h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Having to mess with your hormones sucks! Why can't they invent like a butterfly net to stick on your ovaries?!

I've heard some really bad press about Depo - Like any contraceptive, it really depends on the individual person, but over here in AU it's strongly advised against, because of the side effects that can happen.

http://www.depo-users.com/index.htm Is a collection of women's experiences with Depo, and information about it - if you can overlook the excruciatingly irritating .midi

http://www.fwhc.org/birth-control/bcdepo.htm is just some general info about Depo.

The thing I find scary about it is that if you have a problem with the depo, because it's a direct injection, it can take up to six months to completely flush from your system.

I myself have the implanon implant. That might not be the best for you, Nyssa, if you're chemically sensitive, but for myself I've found that it's an excellent alternative to the pill and whatnot. Getting into the realms of TMI here, it's not completely stopped my periods, but since getting the implant in early August, I've menstruated perhaps three times, and each time was lighter and shorter than it ever used to be. So I'm really happy with it. The only side effect I seem to be having is an inability to shift gained weight, but that's also probably my lifestyle in itself. It also lasts for three years, so you don't have to go for a shot every three months, or take a pill every day or etcetera.

http://www.studenthealth.co.uk/leaflets/Implanon.htm is one of the few sites I could find that wasn't in German or Danish or whatnot.

Ooooh. Implants. Like you said, there are bad stories connected to practically every form of contraception and here is one for the implants. I know a woman who had them, and one of them broke and released all its hormone at once. She has being having serious medical problems ever since, at least a year now - this is far too scary for me to even consider. I know I get on well with the depo and it suits me - would rather gain a few pounds of weight due to contraception than gain an entire baby due to forgetting to take my pill

I was considering switching back to the pill so that coming off and starting a family might be easier, but I suppose it might be just as difficult to conceive when coming off the pill. There isn't much else is there?

When are those darn scientists going to get around to inventing a male pill...

Would you trust a man to take it? Only if it was once every three months, and you stood over him while he took it (and then kept an eye on him for the next hour, in case he did like the cat, and spat it out behind the radiator!)

But I meant to say:

Nyssa - have I understood from the preschoolers thread that your kids are 10 months apart? In other words that you got pregnant one month after giving birth?

I take my hat off to you for even attempting sex after one month!

But that does imply that you are ***very*** strong and resilient and robust hormonally, and I wonder if that should be taken into consideration.

Trying hormonal birth control in your case might be like trying to dam a very fast flowing stream.

On one hand, you may find that you recover very quickly when you stop using the b/c, but on the other hand, you may be one of these poeple for whom it's not a very successful form of b/c, or that fighting against such a strong flow of hormones *really* screws you up.

They may recommend a stronger dose than normal - with stronger side effects I presume!

Plus, I think if I was you, I'd want to pay a lot of attention to the failure rate of any method, because one 'unprotected' incident may be all you need!

They may recommend a 'belt and braces' approach - using as barrier method or spermicidal cream as well - how complex is that?

(Please tell me that you were bottle feeding - the idea of getting pregnant one month after birth while breastfeeding is just too scary!)

I would definitely trust my boyfriend to take it! When I go through a broody patch I think he is terrified I'll just stop the depo and surprise him

On the other hand, the palaver I went through in getting him to just get his jabs for holiday last year was incredible. I practically had to march him in there and stick him myself! Don't know.

I am in one of those schizophrenic places where I really don't want to be pregnant *now* but want to make sure that when we *do* decide to start a family we don't have too many problems.

Plus I love the no-periods thing. Does it cause any harm to just keep taking your pills continuously? I know you can do it from time to time but can you do it for, say, a whole year?

I know I read somewhere that there is nothing wrong with completely stopping periods completely from a medical point of view, but the pill's inventor wanted to make the cycle as natural as possible so that he could reconcile it with his catholic beliefs, and then the catholic church rejected it as a natural form of contraception anyway...

*googles*

Here we go:

http://report.kff.org/archive/repro/2000/03/kr000317.3.htm

Not quite as I remembered it, but close enough.

I know someone that just has one a year...

yep. One of the many problems I had - thanks for reminding me:

Nyssa - are you taking any other form of medication regularly? other than say occasional painkillers and indigestion medicine?

I had always had migraines, but coped with them. however, they got worse on the Pill so....

...I started taking migraine medication, which they told me was very unlikely to react with the Pill....

...but it did...

...it brought back my long dormant childhood asthma, much worse than it had ever been...

...so I had been perfectly healthy, no prescriptions and within two years of going on the Pill I was taking four types of medication *every day* and not feeling very brill. I could *feel* they were reacting to each other, and even with medication, the migraines were excruitiating - during the week Iwas off the Pill...

..so they told me to take the Pill all the time, for six months at a time, and come off in a week "when it was OK to have a migraine" (yeah right)...

...which made me feel soooo sh*tty - and lke I had ants crawling all over me - that I stopped the lot. All the medications, the Pill, everything.

I had to start the asthma stuff again, but that's all I;ve done, and feel a heeluva a lot better.

Kelli - If you're on the Pill, then however you take it, 2 years is a perfectly commonlength of time to regain full fertility. Of course you may have hormonal 'blips'

oops - hit the post button by mistake! To continue posting 28:

hormonal 'blips' during that two years, when you might get preggers, but only if the timing was exactly right! I had three periods in 24 months, each right out of the blue (and one started in the Vatican - how ironic is that?)

I like being as "in tune" with my body's natural rhythym and cycles as possible. Tis a long time since I was on the pill, and while it was OK ish, I prefer not being on it.

After having kids I used cap ( oh dearie me what fun that was) and IUD (pretty fine experience with that, it has to be said).

Not currently in a relationship therefore gonna be using condoms anyway.....on those rare occasions

Annual check-ups: grin and bear'em. I learned some self-hypnosis techniques during pregnancy, and while I never actually got the chance to use them during childbirth, they are damned useful for smear, dentist, other forms of torture.

I'm not a specialist, but I do know that my ex-wife took the pill and still had her periods, regularly, once a month as per usual We have two children, both of them conceived in the month following her stopping the pill, and I do know that some of our friends had the same thing, apparently you're *more* fertile in this period, and if it doesn't work straight away, then yes it takes a bit longer...

i think i've tried just about everything:

depo made me put on about 40lbs (3st in old money) and i've never really been able to shift it. it only took me a month after coming off it to have a normal period, so it affects everyone differently.

condoms

i was on the pill for about 10 years, but, when i reached that age (over 30) i decided to come off because i reckoned my fertility is, perhaps, on the wane, as it were, i didn't fancy helping it along anymore - i might want kids one day, just no the noo, plus i having terrible migraines on them and because i'd had an ectopic pregnancy the doctors wouldn't let me have any more pills.

i got an IUD fitted about year ago, and i've not had any problems at all with it. like lucky-star i like to feel my body's rhythm. i get the best of both worlds, i've got contraceptive protection from pregnancy and i get to know what my body's doing. and i don't have to worry about contraception for 5 or 6 YEARS!!!

this conversation reminds me ... must book that smear test

So how many of us are due to have a smear test (and are doing everything possible to avoid it)?

*raises hand*

A quick word of warning Nyssa the copper coil is more likely to make your periods heavier and longer than normal.

I suffered the copper coil for 2 years before they figured out why I was so anemic!!!

I now have a coil called the 'Mirena', it's quite expensive but it is fantastic as far as I'm concerned. I no longer have bloating, PMS tender boobs etc and I am one of the lucky few that don't get a period at all. Fertility returns to normal almost immediately once removed and it makes most womens periods lighter and can stay in for up to 5 years, I have not noticed any rash hormonal changes due to the lower dosage of hormone than the depo,and more importantly I don't forget to take it!!

Definately talk to your Doctor/Family planning advisor, they know your medical history and should be able to point you in the right direction. Every woman is different so don't worry if what suits another doesn't suit you!

*also raises hand*

Actually am wondering if it the smear that you are talking about having anually? In the uk, nobody (officially) rummages around my bits that often - I think you are supposed to get smears done every 3-5 years.

*raises hand* even though I had that one 6 moths ago.

I had one 6 or so months ago that they messed up too

You would think it would be more efficient for the NHS to actually develope a way of doing a smear without the huge chance of mucking it up.

Apparantly it's very unlikely they will be able to get a decent cell sample from me because of the way the pill has effected my bits - makes them much more prone to bleed as soon as someone starts poking around down there.

always difficult to know what to say on these threads..but here go's,

if you've had all the kids that you want get the oldman to have the snip.

i've three kids myself & had it done 6 yrs ago,i did it for my wife as the pill she was taking made it nigh on impossible to breath in the right way when her period was due.

since then lifes been great...& nothing changes if you know what i mean....

I tried coming off the pill and my peiods got longer and longer until they were 3 weeks long and I had really bad stomach pain. No doctor took it seriously and said it would get back to normal eventually. I couldn't deal with it, so tried depo, and no more periods.

I think it made me put on weight, I get a bit moody just before having the jab, but generally its fine. My libido increased, it wasn't there at all on the pill.

However I do believe hormones at this level could really affect your health in the future, I think its better to go natural if you can. I couldn't retyurn to 3 week long periods though.

Has anyone else given up the pill and had a reaction like that? How long did it last?

Never heard that about the Pill - would it have been possible to lessen the dose, I wonder, and come off gradually?

One of the things that *really* worries me is the rather careless way that some health professionals treat this stuff, when it can f**k you up more than almost any other type of medication. Each one of use has described different periods, we're probably all a good range of sizes and ages, yet the doses for these things are hardly varied, compared to tother medications (so i understand - I'm no expert!)

If you'd asked me 15 years ago about 'feeling my body's rhythm' I'd have laughed at ou, and jumped at a chance of getting rid of periods forever. now I feel very different. I've tried taking them away and it *just*doesn't*feel*right* Hard to explain if you've never been there. We were meant to have periods - as a rule they're a good thing, a sign that our body is doing its business and working correctly, flushing things away and cleaning things out yes they can get unbalanced, and ow, they can hurt, but I'd rather have a few sore days each month than weeks of that creepity feeling I had on the Pill...

...and I feel very smug, because I had a smear just before Christmas I always have to tell myself how *lucky* I am to havethat chance - how there are millions of women in the world who will never know until it's too late if they are ill, how my great/great etc grandmothers would have lived to see their children grow up if they'd had access to these tests. It's a sin not to use them....