I'm stealing this just so you know. :)

Oh, and don't take Pill and St John's Wort. Neither will work.

Also the topical medication for the sometimes resulting yeast infection from antibiotics breaks down latex, so condoms, diaphragms, and the ring all lose effectiveness. The diflucan pill is a great for women in those situations, and it is also prescribed for men with fungal infections, since often men get yeast infections from their partners and need treatment to stop reinfecting their partner.

Honestly? I think most of the people who say things like "the condom broke," or "I was on antibiotics" aren't telling the truth and just don't want to admit that they just weren't careful that time. I know that there are legitimate cases of birth control failure, but not as many as our peers would have us believe!

There are some great articles out this week in various magazines about the impact of the Pill on women's lives.

THIS!

I Love, Love, LOVE my pill! Thank you to the makers of LYBREL! No period since July 2009!

Well, I had two legitimate birth control failures. One resulted in a miscarriage since I was on the pill. That one had to do with trying one of the tricyclic pills when they were still pretty new. Problem was, I ovulated twice a month almost every month and the tricyclic one only stopped one of them due to the expected timing of ovulation being skewed for me. I still don't understand how my daughter is here though :) Condoms and foam together, every single time, no antibiotics.. no clue how that happened. But, she's wonderful and our wedding was already planned so we dealt with it.

I think the number of women who claim to be on the pill for reasons other than birth control is what's really inflated. I think women are still afraid to admit that they just want to be protected any time so that they can do what they want. I had several friends in college claim they were on it for cramps when they didn't have boyfriends. I think it's ok for women to say "Look, I'm on it because I want to make sure I don't get pregnant if I decide to have sex." Maybe that's changed some since I was in college, but I still think a lot of women say that to justify being on birth control.

Double posting but, I do have to say, I loved the 5 years that I was on the Depo shot :) Not having a period for 5 years was absolutely wonderful! Then I hit 40 and no doc would give me anything hormonal anymore thanks to my dad's heart disease (even though ALL my numbers are great and I've had an echo that shows I do not have his heart disease for sure).

I should be almost done with them altogether. I'm thick into perimenopause and went 3 months last time. I was actually starting to think that maybe I was done. It's been 2 months since that time.. maybe I'll go even longer this time! w00t!

Look, I didn't discount actual birth control failures. After all, all methods are pretty clear that the risk of pregnancy is still there, even with "perfect" use. I just don't think everyone who says "oh, I was on antibiotics" or "the condom broke" is telling the truth. It happens, but maybe 3-5 percent of the time, as opposed to the 25% or so my friends have reported. :)

I do agree that not as many people are taking the pill for cramps, acne, or the other stuff. Part of that is a lot of insurance carriers didn't always cover the pill for contraceptive uses only, so doctors would diagnose something else. I think that's less of an issue now than it was even 10 years ago, though. Also, keep in mind that when the Pill first came out, many doctors would only prescribe it to married women who had a history of "irregular periods." Apparently, the rate of women who reported "irregular periods" doubled from 1960 to 1970.

I know you didn't :) I wasn't taking it personally.

I hadn't thought about the insurance aspect for having another reason to "need" them. I've been lucky to have my insurance cover them or, when it didn't (like in college), I went to Planned Parenthood or WomanCare for them and only paid like $4 a month then (while battling my way through the line of abortion protestors, I might add... dang they used to piss me off!)

I also think that there is a large proportion of women who do not take their pills correctly, ie. skip doses, don't take them at the same time every day. These little things will make your hormones fluctuate and can allow you to ovulate. If you don't take your pills right EVERY time, you MUST use a second form of birth control, ie. condoms!

I went on it for purely contraceptive reasons, but my first doctor told me that if my insurance ever gave me grief, she would say that it was for cramps. She had been practicing for about 25 years at that point and knew which companies wouldn't cover it. She was great--she ended up retiring because of how expensive malpractice insurance was for Florida OB/GYNs. :(

I can't stand those protesters. I used to volunteer as a clinic escort at a place that did early abortions and D&Cs (along with other procedures--it was a normal clinic). It would suck to have to go in for a post-miscarriage D&C or even like a broken toe and have protesters yelling at you.

I've had condoms break before but it did not result in pregnancy. I'm not on the pill, either, so... it was a very nervous couple of weeks.

Damn, you read my mind.