In school they put it simply "if you're going to have sex, you have to be on birth control or you're going to get pregnant." I started using the pill when I was 13 (I'm 27 now) because I asked my doctor what I could do about my acne. Nothing was explained to me and I figured that if the doctor was giving it to me then I shouldn't be concerned at all. I had only had a couple periods to begin with at this point and knew nothing about keeping track of you cycle. I was taught that if you didn't get one period a month and you were sexually active, then you might be pregnant. I wasn't taught how to track my cycle or what signs to pay attention to in order to know where my body was at in my cycle. I was 13, just starting puberty, no where near regular and they put me on the pill for acne. I wasn't sexually active at that time so at least I didn't have that added to the pile of craziness. So here I was an adolescent with adolescent hormones and everything that goes with it, acne, mood swings, energy swings, severe menstrual cramps, the works. And they thought it wise to add more hormones into the mix?! The doctor actually said that the pill would help with my mood swings by leveling out my hormones. Well, yes as a fluctuating teen it probably did level them out some. At the very top level it would seem. The mood swings got worse and I was then put on anti depressants. The menstrual cramps got worse, so they said I probably had endometreosis but never bothered to check. I was told that would require an exploratory surgery. My cycle did regulated to the normal 28 day cycle. Buy freshman year of high school I was bat-shit-crazy with massive high low mood swings. I know they say it's normal for teens to need more sleep but I was going to bed right after school, waking for dinner and going back to bed and sleeping until school the next morning. I was still on anti depressants and the 'depression' was getting worse, I started self harming and at 15 I tried to end my life. I switched to the depoprovera injection because I was told it would help with my endometreosis episodes. I really liked not having my period and the painful attacks of cramping became fewer. But when I did have an attack it was much more painful. I was carried into the ER a few times by my high school boyfriend, due to the pain. No one ever said that the birth control might not be helping. I had to live with it. I was sexually active at this point and knew that condoms alone are not a good idea. I as a woman had to be responsible for myself and be on birth control.
I used depoprovera for years, until I was 22. Then I took a 3 year break from dating and therefore birth control wasn't necessary, so I quit. Around that time, I also had a routine pap come back with abnormal cells. They said it was no big deal and that we should repap in six months. The six month repap came back showing the same so they told me that it could be a simple case of HPV and that my system should fight it off eventually. But they insisted that I get the Guardasil vaccine since I could get it for free because of my age being the cut off and my birthday being a couple months away. They said that it would help my body fight off the HPV. If it was in fact HPV. I was told that at that time there was no way to test for HPV. So I got all 3 ridiculously painful injections of guardasil (like a good little sheeple) and scheduled another repap six months out. That pap was abnormal as well and they wanted to wait again. During the 2 years of repaps I was on my journey to get physically and mentally healthier. After I had quit the birth control it was like a cloud slowly lifting! My mood swings mellowed way out, I had more energy, was more mentally clear, less tired all the time. The first few months sucked cycle wise, I bled for way more then the normal week that women are suppose to have. But that is normal for women coming off of depo. I had quit the antidepressants during my junior year of high school but had continued to feel depressed. About a year into being birth control free I realized that even tho I had been homeless in that year, was currently having to work 2 jobs, the repap nightmare continuing and all the other stresses of life that were going on, I hadn't felt depressed. Down, yeah, of course I felt down sometimes but not end it all depressed or cut yourself just to feel something else. I was handling stress better, thinking clearer, being a happier person. This is when I started eating better, working out and then went vegan.
So after two years of repaps my doctor finally said "ok, it's cancer. it's early on, but it's still cancer and we need to act." She said the best bet was to not only surgically remove the first layer of tissue on my cervix and hope that the cells weren't deeper but she also wanted to do a round of what she described as 'radiation like' treatment. I was fine with the surgery, even suggested that she just take it all as I don't want kids anyway. But she thought was to extreme and would rather poison me with radiation. Gotta love the system, not. So I got a second opinion and did some serious research. I found information relating the body's PH balance and how it affects the ability of disease to grow in the body. See Gerson Therapy, Raw food and Cancer, Ph and Cancer. Of course research deeply! There are many testimonials as well like... Healed from Tumors with Raw foods, Terminal Brain cancer cured with raw food, etc. So I refused the doctor recommended 'treatment' and cracked down on my vegan diet. I did have the surgery to remove the cancer cells off of my cervix. A few months later I had a recheck and not only were the cells not coming back but my doctor said that she couldn't even tell I had had the surgical procedure at all. I'm 27 now, struggled with the diet last year but am getting back on track, Still no sign of the cancer returning!
My whole life had turned around and after 3 years I was ready and stable enough to date again. I began a new relationship and the partner was very uncomfortable with me not being on birth control so I got back on the depo. I had suspected that maybe the depo had played a part in all the negative issues but I mostly put the blame me just being a crazy teen. My mother has physical depression and so it made sense to think that, and yes it's normal for teens to have mood swings and everything else I was dealing with when I first started birth control. But this society has trained us to throw a pill at the things that we don't like about ourselves and it sucks and needs to stop. So I started depo again after 3 years of no birthconrol, no dating, no sex, and focusing on myself, and my health. By the second injection I was spiraling back to the same side effects I had been dealing with when I used birth control before. So I explained my suspicions to my doctor and she switched me to a low hormone pill. So at that point I'm about 6 months into a really great relationship and he agrees about my suspecting the birth control as I wasn't using any when we met and started because he was nervous about not using any. He saw the side effects getting worse and worse every month. So then I'm switching from depo to a low hormone pill. I was bat-shit-crazy again, within a month of starting the pill. It was to much for us to survive and we parted ways. I did a couple months of the pill and then weened myself off of it all. The crazy moods subsided.
I found myself in a new relationship and panicking about birth control. How can I have sex if I can't use hormonal based birth control? Every condom I've ever used has broken, permanent sterilization of either the male or female isn't really viable at the age of 25ish due to many reasons. I wouldn't dare try the IUD inserts because of the endometreosis and having known so many girls that had horrendous pain with it and still got pregnant. So the hunt was on. At this point I was only having sex during the week after my period. So I'm really in tune with my body at this point and am really focused on being healthy, and living as healthy and natural as possible,
So I started looking for natural birth control methods and found this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tqz6aQ2Qz4 A handy device that tells you if it's ok to have sex that day or not based on the signs your body gives and whether you are trying to conceive or trying not to. Great! It's $500. Fuck! I mean really that's crazy. So thanks to that video which also mentions charting, I learned how to chart my fertility to prevent conception. I mostly used Fertilityfriend.com for keeping track and learning how to chart but double checked everything they said with other sources and my doctor.
That was nearly two years ago and now I don't even use Fertilityfriend.com to keep track anymore. Once every few months I double check the ovulation dates to make sure my math is correct but so far so good. I haven't had a single worry that I may be pregnant and I feel amazing. I don't want biological children of my own so I do plan on having my tubes tied as soon as I can get a doctor to sign off on it. At 27 I haven't found a doctor to do it because they worry that I may change my mind.
See here's the basics to charting:
You must be regular. The normal woman is a 28 day cycle. The cycle can change due to many factors such as stress, diet, sleep habits, etc. Keep track for a few months to see how many days your cycle is consistently.
Day 1 of your cycle is the first day of your period. Days 1-7 & 21-28 are 'good to go' so get freaky ;-).
Days 12-19 are your 'blacked out dates' NO HANKY PANKY. You are expected to ovulate somewhere during these days. Sperm can live in you for 3 days so 3 days before, the 2 days of ovulation and the 3 following days are the no go dates. Tips to know you are ovulating... slight cramping on one side or the other, pms symptoms, slippery discharge (not paste like). You can look up more tips for that online and find ovulation calculators to check you dates with. I use a pocket calendar to color code the month, green = go, red=stop. Pretty basic.
I do recommend other methods in addition of course. I straight up refuse to get busy anywhere during my ovulation week. I use the pull out method or condoms. It took the first 6 months to get regular but I've been regular as clock work every since and I've gotten pretty good knowing when I'm ovulating so I really don't worry as long as it's not the black out week.
The point of my story is don't be a sheeple! Ask questions, do research, research, research. Know your body. Do what is RIGHT FOR YOU! Food for thought....
