To think condoms alone are a sufficient form of contraception?

[ShineSmile]

I do need a fool proof form of contraception as I can't have more children now.

I was thinking of getting a copper coil fitted alongside using condoms, but it has been difficult getting a convenient appointment at the local family health planning clinic (need someone to look after baby whilst I go). They also said they have no gas and air for pain relief, and I'm slightly dreading it.

So AIBU to think just condoms are sufficient as a form of contraception? I don't want to take any hormone contraception.

Map only about 80% effective even if taken within 12 hours...so said the nurse at BPAS :-(

We have just made this decision ourselves.

We used condoms between pregnancies as we weren't that bothered if they failed. For us a 3rd pregnancy would not be a disaster - we can afford another, my health is fine and we have the space - but we don't want another.

However I am not willing to take the MAP or have a termination and we are pretty fertile so if a condom splits we are stuffed!

I am going to get an implant I think. (Very happy to find the contraception thread - will be over there soon!)

I am actually pretty unsympathetic to husbands who can't possibly miss work to look after their child while their wife sorts out their contraception. I got dh to come home yesterday in his lunch hour while I went and got my (overdue) smear done and talked to the nurse about contraception. (He preferred that to going in late in the morning.) He was away from the office for all of 1 hour 15 minutes - and that included dropping us off at art class afterwards. My view is that if I die of cervical cancer or get pregnant accidentally then he will have to do a lot more childcare than having 15 minutes extra for lunch.

I've relied on them alone for eight years and got pregnant three times, each the first month of TTC. So I feel they are pretty reliable! I won't take hormonal contraception and the thought of a coil brings me out in a cold sweat (despite two natural births, one without pain relief at all and the other with G&A). Now my family is complete I'm considering the more permanent options but not sure about doing something potentially irreversible just in case I change my mind (ie get amnesia and forget all about the hyperemesis...) So I'm likely to continue relying on condoms. Though this thread is making me waver!

Not to worry you but... I saw somebody on TV once who got pregnant after having a hysterectomy. Turns out that while she was having the op the fertilised egg was travelling down the fallopian tubes to the womb, oh then fallopian tubes, womb, everything else wiped away, egg thought, I know I'll implant myself in the abdomen wall. Nine months later, a healthy baby girl

They did say that this it was the only known case in the world of this ever happening though and it was about 25 years ago.

Seriously???? A baby can grow to term inside your abdomen? Gosh.

I'd like to know how conception can occur if the condom is used correctly and it has been checked for leaks afterwards

Yes, so would I! Nevertheless, it happened to me too. No splits, breaks, putting-it-on-at-the-end, etc.etc...but I still got pregnant.

But then, condoms have a 2% failure rate if used properly (15% or so if not). So I suppose that means that, say, if you're fertile 20% of your cycle, but less likely to have sex whilst menstruating....lets's say that for every 1000 times you have sex, you're fertile 250 of those times. 2% of that = 5 potential fuckups, statistically speaking.

(feel free to check my maths, btw )

The 2% failure rate for perfect use is pregnancies per year not failures per shag stubborn, otherwise we'd all be pregnant all the time.

Feels a bit like bragging, but I too am pretty darn fertile and managed 14 years of non-stop shagging without unintended pregnancy (two planned pregnancies, both conceived within four weeks, one egg donation, recipient conceived first cycle) and the only failure we had was when using condoms. We even used the rhythm method for a year without conceiving.

What really pisses me off is that we were hardly shagging at all when I fell pregnant because I was so stressed with work and renovations. How is that fair? There were years when we were at it EVERY DAY and I didn't get pregnant. And the one pity shag DH gets that week and I'm up the duff.

I'd like to know how conception can occur if the condom is used correctly and it has been checked for leaks afterwards

I would assume that the pregnancies-despite-condom-not-leaking/split happen when the users have been less than careful about putting them on with, erm, clean hands IYSWIM. Isn't there a huge amount of sperm on the end even before ejaculation? So if you have some on your hands before putting it on, then it may well get on the outside of the condom.

Although I guess that counts as 'not being used properly' so that may have been a pointless post sorry.

No-one knows why perfect use (of any method) sometimes results in PG. Like with an implant or mirena, it just shouldn't happen. But it does.

Not all men have sperm in their pre-ejaculatory fluid, BTW: what's in it was properly researched in big studies in the HIV context. Sperm, only maybe; the virus yes, if the man is infected.

I relied on condoms for about 10 years without any failures.

Ah. There you are then! My failure was after twenty. Shouldn't even have still been fertile if the Daily Mail is anything to go by.

That's weird! I typed but got a :) ??

You're too old to obviously!

I had a coil fitted and removed without even feeling it!
I'm glad I didn't know that it hurt some people, it would have put me off

Condoms are not 100%. For the majority of people, they can use them for years and never get pregnant, but a few will. If that would be a disaster for you, then a second form of contraception is a wise backup.

Igggi