Trouble in Paradise
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Tell me about your birth control
My body is being weird. After my period I have no cramps for a week, then really uncomfortable ovulation cramps that last 10 days, then a few days of moodiness, and then my period with baaad cramps added to that, too.
Short cycles that consist of mostly cramping. No bueno.
I'm looking into low-hormone bc, but I've been out of the game for quite awhile and am nervous to put hormones in my system again. What do you use? What hasn't worked for you?
Might consider an IUD, maybe.
Look with your special eyes.
Re: Tell me about your birth control
I have a Mirena IUD. I used to get really heavy periods that lasted about 10 days with only about 15 days of non bleeding days inbetween. I rarely get any PMS symptoms and only cramping and spotting for a day or two.
BCPs and the Nuva Ring made me feel crazy and the Mirena has not.
The two lowest hormone pills, Aviane/Alesse and Lo-Loestrin, didn't do so well for me. I mean, I didn't get pregnant, but at least half of that was probably because I never wanted to have sex and was all bummed about the wonky skin and weight gain. And the Lo-Loestrin, which is the lower of the two, made me feel hung over every damn day.
Do you really want to hear about my Mirena again?
Seriously though, I mentioned in a post last week that pills always did horrible things to me. So I switched to Mirena because of the lower level of hormones. It's been fantastic. I don't get my period at all any more.
When I first got it in it was kind of how I imagine being racked while someone slowly stabbed you with a hot poker would be. But, that goes away in a few hours and then it's totally worth it. Apparently that doesn't happen for women who have given birth... obviously I had not and had a reckoning.
The only issue with mine so far is that H can feel the string, and it pokes him. After last time he had a horrible raw, irritated spot so I have an appointment on Thursday to see if she can clip them farther. Hopefully that works. I might cry if I have to give my IUD up.
Also, paragard is an IUD without hormones. I didn't get it because my OB-GYN said that she's seen it cause really bad cramping and heavy periods in a lot of people. Local hormones for no periods seemed like a fair trade off.
I used to be on the NuvaRing which I loved. I didn't really have any major side effects from it and it was really easy to use. A lot easier than remembering a damn pill every day that I can't take in the morning because of my thyroid medicine.
Now I'm pregnant and it's a great birth control. I haven't had a period in like 6 months and haven't gotten a bfp since September. However, I hear it doesn't yield the results you're going for.
I had no idea that you weren't supposed to take them at the same time. When I was on the pill I always took it the same time as my thyroid meds.
Both of these were true for me too. I had a pretty rough time with the insertion (to quote my doctor "we've got a bleeder!") and I thought H might faint. But after a few days the swelling went down and then it got better.
H also felt the strings on mine and poor guy had similar issues to fein's hubs, but when I went back for the one month followup, I had her cut the strings shorter and that solved the problem.
All that said, I ADORE the Mirena and would definitely do it again. It's sooo worth it not to have to worry about anything.
I remember this. lol. Is he a biggun, or is the string really that invasive?
I did depo for years. Lots of people HATE it. Ilovedit. but there's a 'life time limit" to how long you can be on it.
No side effects
I now do the mirena IUD.
Good, occasionally a little 'pokey'
No cycle w/ either of these. Depo took a while to regain fertility after.
(by 'pokey', I mean we have the string problem too
I am currently on Mirena. After a few months, my body got used to it (bled every day, though lightly, for 2 months). Now Im having regular cycles. My OBGYN told me that she expects them to stop after awhile.
I was on the BC pill for a a few years. Messed with my moods, and then my bipolar meds interefered with it and I have DS.
Before that I was on Depo. Dear god, never again. Gained 30lbs in 6 months despite eating right and exercising regularly. And sex was painful, as in "dont come near me or I'll scream" pain.
And before that was progestone only pills. I was on them for 6 months and my cycles were all over the place. They never regulated.
Haha, don't tell him this, but I think it might be more on my side. The gyno said something along the lines of me being "more forward" than she'd expect from someone without kids. I have no idea what that means, but I assume it's a factor.
I tell him it's because of him though.
I am on Yaz or I am a raging cvunt for 16 days and then a weepy headcase for 10 and then THE CRAMPS.
Yeah that's right my name's Yauch!
Condoms. They're kinda meh, but work for the time being.
H volunteered to get a vasectomy, but he needs to get his schnoz fixed first. He has a severely deviated septum (the one nostril is too narrow for the ENT dr to get the miniscule camera up there), so that comes first.
When that's all healed up and he can actually breathe again, he gets his schit snipped. It's going to be a rough year for H.
All this to say, I'm allergic to hormonal BC so that takes me out of the running for just about everything except the copper IUD thingy. I'm also prone to getting infections, so I've been taken out of the running for the non-hormonal IUD too.
Condoms it is.
http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
Right. That's clearly a good method.
::points to dpeugh's ticker::
Condoms. Eh, they're okay for now. I was on the pill before and I hated it.
DAMN it! It's not mine...
On a totally TMI note, if you're prone to infections, do you get UTIs often? When I wasn't on the pill I got UTIs monthly like clock work. And no, I'm not dirty. Once we realized this was happening we were even more religious than usual about showering before doing anything and I was sure to pee before and after. All to no prevail. Painful UTI on the reg.
I'm clearly broken!
Looks like I'd pay for mirena entirely out of pocket, and 40/month for the ring.
hmm.
I don't get UTI's often, no. So that's good. Maybe once every few years.
Kuus, what do you use if bc pills make you blah?
Sorry, I wasn't clear.
I haven't had a UTI since Mirena either. I was getting them all the time on condoms.
No UTIs. I haven't had one of those since I was a teenager.
I'm not a dirty sluut or anything, but I seem to get more yeast infections than I should. I haven't had one in about 5 years or so, but considering that I used to get them at least every few months, no one wants to rock the boat. I'm ok with that. Those things suck.
http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
I've only been off of the pill for two months, so I'm trying to take charge of my fertility, so to speak. When I feel like it's under control, we plan to use condoms and additional spermicide when we think I'm not fertile, and just do other stuff if we think I am.
We're really nervous about this, I have to say. More than likely Mr. Kuus is going to get snipped in the relatively near future.
Mirena IUD. Love it. Insertion was a b, but not much worse than really bad cramps. I've had it for 4 years, and have one more year to go. DH was going to get a vasectomy once I'm done with this, but I haven't been getting a period so I think I'll probably get another and let DH keep himself intact.