by leah » Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:35 pm
ya it hurts like a bastard but as long as you can get past insertion, it's a great form of contraception, ESPECIALLY for folks like myself (and gyps, it seems) who are really bad at remembering to take pills and whose insurance isn't sufficient for a monthly solution like the pill.
my insurance doesn't cover anything ladypart-related except for prenatal stuff (very, very conservative catholic-owned company), and my lady doctor put me on the Yaz pill to help with PMDD, so i was forking over $70 per month for birth control, and i had trouble remembering to take it to boot. so, at my last yearly in june, i talked with my doctor about my options and she strongly recommended an implant of some sort--either mirena (which is intrauterine and lasts for five years) or implanon (which is a little matchstick-sized bar that they put in your arm that lasts for three years). initially i decided to go with implanon, but then i saw a video on youtube of someone having one put in their arm and i freaked out and decided i would rather have an IUD.
IUDs aren't really a popular option for the childless set because it's terribly painful to insert one into a uterus that's never been occupied (meaning it's never been stretched at all), so that's why my doc said i might be happier with implanon. luckily my uterus is pretty standard (no tilting or anything, hehe) so really it was just 60 seconds of intense pain (which is apparently equal to a contraction? so that's neat i guess) and then a couple of days of cramping and then i won't have to think about it until 2016.
...provided it doesn't turn me all wonky, at least. i know there are unpleasant side effects for some, but i've been on one kind of hormone therapy or another for years and years, so i'm not too concerned. i guess we shall see though!
lolz