quite honestly it's difficult to protect against HPV. my cousin has it and she always used protection when she would have sex. irony is she got it from her ex who she had sex with one time after dating him for over a year.
reality is you can get it simply from touching. if you give a hand job to someone who has it, then turn around and touch yourself, you can get it.
last i heard it was nearly 90% of the female population (18-34yrs old who are sexually active) has it.

shelley j
sigma k

ps - please feel free to correct that statistic if it's incorrect.

Birth defects. Often quite severe. And frequent miscarriages. If you miss a period when you're on the Pill, you must see your doctor immediately to discuss your options.

Right, it's pretty easy to get...but isn't it just smarter to protect oneself? Yeah, condoms aren't the most sensational form of protection, but when there's a pretty high correlation between cervical cancer and HPV, it's up to us women to protect ourselves.

My old doctor said that 60% of her patients of childbearing age had some form of HPV. I could see how it could be higher based on the population.

I know that I am probably preaching to the choir, but here goes. That's why medical exams and PAP smears are so important. I know a few women who had cervical cancer and quite a few who had pre-cancerous cells because of HPV. I agree with Munchkin that we really do need to protect ourselves. Not just with condoms, but also regular exams.

i absolutely agree with both of you. i'm just mentioning the fact that it is so common and so easily contracted. i guess the reason i mention this is to say that you shouldn't feel like your dirty or a slut or something b/c you have it. not that you were insinuating that, but it came to my mind.

shelley j
sigma k

I miscarried while on the pill. The effectiveness was reduced for me because I ovulate twice a month and I was on the tricylic pill. It wasn't enough hormones to stop the second ovulation apparently. I wasn't considered overweight at the time either.

The female condom is more effective against HPV than the male condom is, as an FYI.

Dee

really? i've never used a female condom. has anyone ever used one? i know that they act like velcro when used with a male condom. are they comfortable?

shelley j
sigma k

no idea.. I just read that...

The pamphlets on the pill say that it will be less effective for women over 198 lbs. I have no idea what the percentage is, but I'm opening up a new one tomorrow, so I'll check. :)

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/bc/

here ya go ladies. This is the Planned Parenthood national site. It has a pro/con section on BC (that's what I directly linked to). It includes all the popular forms as well as other forms.

Thoughts on going off the pill:

The PMS has been a little worse but nothing I can't deal with. However, I have no freakin' clue when my period is coming anymore. I'm going to have to start writing it down because I can never remember.

Soooo... I got off Depo because I was gaining weight and figured since I wasn't dating, what was the point.

Now I just read that side effects from Depo can last up to 12 weeks after you get off the shot. While on the shot, I stopped having my period. I still haven't gotten it back yet and it's been almost 2 months since I got off.

The thing is that I am dating again. And I wanted to try going on the pill again, but I only can start the pill with a period... which I am not having! :mad:

I don't think I have ever wanted my period more than I do now. Weird.