How have contraceptives changed your life?

[Fearless]

Check out this neat website pulling together pro-birth control stories. Even submit your own!


http://nocontroversy.tedxchange.org/index.php?id=167/


(Note: I am in no way affiliated with them.)

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Well, mine is not one companies would want to use for advertising but it was the best thing

that ever happened to me.

Apparently I am one of that small percentage that get pregnant while faithfully using birth control. I was put on it after we had a couple of late losses and, emotionally, I needed a break. Apparently the baby Gods did not agree. I now have an awesome 13 year old son. All thanks to birth control!

[RandySF]

2. If we hadn't run out of them while on vacation, we wouldn't be parents now.

[Heddi]

3. They have allowed my husband and I to be together for 15 years, and still be child-free-by-choice

and live the child-free life that we wish to lead without the hassle of having to take monthly pregnancy tests, undergo unwanted and invasive medical procedures to terminate a pregnancy, and to not have to use imperfect methods of natural contraception such as the rhythm method or coitus interruptus or cervical mucous testing.

They have also regulated my very heavy, very irregular, very painful periods and allowed me to live an active life without fear of breakthrough bleeding and unanticipated embarrassment when I under-estimated the absorbancy of my Kotex, or experienced an early bleeding session.

They have also allowed me to change my mind at any time regarding our child-free-by-choice feelings, and that at any time I can discontinue using contraception and within a relatively short amount of time begin the process of attempting pregnancy, if that is what we choose to do (probably won't happen, though, as I'm 36 and he's 39 and I don't really see our attitudes towards having children change in the next few years, and I have no desire to become pregnant after the age of 40).

They allowed me to be a young person who was able to experiment with sex and my sexuality during the years of HIV and AIDS, and to know that as long as a condom was used, I was generally protected against HIV and most other STD's.

Frankly, they give/gave me the freedom to fuck, a right I hold very dear to my heart.

[Lint Head]

4. I was born so.......

[slampoet]

5. It has allowed me leave my hometown and the abuse i found there.

[vaberella]

6. I have PCOS. I need the pill in order to regulate my hormones or it's the bearded lady for me.n/t

[phylny]

14. I may be offering unwanted advice,

but I and two of my daughters have PCOS and we saved up for laser. Best thing we ever did! Hair is virtually gone, and it was fast.

Again, I mean no disrespect, but I wanted to share what worked for us.

[vaberella]

15. Hiya.

No disrespect at all. I have been wary of going up to many women in the subways of New York to tell them to get checked if they have PCOS. I am a woman of color and we know nothing about PCOS. VERY few of us have been tested for it. It was by chance that was telling a colleague of mine (she's Caucasian) about my condition and she asked me if I had it. I never heard of it. Her sister and her have it. It seems PCOS runs in my family, heavily.

I would love to do laser but I was saving up for electrolysis. I heard too many negatives for women of color in regards to laser. So I thought electrolysis might be the best bet for me.

[phylny]

19. I thought to myself after I wrote my response to you,

"What if she's a woman of color? Dumb advice then!"

I did electrolysis as well, years ago. It took longer, but I got a good result. I, too, was undiagnosed. Way back when, my mother never followed up with my irregular periods (I know she always panicked thinking I must be pregnant, but I was a virgin back then). I only put two and two together after seeing symptoms in our oldest daughter, and following up for her.

Good luck, I know what a pain it is!

[WCIL]

7. My menstrual cycle was completely messed up

and I bled every day for almost a year. Birth control pills allowed me to have a normal life.

[uppityperson]

8. They gave me the ability to get a job, to work without having to take yearly breaks to bear a child

until I decided I wanted to.

They gave me the ability to chose the father of my child.

They gave my parents the ability to have the large family they wanted and to stop when they wanted.

[gopiscrap]

9. How have they changed my life?

I only have two kids instead of 80

[Go Vols]

10. .

Its allowed me to have unbridled sex all over the country for 30+ years(on and off).

Tis a good thing.

[cags]

11. No migraines, no periods, no fibroid tumors, no stomach or leg pain...

seriously I consider my BC a magic miracle.

Without it I would have a migraine for a week every month, which either requires taking more costly medicine or calling in to work.
I take Lybrel so I get no periods at all... the magic part.
All 9 of my sisters have had issues with fibroid tumors, hysterectomies, the whole thing. I am the only one who is totally fine! I am the only one who has taken BC consistently for many years.
When I was younger my legs used to feel like lead during a period, since I don't get periods no more anchor legs.

I have paid up to 75 bucks a month for my pill, well worth it, but to think about all the money it saves my insurance from having to cover all those other things I would have without it I think they damn well should cover it.

I pay 48 bucks now because it went generic (Amethyst) so pretty soon I will be saving roughly 600 bucks a year... Thanks Obama

[HeiressofBickworth]

12. I had a Dalcon Shield for a number of years

which dramatically changed my life. By the time they figured out that it was a defective product, it was too late for me. It was a disappointment as I was at a time in my life (new husband, good job) when I wanted another child. I had two surgeries -- one for the ectopic pregnancy that developed because of scar tissue caused by the Dalcon Shield, and a second surgery to try to repair the damage. It was unsuccessful and I was rendered infertile. I'm of an age now that it isn't an issue and I do have a lovely 44 year old daughter I had before the shield events.

[Raine]

13. I've been able to enjoy sex with no fear of pregnancy

which I guess why the fundies are opposed to it.

[Brickbat]

16. I got to postpone childbearing until I wanted children, and was able to have the number of children

that my partner and I want at the interval we wanted, so as to live within our means.

[Broderick]

17. Sucks in a small way

LOL. No really, in a way it does. I can explain. My wife and I had two children. She tried several methods of birth control but they never agreed with her. We really can't afford any more children at this point, and her career is kicking into gear now so if we have another child it will be a few years from now. Sooooo, the only option was really condoms. I am not fond of those things.

[Egalitarian Thug]

18. Are you kidding? They/It made my life possible. I have had one of the most

fascinating, exciting, unusual, and abnormal lives of anyone I know and everyone I have ever known has said as much about me. But being me, I am absolutely certain that without several forms of birth control, I would have been saddled with spawn before it could have even begun.

Without birth control I suspect that today I would be much older and miserable. Hell, I might even be so fucking miserable that I would be a republican intent on imposing my misery on everybody else.

[madokie]

20. Even though it doesn't matter so much anymore

back when it did I think it allowed me to have a sexual partner when if not for contraception maybe that wouldn't have been the case.
You did ask

[CBGLuthier]

21. My Grandmother had 15 children, My mother had 2.

That was a pretty big difference right there.

[FSogol]

22. A gentleman never tells.