When I first looked into starting birth control I thought there was a world full of perfect options to choose from. The list of choices goes on and on: the pill, IUD, implant, natural family planning, etc., but through a few years of trial and error I have found there really is no winner in choosing the “perfect form” of birth control, because the perfect one doesn’t exist.
While I thought it was smart for my boyfriend and me to wait until I was on a more permanent form before having sex, life happens, and that was not the case. The only thing preventing me from getting pregnant the first time I had sex was a condom. And while it worked that time, condoms are only 85% effective, and I do not love the odds of them being 15% defective. I am also not a huge fan of all of the chemicals in condoms making them slimy and disgusting and not something I want in me.
Eventually, I made an appointment with my OBGYN and decided to have the implant inserted into my arm. All was well, I didn’t have to worry about remembering to take a pill every day, I was told most women stop having their periods or they become significantly lighter after a few months, and it is more than 99% effective. I couldn’t have been happier! The procedure itself was not terrible and it was relatively quick, so once I had it in I believed I wouldn’t have to worry about birth control for three years. It doesn’t get better than this folks… Fast forward six months down the road and I am still constantly spotting without breaks. That is six…whole…months…of a never-ending period. After calling my OBGYN I decided to wait it out and see if it would stop soon. It did not, and after a year and a half, I decided to make an appointment (with a different OBGYN) to talk about switching to an IUD.
The OBGYN had told me that bleeding is more common with the implant, and an IUD would hopefully solve my problems. Finally! It was going to work this time! (Except I’m guessing you can see where this is going.) I made the appointment to have my implant removed from my arm and the IUD put in, but when I finished doing my own research I was terrified by the thought that the IUD has a chance of going through my uterus lining when being put in, and it can also fall out completely, or slip out of place. Not to mention, the process of inserting it sounded absolutely terrifying. So, I ended up canceling my appointment on the drive home and calling it a day.
I ended up waiting it out with my arm implant and almost made it the full three years. And yes, I was still spotting almost every day. I ended up switching to the pill just four months before my implant would have reached the end of its horrible life. I have been on the pill since then, for ten months now, and although it is my favorite option so far, I get my period every other week versus just at the end of the pack. Still, though, I’ll take what I can get for now, because every other week is a million times better than every day.
Looking to the future, I am planning on switching to natural family planning within one of the next few years, because hormonal birth control options are not all they’re cracked up to be. However, I have heard from some of my friends that their experiences have been nothing like mine and they are happy with the pill and the implant. In the end, it’s not about my experiences with these methods, it comes down to finding what you are comfortable with and what works best for your body. And although I am so very thankful that I have access to these birth control options, I hope in the near future that new methods will come out and further women’s contraceptive options that will allow women to live without some of the horrible side effects of today’s contraceptive methods.