advances?

i hope ppl w/ other forms of contraception also use condoms tho yeah?

cos like

women are already conditioned to be the ones who think about it? raw sexism?

xpost

I was wondering if it was a physiological issue - impossible to stop the production of sperm without killing testosterone too or something.

that, too. It's easier to halt the release of one egg v. the production of bazillions of sperm.

so this new pill they're workin on

??? link? I am out of the loop.

a morning after pill for 6 days after. will find link

that's not exactly what i was hoping for :(

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR2010061103522.html

boy that article spends a lot of time telling you why jerks are against it

it also has its head completely up its ass

But the new drug is a close chemical relative of the abortion pill RU-486, raising the possibility that it could also induce abortion by making the womb inhospitable for an embryo.

RU-486 is not an "abortion pill." It prevents implantation. An unimplanted zygote is neither embryo nor fetus; it cannot be aborted.

huh? you can take RU-486 up to like 2 months. definitely post-implantation. anyway the point should obviously be "who cares if it causes abortion or not"

that's true, but I mean: an abortion is a surgical procedure. unless we want to start calling miscarriages "abortions," there is no abortion pill.

Wait what? That doesn't really make sense. Sure there are. Medical abortions are just as much abortions as surgical abortions.

RU-486 is not an "abortion pill." It prevents implantation

As far as I understand it that really depends on how it is used. RU-486 can be used in small doses as emergency and non-emergency contraception. However, it is also used as an abortifacient in medical abortions. When given at higher doses it causes (among other things) the endometrial lining to breakdown at which point an already fertilized and implanted egg will detach. Another drug is then given to start uterine contractions so the women has a medically induced miscarriage.

I'm very pro-choice as you probably know but I don't think you can really say that medical abortions aren't "real" abortions.

yeah i don't have a problem calling what RU-486 causes an abortion