This year I’ll be celebrating Mother’s Day… with a brand new Birth Control!
That’s right kids. I’m taking charge of my reproductive health. A woman can make these decisions, you know. It’s a thing now. I was inspired to write about it due to a HuffPo piece this week. Women have been sharing their stories online about Oral Contraceptives using #MyPillStory, and I wanted to add my voice.
I started taking the pill way before I was sexually active. I struggled with painful cycles in middle school, so my mother (talk about a smart woman) took me to my first visit with an OB/GYN at 12. Before this visit, Mom had always come into the room with me during appointments, but this time she let me go on my own. I was nervous, but Dr. Yen was patient and clear. She was the first doctor who talked to me like an adult who was capable of making my own decisions.
I started taking birth control and felt a change immediately. I had lighter, shorter, and less painful cycles. They were more predictable. I wasn’t concerned with using The Pill for contraceptive reasons, so I wasn’t as important for me to take it at the same hour/minute precisely each day.
I stopped taking it my senior year of highschool (still pre-sexual activity), mainly due to finding that I no longer needed it to help with my cycles. I knew it was an option that worked for me if I ever needed to return to it. When I became sexually active in college, I began taking it again, in addition to using condoms with my partners. I wanted to make damn sure there was no fear about babies or STDs. I’ve gone on and off The Pill without much issues, but I’ve hardly been consistent with taking it at the same time each day. I explored the nuva ring for a time, but I didn’t like it for reasons.
This past year, my husband and I started having sex sans condoms for the first time. To calm my child-free paranoia, I have been more consistent with The Pill. There are still days however when I forget it in the morning rush to get out the door, or weekends when I sleep in and don’t end up taking it until 4 hours after my time. I’m frustrated with the inflexibility of this method. I don’t think anyone wants to be a slave to The Pill. After much deliberation and discussion with my heaven-sent adult OB/GYN Dr. Baer, I will be starting a new method on Mother’s Day. A Etonogestrel contraceptive implant. I can’t wait to tell you more about it.
This is Rebecca too dot com 
…and I can’t wait to read more about it!
Happy to know you and Max are exploring options.
Katie uses an IUD. She enjoys how care/maintenance free it is. She didn’t have to worry about bc pills in China… There’s such a huge amount of risk with other methods, but the IUD is 99.99% effective…. And the birth control pills made her crazy (her words), the IUD never made her feel crazy.
Also — quite a few of her suicide attempts have been traced to when she’s gone on/off her birth control pills. Which she’ll probably blog about soon. (These are all things she’s telling me as I’m talking to her about your post RIGHT NOW…)
She also adds that no one (doctors) has ever linked her birth control to her emotional disposition.
She also adds — Chinese girls don’t use tampons and thus, tampons are really hard to find…. So not having to deal with searching for tampons was really nice…all thanks to an IUD.
Obviously the IUD isn’t for everyone. But for Katie (and me) it works.
(Don’t know if this comment makes sense, I’ve had a few beers. But we love you and Max. And I miss you, Rebecca. So here’s some honest off-the-cuff words. I may not be a woman or *really* know anything about menstruation, but you’re my friend and you better believe I’m gonna comment on your GD blog!)
We love you too! Come visit us! We have a sex-ed show to produce.
It’s lovely that the IUD works so well for yous guys! I know Katie isn’t the only woman who feels off on BC pills – the spectrum of side effects is impressively large. I’ll know soon if the implant is right for me, but it feels like right so I’m going to give it a shot.
Also, can I just say how freeing it is to be able to discuss this in a public forum. It’s very empowering. I feel very fortunate to be able to do so.
I miss you, Michael. Whisky just doesn’t taste the same without you.
Saying whisky doesn’t taste the same without me…is probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.
I probably don’t need to comment on this for you to know that I fucking love it—you know my life. But, I wanted you to know that I read it. 🙂 I’m the worst blogger.
Together we can take the blogging world by force! If we just posted more…
I’ve committed myself to publishing 300+ words, everyday. Even if they are nonsense or rubbish.