To think that contraception is a pain in the ass and it would just be easier to never have sex again?

[lottielou39]

I'm 38 and have a 7 week old daughter who we love to bits. She was conceived despite me being on the mini pill and taking it on time every single day, never missing one or taking it late and no tummy bugs/upset stomachs or antibiotics etc..
We're happy the pill failed because we love her to bits, but arn't keen to have a 4th baby, so I'm looking at contraceptive choices. Neither of us want permanent contraception.
I was all ready to have Mirena fitted, then read loads of horror stories on here about it, including women who've become pregnant with Mirena in. I know no method of contraception is 100%, but with a failure rate of 2 in 100, you wouldn't expect to be one of those two people, would you?
I've thought about an implant, but they get a shocking press too, don't they? Has anyone had an implant and actually got on fine with it? Apparently it's got an amazingly low failure rate (1 in 1000 or something) so I'd feel very confident with this method, if I had no side effects. But I'm too old at almost 39 for the combined pill, so wondering if the same will apply to the implant?
I just don't want to get pregnant again accidentally, am happy with my three wonderful children, but would struggle with any more at the moment.
What do you recommend and WIBU just to abstain instead??!

YANBU but....Why wouldn't you want a permanent option if you're both done having kids? Especially the snip, much more simple than female sterilisation.

I WISH I could be sure I was done having kids so I could go for a permanent, and non constant PITA option. I got pregnant with DD on the pill, I forget to make appointments for the injection, the coil stabbed my exdh's willy with the threads, the implant turned me into an anxious, fat, crazy lady, they discontinued the sponge and my weight fluctuates too much for a diaphram. Plus they are too unreliable anyway. So that leaves me with condoms which obviously aren't ideal either.

Unfortunately at 31 and with only one DC I can't be sure enough yet to go permanent.

But if you are sure you don't want any more then why not?

Just wondering what other reasons there might be for not doing it?

OP, get a diaphragm.

Yes I believe the only problem with them is that one is unable to take them to Buckingham Palace for fear of embarrassment!

Copper coil- no hormones so none of the problems of Mirena. About as reliable as you can get- the WHO recommends it for use in the developing world. Bit uncomfortable having it put in but less so if you've had kids. Once it's in you don't have to think about it for TEN YEARS, (though some brands are 5 I think) other than checking the threads every now and again. I've had mine eight and never had any problems.

If sex is a pain in the ass then you don't need contraception...

I've got a mirena coil, it's brilliant - no side effects and no periods.
Give it a try

I had the implant quite early on (actually had 2 of them in over 6 years) and found them marvellous.

Did bleed quite a lot the first year, but was worth persevering as life was just so simple.

I would highly recommend you give it a try.

You can read 'bad press' about types of contraception until you're blue in the face but until you try it for yourself you'll never know if it suits you or not.

Implants and Mirena are excellent for lots of women, but others don't get on with them. But you can say that for every type of contraception.

Implant, Mirena and depo-provera are progesterone only contraceptives so safer for the over 35s especially if a smoker or overweight. Weight gain with progesterones isn't automatic but progesterones can cause an increase in appetite.

Non-hormonal methods such as barrier methods and IUD may be worth a try if you don't want hormones.

There are also methods such as the Nuvaring and patch but I haven't met anyone who likes using them yet.

I wouldn't recommend the coil.. I have it and am thinking about getting it taken out after 8 months.

Yes, I have no periods or pains, but I can always kind of 'feel' it and sex is always a bit uncomfortable. Also I have infection after thrush after infection.

My Gp is happy for me to stay on the combined pill (I'm 38 too)

One plus point of being infertile and not able to conceive....... No contraception worries!

Currently using a combination of a) boyfriend doesn't come inside me and b) being aware of cycle and letting him know in that week to be super careful. I guess its a combination of rhythm and withdrawal methods.

I would have thought 'ewww' in previous years about this - but it works surprisingly well. It works cause boyfriend doesn't want me to get pregnant and he has good control to know when its getting too much and either slow down or come out and release! Sort of got forced down this route as I can't use hormonal contraceptives, condoms resulted in a distinct floppiness and not had family yet so permanent options were out...

(This is probably way TMI but I think its less messy than when I used to be on the pill - we have towels to clean up straightaway, where before the 'liquid' would be inside me and would slowly dribble out either onto the bedsheets or onto my knickers over the next 30-60 mins!)

YANBU i can't take the combined pill as I am in an at risk group, the mini pill I found to be the work of the devil (three months with no periods, then a three week long bleed). Most hormonal contraception seems to make my periods awful anyway. I'm 34 and have got pregnant instantly the two times I have ever not used contraception so I am assuming I need something reliable. We were using condoms for years, which seem to be effective but they are vile.

Considering sterlisation after this baby is born, but I don't know if they will say we're too young.

I am pregnant, we were using condoms. No split, as far as we're aware. We didn't take any risks. The ONLY thing I can think of is there must have been a tiny hole / split we did not notice.

So after this dc? Dh is having the snip, and I will probably buse another contraceptive method as well (but not willing to use hormonal methods). Tis is NOT happening to me again.

I know you said "no permanent options" but I love having had the snip. Total peace of mind.

DBf & I use condoms as well, as we haven't got round to getting tested yet (and at this rate we might not - condoms are so damn convenient!)

Action girl 1978 , if you have no periods then you must have Mirena, not a simple copper coil (IUD). With a simple coil you will have periods as normal, in fact they can be a bit heavier. OP, definitely worth either asking your GP about it or maybe go to a specialist family planning clinic.

You're welcome, birdsofshoreandsea!

I realise that plenty of women in this world have to put up with limited options, and I'm sure that if condoms were the only non-permanent option available I'd use them and learn to work with them fine, but since I am here and have the option of all these wonderful choices, I might as well make life easy for myself I suppose none of this is helped by the fact that DH and I have only ever slept with each other (we have dated others and done stuff before we met, just not fully slept with partners), so any prior practice with condoms isn't there as it would be normally for most couples. It was only ever after DCs as a temp thing. Not exactly a good testing time, really!

I recommend Essure sterilisation. Cant link cos on phone, but is pain free and done with no general anaesthetic. Great!

Oops, sorry, didn't read properly, no permanent options

No problems with either Depo or Implanon here

The depo was great, but I had seriously nasty night sweats and couldn't stop eating. I was really hoping it would work, last thing left to try now is the coil.

Have you tried charting and checking your cervical mucus. Yes sounds gross but until I read Toni Weschler's book 'Taking Charge of Your Fertility' I thought I knew all I needed to know about getting pregnant or not in your case. I discovered a natural method by which to avoid pregnancy and realized that all my life I had been terrified of getting pregnant the entire month when the window of opportunity is actually quite small! Once you are aware of when you ovulate you can use barrier methods or abstain during that brief period and then resume as normal. However, I would only suggest using this method if you aren't dead set against more children. If you are against more kids get your OH to have the snip which I think is only fair.