Unintended consequences of birth control

I think hormonal contraception and it's effect on mental health will turn out to be one of the greatest medical scandals of our age.

I've been in a long term relationship for 19 years and whilst it would be nice to have sex without condoms, they are preferable to the mental side effect of hormones.

hypermice

There are very few non hormonal LARCs - really only the copper coil is leave and forget and that can make periods unbearable and has risks during insertion and during use.

Im sure I read a thread on here about the copper coil and how, despite it being 'non-hormonal', it was having a massive hormonal effect on a lot of women.

These women (numerous MNetters who posted on this thread) were all sharing stories about the side effects of the copper coil and many said they had gone to their GP and told them about these side effects and they wanted it removed, and that their GPs had told them they were imagining it basically, and refused to remove it.

Typeractive I agree with you that this would be very interesting to know, I was having this conversation the other day with DH. When we first started seeing each other I had a coil in place, which I told him obviously. He just accepted it and we never used anything else (he hadn’t had sex before me) but looking back he didn’t know me very well and I could have easily been lying. I think in the reverse situation I would want to use a barrier method for my own peace of mind and not just trust that this person I didn’t know very well had an invisible contraceptive device in place! His answer was that he trusted me but I don’t entirely know why, we didn’t know each other well and hadn’t known each other long.

That said he’s far from alone in this, I have had my fair share of sexual partners and they were all fairly disinterested in contraception, even when conception would have been a complete disaster.

The pill gives me migraines, I can't use it. Tried various then gave up

I'm mid 40s and have never been pregnant, and have been sexually active since 16. Only used the pill for less than a year, other than that it's always been condoms. If barrier methods are so useless then how can this be?

I've been astonished at how little interest men appear to take in contraception, even in casual hook-up type arrangements. Oftentimes they don't mention it at all, apparently assuming it will have already been dealt with.

It's as though the default woman is now drugged up on synthetic hormones, or carrying around a contraceptive device inside of her, wherever she goes.

Have men always been so reckless? Or is it the free availability of contraception that has made them so complacent?

I'd be really interested to hear the perspective of someone who was sexually active pre-pill.

Since having DD six months ago I’ve been certain I don’t want to go on hormonal contraception ever again- reading that Germaine Greer quote about 24/7 medication for approx. 24 fertile days a year is a total lightbulb moment.

DH is understanding and appreciates that after being on the pill since I was 18, I’ve good reason to decide not to start taking it again.

The impression I have got from the disapproving-type doctors was that they were aiming to minimise accidental conception AT ALL COST. I mean, obviously that's the main aim but I think a more nuanced view (trusting women to use barrier methods reliably, looking at side effects and weighing up what they will mean for an individual's day to day life) would be better. I do find the unwillingness to consider anecdotal evidence very odd (she was genuinely baffled when I told her about losing my interest in sex while on the pill).

Interesting thread. The Pill made me insane: an absolute hormonal wreck. I wouldn’t go back on it if you paid me good money. I’ve got a copper coil now but have been lucky that it’s not made my periods worse, the friends I have who’ve used it have found it has made their periods very heavy.

See, here's what I don't get. Why in the hell would a doctor think it was their place to tell a woman what form of contraception they would prefer her to be on? In what way is this their business? If there's a specific reason she shouldn't use a specific method that's health related, as in it would cause her harm, then sure, point that out. But why are they having conversations in which a woman says "I want a diaphragm" and they say "no, I think you should get the coil"? Why are they pushing particular methods of contraception against the wishes of the patient? Is this a money thing? Surely the coil is more expensive. So why?

The whole way everything related to our reproductive organs is handled in the healthcare system is ridiculous. Doctors talk to women like they're naughty children.

I'm at the point where I just won't see a male gyno, not just because the only times on has given me a smear it's hurt far more than it needs to, but because they just don't fucking listen. If your bedside manner makes your patients want to punch you in the balls then maybe it's time to reconsider how you talk to patients.

Yes to all of this. My children were planned and born while I was in my 30s but I have been tutted at as though I were an irresponsible teen by doctors when I said no to the pill and coil. In fact I even gave the pill a go, trying 3 different brands, but was not believed by a FP doctor when I told her what side effects I had experienced (mainly zero interest in sex). A quick Google tells you that this is far from uncommon as a side effect!

Interestingly I've had much more sensible and sympathetic conversations with nurses about contraception. It was a nurse who suggested the diaphragm and it was only because of my conversation with her that I felt brave enough to insist on it when I saw the FP doctor (who wanted me to get the coil fitted instead).

While I accept the advent of the pill was in many ways a step forward, I find the narrative that's grown up around it a bit annoying and patronising - as though women were mindlessly sprogging all over the place until the clever men in lab coats came along to free them from their own bodily functions... When in reality, there's never been a time in which women haven't shared know-how about preventing unwanted pregnancies.

Likewise, it's often assumed that the only reason women in the developing world have large families is ignorance, when there are a host of perfectly rational reasons for them to do so.

There are just not enough safe contraceptive options, full stop.

Interestingly there have been a couple of Male pills in the pipeline- some of the trials have been halted due to unacceptable side effects. Those side effects are exactly comparable to what women experience but because it’s men.... yeah.

There are very few non hormonal LARCs - really only the copper coil is leave and forget and that can make periods unbearable and has risks during insertion and during use.

There needs to be much more research on a variety of methods for both sexes that are easy to use, and do not cause significant side effects. Yes it’s a feminist issue.

I think Op is right, I think you could see the seeds of it in the 'sexual revolution' which apparently was the beginning of men thinking women should be sexually available at all times.
A few years ago I was at a seminar about contraception (I am very old, most of the participants were in 20s or 30s) - people had no idea at all of barrier methods, other than condoms. I used these for years and while they weren't perfect, they sure beat everything else, Germaine Greer is right, it makes no sense at all to be permanently medicated for the hadnful of times you might conceive.
I think the lower rates ot teen pg are almost certainly due to the pusing of LARCs, and I wonder what price is being paid.
Years ago (as I said I am very old) there was a brilliant piece in Spare Rib, describing an IPD (intra penile device) which was a kind of umbrella inserted through the urethra which was then opened at the junction of the vas deferens (can't recall exactly) resulting in sperm free ejaculate. Of course it was quite painful to insert and did result in some loss of sexual function, and chronic pain. But this was considered a small price to pay for reliable contraception.
At the bottom of the page, in very small writing, it said 'this is a joke'.

Oops... meant to say:

I'm just so, so sick of having stuff stuck inside me for my own good!'

I get really irritated when the withdrawal method is dismissed as 'not a method of contraception'. Not true. If done properly, it's 96% effective, with typical use, 78% effective.

When I was in a LTR with a trusted partner, it's what we used for years. I weighed the risks against the side effects of the pill, coil, implant, etc and decided it was worth it.

But quite often, women who opt for this method are made to feel as though they're idiots! On the odd occasion that I've chatted to women about it, they've been a bit sheepish about saying it was their preferred method too.

I can't help but think that one of the reasons withdrawal is rubbished as impractical is that it can interfere with the man's enjoyment of sex, both psychologically and physically.

I feel that men expect young women to be in a constant state of sexual readiness, but at the same time neutered.

I remember one time, I was having drinks with a bloke who was angling for a casual hook up. When I informed him I favoured non invasive contraception, he actually looked quite angry, pointing out to me (in case it hadn't occurred to me?) that I might get pregnant!

It's difficult for me to articulate my feelings about this... I'm just so, sick of having stuff stuck inside me for the own good!

Phew...that long...!!

Other than a couple of years in my late teens when I tried multiple different forms of the pill I've always used condoms. Male partner doesn't like it? He can bugger off and find someone else to sleep with, then. Funny how condoms suddenly become a perfectly valid option when the choice is presented that way.

The fact that some doctors are actively denying the side effects that are clearly shown via research is appalling.

I agree 100% with HairyBallTheorem's 20:51 post. Every word is spot on.

I was on the pill at 16 and when I went to the follow up appointment I said I felt it was making me emotional and the doctor completely dismissed that was anything to do with the pill so I carried on taking it. My depression got quite severe and in my mind I'd completely disconnected my feelings from the pill because, you know the doctor had dismissed it. Eventually my mother, thank god, said she thought it was worth coming off the pill (my mother was not a medic, just older and wiser) and I started feeling better within a few weeks. I was persuaded by another doctor to try another brand a few years later, with exactly the same results, 2 months in I was barely functioning. I've used condoms successfully since.

I've read testimony of women who have spent years and years depressed, all of their 20s, and finally stopped taking the pill and realised that had been the source of their mental health problems. I think it's scandalous. We are pushing potentially very damaging medicine on healthy women and then denying that it is having a negative impact on them. Yes contraceptive is freeing - I would never ever want to have another child - but it is not without difficulty and we need to be honest and research properly it's effects. I would never ever take hormonal contraceptives again, I've never felt it to be a problem, in fact if I'd just stuck to condoms from my teens I'd have been better off.

I'd also agree with HairyBallTheorem about mental health and women more generally. When I did A Level Sociology we studied someone who'd studied women in the 1970s and their extremely high use of valium who had concluded just that - that women's depression was a reasonable response to motherhood/being a housewife in suburbia. I recently spent some time taking anti-depressants and so many women I know told me they were also taking them. I felt like we hadn't really moved on.

Women's healthcare is inadequate. Hopefully the fact that more women than men are now studying medicine will mean that this starts to change and improve. On mental health, I think that society is so damaging to families and that is the problem - capitalism needs to change imo.

Incidentally, I do totally get that contraception is possibly one of the most amazing thing to happen for women... but at the same time, the lack of interest in continuing to develop forms that don't come with massive side effects, and the paternalism of the medical profession (I'm another one whose complaints about side effects were totally dismissed by doctors).

I had a tubal ligation as early as they would allow because of the horrible side effects of BC pills and inter uterine devices.
That was in the 60s when the BC pills were much too strong.
The research they do on women's medicine is substandard and so we end up being test subjects.
I hear you OP and I am so sorry.

Oh yes, the damage to one's libido. In the midst of my depression I did get a certain black humour from thinking "the only reason the pill is so sodding effective is that you don't actually want to have sex while you're taking it..."

And yes to the coil, Badger - I remember one of my student housemates collapsing in her lab haemorrhaging when her coil shifted. She had it taken out and afterwards remarked "not so much a method of contraception as a method of slow, painful sterilisation."

I spent most of my reproductive years using condoms - very successfully, no accidental pregnancies (admittedly supplemented with a couple of occasions on which I took the MAP when one failed - but at least with the condom, you can see when it's failed. I have quite a few friends who've got pregnant while using the pill as responsibly as one could reasonably be expected to manage, caught out by minor tummy bugs/antibiotics where the doctor forgot to mention that they stopped the pill from working.)

Also YY to Sex and Destiny, fascinating read.

I was always very that they stopped trials of the male contraceptive pill due to all the side effects - same sort of ones that females are expected to put up with without complaining...

(If anybody has a good link to a decent reference on that I would be interested as I've read articles and mn posts that mentiin this but never the source info!)

I get really annoyed about the gaslfighting that goes on with LARCS. Lost count of the number of GPs who have told me it would be "very unlikely" contraception was making me feel ill. Fuck off. Studies show they have a negative impact on women.
My DD will be thinking about this soon and I don't know what advice to give. Especially because the pill damages libido.