Finding The Right Birth Control For You
By: Stefania Tibor
Sex and Love Columnist for The Stories We Need to Hear Media
If you’re looking to put those pamphlets down and get the real life stories, keep reading and enjoy my tell-all about birth control!
As I’ve mentioned before in my lovely, detailed puberty article, I’ve struggled with my menstrual cycle for over 13 years now. For a little background, here’s my quick timeline of my journey to my diagnosis: endometriosis!
At the age of 10, I realized there was something strange going on with my body; that strange feeling was womanhood. Freaky, right? I always get the wide-eyed responses to my first time story, simply because of my age. Unfortunately, 10 is starting to become the new average. With girls starting younger and younger, I feel these conversations about birth control are at the pinnacle of vitality to implement into our school systems and birds and bees discussions.
As a 10 year old in a time of “You’re way too young to be experiencing x, y, and z!” not a lot of adults or pediatricians believed me when I reported all of my extreme symptoms. I like to describe it as a scaled back version of what teenage boys describe what they believe periods are. In short, mine were life-inhibiting, painful, and extreme in all facets.
I got the “It’s probably IBS,” “You probably have a low threshold for pain,” “You’re gonna have to get used to it, you’re locked into this,” and so on. As someone too young to be taken seriously about my symptoms, I’m sure you can imagine birth control was never on the table.
I do definitely understand why ages 10-14 weren’t my birth control consideration times, but with that standing as what I’d consider the only real menstrual management method, I always knew it was one day going to be on the table.
It wasn’t until my pain, fainting episodes, and other extreme side effects peaked at 16 that we really started looking into something beyond being one of the “unlucky ones” that just had to endure nature’s punch a little more. To everyone’s surprise, the one that was “too young” to have any kind of issue had an incurable condition that made my symptoms miserable and a reproductive system that welcomed cysts.
So, finally, we turned to birth control, a decision that led to a long journey of trial and error. Now that we’re here, let’s dive into the different types and my experiences with them!
Before moving forward, there are a few things I’d like to state. First off, the trajectory of my symptoms that I sought to alleviate are more severe than the average person, due to my medical condition. And of course with all anecdotal accounts, it’s important to know I can only speak for myself. But I firmly believe that hearing an account from someone you know can be just another component to your decision making!
In addition to this, birth control can be used for a plethora of reasons. It can be contraception, menstrual management, both, or whatever reason you find. Keep in mind that the symptoms I felt directly from the birth control would most likely occur regardless of the nature of my symptoms. These hormones will affect everyone differently, and this is how they resonated with me!
The Pill, 2014-2017
Back in 2014, this was the stepping stone that at least myself and the people around me were introduced to. We started with Progesterone, the pack that (from what I remember) was in almost every pill-user’s backpack. I had the gradient for the schedule printed on the pack and kept it in that little blue pocket.
While I wish that was my one and done that thankfully many people have, that wasn’t the case for me. This simply did its best to not let me go over 7 days (even though I still did) and at least limit me to that one time period. Other than that, I got a few hormonal headaches and had to call it quits after about 5 months.
From there, I tried almost every pill that was at our disposal. We tried 3 packs at a time to trick my body, ditch the sugar pills, and jump right into the new pack. To our surprise, my body came back swinging with revenge. This, at least for the time frame, wasn’t too common.
The rest didn’t seem to do anything but give me hormonal headaches and tack on some water weight. This is a huge point that I wanted to address in this article. While the hormonal changes can be intimidating, I noticed that my body quickly shed the water weight and kicked the hormonal headaches. Once I stopped adding that hormonal factor to my body, the symptoms that came with it were kicked to the curb. If you’re worried about water weight, which is understandable, don’t let it stand in your way! First off, you might not react that way, and you can always get those hormones out of your body by kicking those pills to the curb!
Nexplanon, 2018-2019
So, clearly pills weren’t doing the trick. Being that my pain had been the exact same for all of those trials, I wasn’t quick to jump into a new method. It wasn’t until I tacked on a contraceptive element that I decided to try something else. So, I turned to the birth control that was the buzz of that time and the people around me: Nexplanon.
I knew that once I became sexually active, I wouldn’t want to keep up with a set of pills. I truly commend anyone that’s responsible enough to use the pill--my schedule and my memory just can’t keep up with same time daily!
Clearly, I also needed something more effective, so I turned to Nexplanon. Nexplanon is an implanted birth control that is placed in your arm. It is still gynecologically considered more effective than the pill and has become more popular in use.
The procedure is quite simple, though it seems intimidating. First, I got a numbing shot that feels like any other vaccine--super quick. Once I was numb, I didn’t even realize the implant was being placed! Other than common arm soreness post-shot, I was good to go!
My implant was set to last 3 years; I would hopefully be period-free once the funky 3 month adjusting period ended. Being that the hormones are implanted rather than ingested in doses, your body needs to adjust a bit. Other than some annoying spotting and some period symptoms here and there, my mild 3 months passed and I was period-free!
TW//: Eating Disorders
Note: A potential interference here was the coincidence of my anorexia peaking during my usage of this method. Once the body is starved to a particular degree, your reproductive organs take a breather so your body can focus on the vital organs still functioning. In this case, you can stop menstruating! So, I’m unsure if it was a combination or one or the other that stopped my periods. However, before my eating got worse, I was still period free!
Unfortunately, this time of bliss quickly ended, and I found myself back in that 3 month adjusting funk, but kicked up a notch. When you say “I had a 3 month period,” it sounds a lot worse than it was. Thankfully, at least in my case, it was a tedious life add on and increased my symptoms (with endo, your symptoms occur all the time rather than limited to a period/PMS time period).
So, I once again decided to kick this birth control to the curb and look for a new one.
IUD, 2019-Present
Finally, we’re at my current method! Once my body finally recuperated and I started dating, I decided it was time to get my periods handled and ease my pregnancy fears. So, I went to a gynecological specialist (rather than my regular gyno in my network) and asked for their recommendations for a new endo-combating birth control. We finally landed on the Kiylena IUD.
With IUDs, there are a couple I was presented with. Our absolute NO was the Copper IUD, the least hormonal option. Unfortunately, they’re known to make your periods worse, so we didn’t even consider. Finally, we settled on Kiylena, a hormonal IUD. Mirena is an alternative hormonal IUD option; think of them as the Pfizer and Maderna of hormonal IUDs. Honestly, just like Pfizer, I just picked Kiylena and ran with it.
Now, the part I’m sure everyone is nervous for: the insertion process. To be completely honest, the insertion process was pretty hard for me. While of course I had a special circumstance (a lime-sized tumor blocking my cervix), feeling the actual IUD being planted was pretty painful. It was essentially feeling myself being given cramps in a direct spot.
While I’ve talked about the other concerns and slight fears about the other methods with more “It’s okay! It’s not as bad as it seems” tonality, I completely understand the fear behind this insertion; it’s daunting and I know I was definitely nervous too.
In my honest opinion, my IUD has been the best option I’ve tried thus far. Contraceptive wise, I was nervous thinking about the IUD getting knocked out of place or expelled by my body. While these are possible outcomes, talking to my gynecologist really eased my mind. Between being able to check your strings and monitoring how your body is feeling, it made me feel far more confident about the awareness of my IUD.
So far, I’ve been period-free after another 2-3 month (normal) adjustment period. I’ve been lucky enough to have my body welcome the IUD; it has finally mitigated my bleeding and completely gotten rid of it. Unfortunately, my pain is something that as of now, I’ve never been able to kick. So personally, cramps, ovulation pains (somehow?), PMS-feelings, and other “fanton period” symptoms (feeling heightened symptoms for a recurrent week every month) still exist for me.
Overall, my IUD has been an absolute life-saver. There are so many components that go into finding the option that’s best for you. Being concerned about putting hormones in your body is something completely understandable. For myself, my medical condition has caused me to not think twice about hormones. However, I’ve been sure to discuss concerns about hormone imbalances, and my gyno has at least told me that birth control if anything is a great way to mitigate that, so yay!
If you’re thinking about birth control, ask, ask, ask! Ask a gyno, then ask another if you want a second opinion. Reaching out to the people you personally know for their experiences will always be my preference because we all know the internet is terrifying. Always remember, places like Planned Parenthood and The Pill Club (an online delivery service that can help you pick birth control remotely for low cost) are great resources. Many of us, like myself, are blessed with good insurance. Always know, there’s someone you can ask, that someone can be me as well! It’s a journey to adjust your body, but know if it’s turbulent (like mine) you can always find your body’s true north and eliminate that hormonal addition to your life.
