Category: Health and Wellness
Two notes before beginning. First, if you have problems discussing menstruation etc. you've been warned. I wanted to give a bit of background so that no one thinks I'm jumping into this and that I haven't considered or tried other options. If you wish to skip it and get to the subject of this writing, just proceed to post 2. Second, I do not at all intend to take any advice given here as medical and will absolutely consult a professional on this. I'm just looking for thoughts and experiences and mostly wish to share my own story and the frustration that it's caused incase other women have similar experiences. I've also included several links throughout the essay for those interested.
As I've previously written, I've decided not to have children. This is something that I have been torn between for years, but even when I was 11 and first started menstruating, I said that I wanted to adopt. As I said in another board, there's nothing like hearing your mother say that out of all the children in the world she chose you. Mine said it to me and it's stayed with me to this day. I couldn't imagine the wonderful feeling that a mother who adopts has inside, knowing that she saved that child. If I ever did wish to become a mom, I would want to give another child that same opportunity of life and save him from misery.
But as it stands, I don't want a child and have never felt the urge to physically have one of my own. I enjoy sexual activity, but, of course, need to take preventitive measures. To make a very long story short, I started on the patch several years ago, but it caused me problems in attitude and bleeding and then I heard just how high the amounts of hormones are in the patch versus the pill and how dangerous it is. So all of that made me quit taking it. After about a year, I was still having an irregular cycle, so went on a natural detox program for a few months and was actually fine. I then heard of the mini pill, one that contains only progesterone or progestin and no estrogen so decided to try it. I was on Camilla for awhile (I forget exactly how long but probably about a year) and had more of the same problems i.e. mood swings and irregular periods, since these pills aren't designed to regulate menstruation. So I stopped taking it and stayed off birth control for about a year and a half. During this time, my cycle wasn't as regular as it should be but it was somewhat tolerable. I was tested for various things and they even did a sonigram but could find nothing wrong. I then read about low-dose pills, ones that were combination but with less hormones than the regular ones and I found an article
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a r0imx52GAkE
which said the following. "Oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel and a low dose of estrogen, such as Bayer AG’s Microgynon 30, were associated with the lowest risk of blood clots in the leg or lungs, researchers at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands found. Birth-control pills containing desogestrel, cyproterone acetate or drospirenone carried about 1.5 to 2 times the risk of clots, they found." While I don't have a family history of clots, I occasionally smoke, and also figured it couldn't hurt to take one with less of a risk for them. I then found more information which supported this study as well as a list of pills which met the criteria. (The following link may open a pop-up window.)
http://www.wdxcyber.com/ncontr13.htm
The doctor that I usually saw wasn't in and wouldn't be for awhile, so I went to another at a clynic. She wasn't very helpful at all and was more interested in the Nuva Ring, which I was told to avoid by someone else in the medical field. So I wound up getting Alesse, one of the pills mentioned in the second article.
I've been on it for about eight months now. I love the freedom that it gives me as a contraceptive and have never had problems taking it precisely on time, except once, when I took it 20 minutes late due to a problem with my alarm clock. , But I hate it's side effects. It seems as if I'm constantly having breakthrough bleeding. There are times when I get all the symptoms of the period, plus the blood flow, while I'm still on the pill and then hardly anything during the reminder week. Other times, I'll bleed a little after going back on them or in the middle of the cycle. This causes alot of nervousness and stress, as I'm always worried that I'll have a noticable accident or even just wet my underwear, which, needless to say, is very uncomfortable. I never know if it's a day to wear the menstral cup or if I can safely go without it, so have taken to wearing it many times when I go out and every time I go in the pool. But blood aside, low-dose pills, particularly this one, are supposed to help with moodiness. Yet every time I turn around, I'm either really angry or I start crying at the drop of a hat, which is totally unlike me. I also get occasional breast tenderness, and while I can live with it, it's annoying. To add insult to injury, I developed truly horrible acne. Never, even as a teenager, did I have anything like that and it freaked my mother out, until I found that it really was the result of the pill (article in next link). As a sidenote, I found a natural cleanser for it and it's working beautifully, thank The Gods.
http://contraception.about.com/od/thepill/l/bl_choosinga pill.htm
I know that I could just keep changing pills until I find the right one but I've really had enough of this! I'm sick of having to take hormones and of playing with my body's chemistry. Even if I was willing to do it, it takes at least three months for the body to get used to a new pill. I'd try something like The Today Sponge but I'm afraid of an accidental pregnancy, since their accuracy rate can vary grately and they're also very expensive. Abortion doesn't scare me and I'd definitely do it if I became pregnant, but it's not exactly on the list of things that I'd like to do either. For some reason, I also have an irrational fear of a "surprise pregnancy", though not while I'm on the pill. I know, of course, that there are condoms, but some men just can't use them. I don't mean that they're unwilling, but some have a psychological/physical problem with them which can be frustrating to both partners. That said, regardless of the option I choose, I'd always use them if I were with a new partner for safety reasons. The iud seemed like a good option for awhile but then I heard that it can cause internal damage and can create painful and heavy periods, which, needless to say, isn't something desirable. Plus, it's not as if I could just remove it on my own like I can with a menstral cup. I'd need to wait for someone to bring me to the doctor to have her remove it. Tubal ligation looked promising but the same effects were noted and reversing it, even for the sake of undoing the problems, is expensive and difficult at best.
Then, I found something called Essure. This is an FDA-approved (since 2002) form of permenant female sterrilisation that doesn't use hormones, require invasive surgery or cause pain and that can be performed in an office instead of a hospital.
http://www.essure.com
The process takes about ten minutes and there's no cutting the tubes or burning them with radiofrequency energy. A coil is inserted, via a cafeter, into the vagina, cervix, and uterus and then enters the fallopian tubes. The cafeter is removed and the patient goes home. I'd need to use regular birth control for the next three months, but after that, I'd go for an x-ray, and if everything is clear, I'm home free for the rest of my life!
I was worried that this might make my periods heavier, particularly since I would now be going through a real menstral cycle instead of a pill withdrawl, but then, I found a cure for that too! I was so excited that I started to cry with relief and gratitude. It's called Her Option Cryoablation Therapy, and, as with Essure, doesn't require a hospital visit or serious surgery and doesn't contain hormones.
http://www.heroption.com
Here, they freeze the lining of the uterus without damaging it in any way. In most women, periods are lighter and some have even reported that they stop entirely! Still others said that the procedure cut down on their pms, another major advantage for me, since mine can be really bad at times, even while not on the pill. The procedure is usually designed for women who have serious menstral problems such as heavy flow and pain. But I found a place (the doctor is actually one of it's pioneers) where this is done and they said that it can also benefit people who have a normal flow but whose cycles cause them serious life problems like being afraid to leave the house etc. So it seems that I'd be a good candidate. They say that women intending on becoming pregnant shouldn't do this, but since I'm not, it sounds like the perfect fit should natural therapies for cycle control not work.
So now, I'm wondering if Her Option can be used after Essure if bleeding is a problem and if this place accepts Medicaid. If not, both procedures are covered by it, so it would just be a matter of seeing who performs it, since I just learned that my former doctor no longer takes Medicaid. Have any of you had experience with Planned Parenthood? I know that they're excellent when it comes to educating people about sexual matters and a friend told me that they're clean and knowledgeable. They do both of these procedures so I might consider going there. Have any of you undergone either of these procedures in general or do you know anyone who has? If so, what was it like and how satisfied are you with the outcome?