Come and help me think about long term contraception...

[FlamingoBingo]

We're really stuck on this one.

Problems are this:

1. Don't want hormones - they make me depressed.

1. Don't want IUD - they make my periods really painful.

1. Don't want anything as permanent as sterilisation

1. Would like something other than just condoms

Is natural family planning our only option? Can anyone help me think this through?

[wuglet]

Diaphragm?

[FlamingoBingo]

Would that not be just as annoying as condoms?

Do you use one? (don't answer that if you don't want to!) What are they like?

[Bleatblurt]

I went to my GP about a diaphragm but was told I'd have to go to a family planning clinic for one as they don't do them anymore! The nurse said I was the first person to ask for one in 5 years.

So far been to lazy to go to clinic so relying on natural family planning.

[FlamingoBingo]

I had been planning to get a Toni Welschler book and cd rom up until now, but then my mum pondered on whether or not there are more reversible ways of having vasectomies now...which I've since found out there aren't...but it's got me thinking that there must surely be another way...

[Wonderstuff]

Watching with interest as I have similar issues. I am going to give FAM a whirl. Used it to get pg, lent out my copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility. It was a PITA and I don't think it will work until dd is sleeping better. Unless Dh does all the getting up in the night, now there's a thought...

[wuglet]

No don't have one...was just the only thing I could think of that fitted your specification!

Usually need to be fitted by specialist family planning clinic (as fairly rare to fit them now) - but can put in a few hours before sex so less "interrupting" then condoms.

[Wonderstuff]

It is just crap isn't it. Why is there no male pill yet?

[FlamingoBingo]

Yes, NFP/FAM won't work at the moment. I'm still bfing and waking frequently at night...but eventually it should work. My cycles were very regular pre-babies so I assume they'll go back to that when they settle down again.

Why was it such a pain? Was it the temperature-taking? If your cycles are very regular, can you settle down to using only CM and other signs after a few months of really knowing your body?

[FlamingoBingo]

Why haven't they invented clips for the vas deferens, that can be taken off after a few years...something that does the same thing as the IUD.

[Northernlurker]

Have you tried the mini pill as well as the combined one? It's progesterone only so might not be as boad as a combined one? I used to take Neogest and it was fine. You have to take it at the same time and be careful about that - but I managed a good decade od successful contraception with it.

[Wonderstuff]

Taking temperature was a pain because you have to do it before you get up and I often get up in the night to go to the loo or wake very early and didn't want to disturb dh by turning on lights to read the thermometer, then my thermometer broke after about a week. In the book she talks about a thermometer designed for FAM with a little light in it, couldn't find anything like that here.

I think I will give it a whirl, as you say after a few months won't need to chart every day. Don't think I am ovulating at the moment, my boobs never get sore before af. But kinda a dangerous position to be in, because obviously I will become fertile before I realise I am fertile iyswim..

[FlamingoBingo]

Northern - I also don't like the whole 'put artificial things in my body' thing. Bit of a lentil-weaver, you see . Otherwise I would try it - also would try the mirena coil but have decided not to for hippy reasons too.

[FlamingoBingo]

Well we'll definitely be using condoms until I have some sort of cycle to monitor...at the moment I've had one period (DD4 is 11m) 26 days ago so haven't got much to go on!

[Northernlurker]

All contraception is an artifical process though. Your natural state is knocked up every 12-15 months till you die or hit menopause.

Are you sure, sure about sterilisation not being the best option? How would you feel if you found out you were pregnant next week, next month, next year, next decade?

[stickylittlefingers]

the adv with the mirena coil is that you only know about it the afternoon you got it fitted, then you can go back to lentil weaving for the next five years and forget all about it.

[expatinscotland]

Mirena can have a lot of side effects and/or adverse side effects for a not insignificant number of users.

[Wonderstuff]

Doesn't mirena release hormones?

[expatinscotland]

Yes, it does.

[giddykipper]

Lurking too because I've got the Implanon implant which I've put up with for a year. I've had too much of the side effects.

[gigglewitch]

oh lordy, Flamingo, it's a dilemma isnt it...
FWIW, I have a mirena, even after three awful episodes of PND. If anything the mirena has made my depression better tho I do realise I'm in the minority here. But it is good to know that there are other perspectives. It releases a small amount of progesterone in the uterus, and ime it hasn't affected my 'overall' hormone status except to control hideously heavy periods, which is a huuuuge plus for me.
As you were.

[expatinscotland]

thankfully DH is getting a vasectomy.

[MioMau]

The mirena does tend to stop you ovulating though so unlike the copper IUD does not primarily work by stopping implantation.