The Pill

[Guest]

If you want to never ever have to think about contraception for the next 5 years get a mirena.

Its a coil, but with similar hormones to the mini pill, its almost as effective as sterilisation and once inserted (which isn't the most fun 20mins in the world but isnt horrendous) you dont have to do anythign but check the strings once a month for 5 years, My periods have stopped completely and for me its perfect. No loss of libido, acne, weight gain etc, it has a mechanical action just by being there so much lower levels of hormones to screw you up.

The main concern is pelvic inflammatory disease if you have a lot of unprotected sex with multiple partners and dont get checked out.

[Guest]

Do some research on the longer lasting contraceptives. They are not as problem free as the previous poster makes out. Some people have horrible experiences!

[Guest]

My first doctor suggested I try a contraceptive implant, and several since then have agreed it seems the best idea for me. From what doctors have told me and the accompanying information, the implant gives a much lower hormone dose than any Pill, which should lessen side-effects a lot. It's also highly reliable - my leaflet says that in tests, none of the women became pregnant (their official figure is 0.0something, though- I suppose it'd be unwise to declare a nil rate).

I've had this for 5 years now and am on my 2nd one (needs renewing every 3 years). I don't think I ever had mood swings or painful periods before, and I haven't since. My periods were always crazily irregular, and that hasn't changed, except that they're less frequent, sometimes stopping for several months (it seems this is a fairly common and harmless side-effect). They can also last a little longer than they used to, but are usually a lot less heavy. Sometimes they're shorter. Also, apparently, your cycle and hormones should return to normal as soon as it's taken out.

The only real disadvantage I've had is that I get spots sometimes now, and I didn't at all before (well, not after the teenage acne). I think I put weight on more easily than I used to, but I don't think that should've been too much of a problem if I just ate normally and did some exercise - before, it would've taken an elephant to make me put weight on. I think both those side effects are fairly common.

Even so, I wouldn't change to anything else. I only have to think about it once every 3 years and have 2 appointments, and I'd worry myself silly about remembering to take a pill, however reliable I was with it. There's also very little other medication or illness that interferes with an implant's effectiveness.

They use a rub-in anaesthetic to put it in so it doesn't hurt at all. It's pretty small, you can't see it and there's no scar. The only time I ever notice it's there is if my bloke lies on my arm, and even then it doesn't hurt, it's more an unbearably strange sensation.

[creepy old man]

Most doctors seem to say that you shouldn't try one of the long-term implanty kind of devices until you have taken oral contraception or patches, because otherwise you won't know how your body handles hormonal contraception.

One scary and wonderful thing about being on the pill for me is that my periods, which were once absolutely horrible, have pretty much stopped. The first month that happened it wasn't such a welcome change though, as one might imagine.