birth control

[AchtungBaby80]

Originally posted by texas*princess
Also, be safe when it comes to sex... there are all kinds of crazy diseases going around out there.

Yes, guys, please be safe...even if you don't think you have anything, you still might be carrying HPV, which most of the sexually-active population has. Most people don't have any symptoms or any adverse effects, but in others (like myself) it causes cancer, which is not fun to deal with.

[Buttonz]

If you want a backup to your hormonal method of BC, pulling out isn't the way to go. True lube with spermicide, it seems to be the best. My Bf & I are fine just using hormonal BC though.

[chideltjen]

Originally posted by texas*princess
If condoms aren't your forte' then definitely try something w/ spermicide. The only thing about spericide is that if you have had U.T.I's before spermicide could potentially cause you to have another one. (Got this info from my doc a few months ago so I don't remember exactly *why* or *what* was it in the spermicide that might help cause another U.T.I., so I guess just keep that in mind if you have had U.T.I's before or whatever or better yet, talk to your doc for other options to use in leiu of pulling out or spermicide or whatever)

Good to know re: the UTIs. I remember reading somewhere that if you go to the bathroom before and after sex, you can reduce the risk of getting a UTI. Since it seems I'm prone to everything these days, I do it.

Being a diabetic sucks sometimes... and it comes with a whole bag of disfuction...

[texas*princess]

Originally posted by chideltjen
Good to know re: the UTIs. I remember reading somewhere that if you go to the bathroom before and after sex, you can reduce the risk of getting a UTI. Since it seems I'm prone to everything these days, I do it.

Yea, I've also read that it's good to use the restroom after sex b/c during sex bacteria is sometimes pushed back there, and using the restroom helps flush it out.

I've definitely tried staying away from spermicide b/c my first U.T.I was the worst, and I def. want to make sure I don't get another one of those!

[ilovemyglo]

Originally posted by Buttonz
For anyone who is worried about forgetting the Pill every day, ther are other froms of BC, like the patch and the nuva ring. I'm on my second month of the nuva ring and I love it. My period was lighter and hsorter (though I never had really bad ones), and I don't have to worry about condoms or remembering to take a pill everyday.

If you want more information on it, PM me

I've been on this for three years now...
It is an absolute GOD SEND.
I suck at taking a pill everyday- you just put this in, leave it for three weeks, throw it away, have your period and repeat.
Absolute GODSEND.

[AlethiaSi]

Originally Posted by ilovemyglo

I've been on this for three years now...
It is an absolute GOD SEND.
I suck at taking a pill everyday- you just put this in, leave it for three weeks, throw it away, have your period and repeat.
Absolute GODSEND.

I love it too, i think i have an infection, i'm not sure if its from the ring though, but so far, my skin has cleared up, my mood swings aren't as bad as they usually are, and i'm finally regular, esp after going 6 months of not getting my period after getting off the patch... (i wish they still had it though... )

[1908Revelations]

Originally Posted by kddani

Ewww... I think Tom posting to this thread is enough birth control for us all!

ROTFLMAO!

[1908Revelations]

I started NuvaRing almost 2 months ago and I don't have any problems with it.

Anyone on NuvaRing can you PM me?

[minDyG]

I'm taking the progestin-only pills (sometimes they're called mini-pills but I don't really know why because they're no smaller than combination bcp's) and so far, I have only had a little bit of spotting during the week when I "should" have had a period but so far no actual periods! I've been taking them for several months now and it's great. I have to take them because I'm breastfeeding, but I'm sure anyone could request from their doctor to take them instead of the combination pills because they're just as effective. I'm just saying...not having periods is a wonderful thing.

[SweetyD]

Ya know.. i think any guy who bitches about how he hates using condoms should really read a forum like this to see all the shit us gals go through!

[Optimist Prime]

my condoms are the lady's choice

[AchtungBaby80]

Originally posted by SweetyD
Ya know.. i think any guy who bitches about how he hates using condoms should really read a forum like this to see all the shit us gals go through!

What I really love are the guys who bitch about having to buy condoms, e.g. "If you want me to use condoms, then you buy them." Heck no--we shell out the dough for the Pill every month, so it's only fair that the gentlemen get the condoms.

[roqueemae]

Originally posted by texas*princess
The only thing about spericide is that if you have had U.T.I's before spermicide could potentially cause you to have another one. (Got this info from my doc a few months ago so I don't remember exactly *why* or *what* was it in the spermicide that might help cause another U.T.I., so I guess just keep that in mind if you have had U.T.I's before or whatever or better yet, talk to your doc for other options to use in leiu of pulling out or spermicide or whatever)

Hubby and I used spermicide on his military leave (lots of times). I am diabetic and ended up with a UTI. I had never had one. This just explains more than the doctors did.

[WCUgirl]

*bump*

Saw this article on msn today. I thought I'd post it over here and see what everybody thought.

Personally, I'd rather risk an accidental pregnancy than death, but that's just me.

-----

Birth control patch linked to higher fatality rate

Report: Device has three times greater risk of stroke, blood clot than pill

Updated: 5:33 p.m. ET July 17, 2005

Gingerly, Kathleen Thoren’s family gathered around her in the intensive care unit, unable to speak to their beloved sister, daughter, wife, or even stroke her hands. The slightest stimulation might create a fatal amount of pressure on the 25-year-old woman’s swollen brain, warned the doctors.

“We were horrified, but we tried to just quietly be with her,” said her sister Erika Klein. “In the end, it didn’t help.”

The mother of three died last fall, just after Thanksgiving, after days of agonizing headaches that the coroner’s report said were brought on by hormones released into her system by Ortho Evra, a birth control patch she had started using a few weeks earlier.

She was among about a dozen women, most in their late teens and early 20s, who died last year from blood clots believed to be related to the birth control patch. Dozens more survived strokes and other clot-related problems, according to federal drug safety reports obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Several lawsuits have already been filed by families of women who died or suffered blood clots while using the patch, and lawyers said more are planned.

Risk three times higher

Though the Food and Drug Administration and patch-maker Ortho McNeil saw warning signs of possible problems with the patch well before it reached the market, both maintain that the patch is as safe as the pill.

However, the reports obtained by the AP appear to indicate that in 2004 — when 800,000 women were on the patch — the risk of dying or suffering a survivable blood clot while using the device was about three times higher than while using birth control pills.

The women who died were young and apparently at low risk for clots — women like Zakiya Kennedy, an 18-year-old Manhattan fashion student who collapsed and died in a New York subway station last April. Or Sasha Webber, a 25-year-old mother of two from Baychester, N.Y., who died of a heart attack after six weeks on the patch last March.

Some doctors, reviewing the Food and Drug Administration reports at the request of The AP, were alarmed. “I was shocked,” said Dr. Alan DeCherney, editor-in-chief of Fertility and Sterility and a UCLA professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

But other doctors said they would have expected some deaths and no investigation is warranted. They point to more than 4 million women who have safely used the patch and note that the FDA reports are called in voluntarily, rather than gathered scientifically.

“It doesn’t jump out at me to say, 'Let’s look at this any further,”’ agreed Dr. Steven J. Sondheimer, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania. “I don’t feel that these need to be looked at in any detail.”

[xo_kathy]

Originally posted by roqueemae
Hubby and I used spermicide on his military leave (lots of times). I am diabetic and ended up with a UTI. I had never had one. This just explains more than the doctors did.

Well, it probably had a little more to do with the "lots of times"! I got my first one after my first weekend vaca with the college boyfriend. Mom knew about the vaca and when I came home in excrutiating pain she took me to the doctor. As we drove she said, "In my day, they called UTIs 'Honeymooners diesease'!" But I'm sure the addition of the spermicide added even more foreign stuff to a sensitive area and encouraged the problem. I hate UTIs - I seriosuly wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. Also, be careful with spermicides. My friend learned the hard way that she is allergic - she said she burned for a day!

Next question - to the women who are on the pill but still want a back-up. Unless you are on the pill for other reasons (acne, endometriosis, etc) why in the world would you continue to put a hormone into your body if you don't need it? I mean, if you're just going to go through the trouble of condoms, or spermicide, etc, just use those methods and save the $ and annoyance of a daily pill. Not judging, just curious.