ALLERGIC TO ALL FORMS OF CONTRACEPTION- WHAT NOW?

[Kaedsmum]

I've been described by my doctor as 'very unusual'. The pill and patch have always made me ill and depressed, but I tried to go back on the patch recently. It made my hair fall out, it made me ill, and it covered my body in blisters. I'm allergic to all hormonal forms of contraception due to the oestrogen and progestrogen, but I was wondering, is that why i had such a nasty pregnancy? i was exhausted and poorly a lot and went to pieces. I was also quite paranoid. Are these hormones increased during pregnancy?

Also, what's an alternative? I'm also allergic to latex.

has anyone ever come across this before?

As long as they keep making them until my menopause, I'll be okay. But I do feel like Elaine from Seinfeld in the episode where she stockpiles the sponge because it's discontinued. The sponge really wasn't that safe, though! The diaphragm, if used properly, is. The fear - I've talked to family planning nurses about this because I'm quite obsessed - is that young girls will use it improperly and get pregnant. So everyone is offered hormone pills, hormone implants, hormone assisted coils, or a packet of condoms. The diaphragm isn't mentioned.

I had a student (doctor) come in to have a look when I went to get my diaphragm too - as it was so unusual. They didn't fit it for me though, in fact I had to put it in twice myself and then they checked that I'd done it properly (so that they knew that I'd be fitting it correctly at home). It was quite un-nerving to sit there on the bed and try to get it in while tensed up and with two people on the other side of the door. I'm a bit of an advocate now, as I found that when we got engaged DH and I would get a bit carried away, and weren't as careful with condoms as we had been. The diaphragm was great then. Sadly, I'm not a card-carrying diaphragm-wearer now, as we found out that we're infertile. Although I suppose that it will rule out a lot of contraception angst once we've finished our family...

I think the diaphragm suffers the most from the incorrect or non-usage that is counted in the reliability stats for methods of contraception...

Yes, and add a high incidence of drunkenness to that, and you can see why it's not the best method for 16 year olds. But there's a lot of women in their 30s who still have nearly 2 decades of not wanting to use condoms.

That's what I don't understand - it probably is a bad choice for teenagers - but then shouldn't they be using condoms anyway? I never inserted it while drunk, as the whole point as far as I was concerned was to put it in and then get drunk.
I think that the coil is now considered the method of choice for women in their 30s and 40s, but it's silly to assume that it's right for everyone. Especially as now it seems as though doctors are pushing the hormone-version instead of the regular copper coil.

I have had a plain/copper non hormonal IUD since i was 18 as hormones and me = nasty migraines that lasted days, condoms were itchy tho i'm not latex allergic and the cream for the diaphram made my inners swell so much they couldn't get it back out for a week.

I get extremely depressed on progesten-based anything, but can't use combined hormones due to hypertension.

Don't like how the copper coil works.

Thankfully, DH is getting a vasectomy, although, if I need a csection for no. 3 (he's still breech) I'm going to ask if I can be sterilised whilst on the table - hopefully they'll agree to cut my tubes and not clip them, because I have fallen pregnant very easily these past couple of times.

There's a 'new' method of female sterilisation, called Essure, now in Scotland on the NHS, but only in Edinburgh so far. Would be nice to see it becoming more common - a moneysaver in the long run because it can be done under local and is extremely effective. Cannot be reversed, however.

Why do they induce depression? Does anyone know? It's awful to think that something like that can make you feel so loopy.

Glad I'm not the only one who's always had trouble with contraception! I can't use hormone contraceptives, I'm allergic to the spermicide in most condoms, hate the thought of a copper coil being left permanently inside me, had an awful experience being fitted with a diaphragm by someone who didn't really know what she was doing... and have ended up using non-latex, non-spermicidally lubricated condoms ever since. My husband doesn't seem to mind, and I'm hoping he'll agree to a vasectomy in the next couple of years! I'm also very aware of when I'm coming up to ovulation - would find it very easy to chart the changes in my mucous!!! And I get ovulation pain. (And, strangely, a noticeably increased libido around ovulation - probably because I'm not that interested the rest of the month!!! Anyone else find this????????????).