like a previous commenter said "all the author of the thread wanted to know was about birth control.." can't we ever have a damn thread that doesn't end up in drama!! lady acid fairy is for fun sex & miss wants to wait!! yay for both of them!!!

Agreed!
Yay for both of them! Embrace your sexuality or lack-thereof! LOL - I'm just glad i"m on one end and not the other! haha

I use Marina and will for the rest of my life.

I have used other forms of hormonal BC, condoms, "pull and pray" and the patch... all made me worry or have moodswings like a crazy woman.

Marina gives me:
1) no babies/worries for 5 years
2) totally covered under my insurance
3) no periods (I haven't had a real period since 2006!!!!) I spot every 6-8 weeks...but that's it.
4) NO PMS!!! (this is important to me, because i have SUPER BAD pmdd)... the marina makes me a normal person year-around.
5) i still crave ben and jerrys on the first of the month....but i think it's because, well, it's ben and jerrys :P
6) no pill to remember to take.
7) it's the most frugal way to be! (600$ savings of tampons over 5 years, no condoms to buy, 1200$ savings from not buying BC pills, no gas to the pharmacy every month... etc.)
8) I didn't gain any weight like i did on BC. (haven't lost any either)
9) no cramps!

things to note about marina:
1) if a doctor tells you that you can't get it because you haven't had kids-- go see someone else. I don't have kids, don't want kids and (according to my doctor who put mine in) this is the most used/popular form of bc in the rest of the world... in the US the doctors like to pump women full of hormones.
2) i haven't gained any weight, but haven't really lost any either.
3) i had 1 guy complain about feeling the strings, but i think thats because a) he knew they were there and b) he was ultra sensitive.
4) doesn't protect against STDs.
5) is 99.9% effective (more effective than just bc alone) because of it's 2 forms in 1. (copper and hormone)
6) it's usually paid for by insurance.
7) the procedure to get it done is different for everyone. I was able to go to work the next day, but other people had to take the next few days off. (due to initial cramping)
8) even if i -could- get my tubes tied, i wouldn't because the marina mellows me out so much that i can't imagine my life without it.

The reason doctors don't encourage using mirena before a woman has had a child is because it can be more difficult to have it put in. That's not to say it can't be done, but it's not the best first option for a woman who hasn't had children. One of my friends who's had big problems with different types of pill (but who's never had children) attempted to have a coil put in, but first time it was far too painful... and the second time she got cramps afterwards which were so awful she had to have it removed.

Doctors should consider it though, as long as the woman understands it may be difficult and uncomfortable if she hasn't had kids.

And the mirena does secrete hormones too. Although it's a smaller amount than in contraceptive pills.

I just recently had Paragard put in (Mirena was out of my price range even with through Planned Parenthood). I have not had kids. I wasn't given any grief over wanting an IUD and the nurses said that they used to use IUDs a couple of decades ago (before they were banned temporarily) and loved them. It was very painful. Those "small pinches" were not so small because I was not stretched out from having children. I went to work later than evening (about 5 hrs later) and was miserable. However, standing felt better than laying down and definitely better than sitting/squatting. I simply had my associate do all the hard work after explaining to her that I felt like I got sucker-punched in the uterus.

I knew life was going to be rough because I used the Nuvaring for three years (and rotated on tuesdays). My IUD was put in on a Friday. So going along with the cramping of being tight, my hormones were/are all sorts of screwed up from being off a three-year schedule. However, 150.00 bucks for 10 YEARS beats the (now) 50 bucks every MONTH for the Nuvaring. If a little pain is what I have to go through to adjust, so be it. A good friend of mine earlier this year had Paragard put in and she was just a miserable but it had gotten much much better for her.

I've just literally finished my first period with Paragard. It was so heavy that I went through a tampon every hour and a half and my period lasted for a week and a half. Every day, my left ovarie felt like it was going to explode. One day it was my right, but the left was far more pissed off. I haven't had sex with it in yet because of insertion cramping and spotting. I found that for myself, one Aleve did the best job of reducing the cramping down to a dull ache. Like when you get stitches... you have that persistant ache that just won't go away... that's what it felt like.

Also, I've never really suffered from acne, but once Aunt Flo came to visit, my forehead broke out (though luckily not into big ugly zits, just small visible bumps).

Oh God all these stories about the coil terrify me.

I really am not going to take my free BC for granted anymore!!!

I loved the Nuvaring, but it was just too expensive. Also, my boyfriend could feel it. I wouldn't consider him huge... he's not the largest nor the smallest that I've ever been with... but he could feel it during sex and sometimes depending on the position it would come out, but I would wash it off and put it back in. Even with the ring in, he would pull out unless I had just come off my period or we were in the bathtub... but anyway... Switching a routine with your hormones is generally a bad experience but once adjusted, things get better. Though I loved the ring, it was a rough adjustment from Ortho Lo. Paragard is a rough adjustment from the ring.

Never did the patch because a girl I knew used it and now grows tumors randomly. I know a girl who used the shots for a few years and she did fine with it, but it took her forever to get pregnant when she was ready too.

Also, I just wanted to throw out there that I lost my virginity two months before I turned 20. I had every intention on waiting and lost my virginity shitfaced on my ex-boss's bathroom floor. It was a blessing and a curse. I wanted my first time to be special... really I did because I wanted to follow in my parents' footsteps... but it was a blessing because it got that pressure of it needing to be done right off my shoulders. I went on a rebellious stage of flings... one because he was a GREAT kisser, one guy had a girlfriend, one because I needed to feel alive, and almost with a bartender but I met my boyfriend right as the bartender came to fruition and chose the connection I had with my [future] boyfriend over the time I spent warming the bartender up. Though, because of my connection with my boyfriend at the beginning, I actually waited with him because I found that even though I wasn't a virgin anymore, I had the chance to recapture the desire to "do it right." Of course, to my family we waited until he had a physical and came back clean...