Seconding all of this. My only other inconvenience has been for medical forms that ask when my last period was and I’m like “um … 2019?”
I used to do this and it was wonderful. My only hesitation with pills is that I can’t remember my own name some days, so I don’t feel confident that I would be able to take them every day and at the same time.
I have a bias against hormonal BC that I absolutely know was put there by my hippie mother and founded on nothing. So there’s that. But I’m ready to embrace it if I can end this eternal bleeding.
That all sounds so good. I’m realllly over it all.
Occasionally I think “hm, I wonder if hormonal birth control has changed my libido, attraction levels, etc.”, but then I remember that I don’t have a period and I’m totally ok with slightly lower sex drive for that trade off
I’m certain hormonal bc lowers my sex drive but kid two is 5 months old, and both our libidos are on the low side as it is, so no one’s getting it on in this house anyway. Might as well own it.
I’m certain my sex drive is lower than it used to be, haha, but is that because of the birth control, or because kids under 6 and pandemics are exhausting? Nobody knows…but at least I don’t have cramps!
I had a Mirena for 6 years and didn’t have periods during that time. I generally don’t have medical reactions/sensitivities but YMMV. Insertion was not bad at all, comparable to a pap smear.
Just letting you know that the opposite problem can happen with the Mirena. Bestie had theirs replaced after the first one expired and instead this time they had a period…constantly. For six months before giving up and having it removed. I’m pretty sure their experience is exception to the rule, but just letting you know it’s a possibility.
Ah gotcha. I take a bunch of stuff every day so it’s easy for me to remember. A friend of mine who just started taking something put a daily alarm on her phone, maybe that would help?
ETA: Oh and I definitely don’t do it at the same time every day, lol. I just do morning pills and evening pills and don’t worry about the exact time. I’ve never had an issue even with other hormonal things (I have a hormone disorder so I take some other stuff that’s supposed to be timed, too…but I don’t think it really matters that much unless it’s a heavy duty pain med and you’re taking too many, or something otherwise high risk like that).
I think the only one that REALLY matters on the timing is the mini pill, and that one has to be within the same half hour or something.
I definitely know someone who missed a few days of regular bc pills and was like “oh, I just took all three on the day I remembered”, and I was like
Oh good to know! I’ve never taken that, or heard of it, it sounds adorable though. Mini pill! Haha.
That’s what happened with me. I bled and had vomit inducing cramps for 2 months after my IUD was inserted. My uterus was NOT happy to be hosting.
I switched to the arm implant and it’s been great. I’m on my second one (they go for 3 years) and haven’t had a period since it was inserted. Highly recommend!
The mini pill is generally only something that’s recommended if you can’t take “normal” hormonal birth control, like if you have migraines (and therefore normal BC has a higher risk of blood clots). I had to take it for several years and it was so annoying! Especially when switching time zones…ughhh…
I have like…a lot of alarms every day that go off for a lot of things, and am generally unsuccessful at following any of them. Most of that is because my schedule is very odd. Weekdays I work 6-2:30 and then weekends I might be sleeping through a lot of that. The pill I was on previously had a disclaimer in the fine print that said you had to take it at the same time every day +/- 1 hour or the effectiveness dropped from 99% to 80%! I assume that was for pregnancy prevention specifically, but I definitely had days where I would forget for a few hours and then my period would appear. It’s possible that was just that specific pill though.
Yepppp. I hated the mini pill. Anhedonia Central!
I think that is how it works? Haha, plan B is just a 3x dose of “regular” bc pill hormones
Edit: seems not a great idea, but also not the worst
That’s true I just meant that you shouldn’t rely on that to just “bring you back up to speed” and not care for the rest of the package. I think you’re supposed to use secondary protection for a few days if you miss 2+ days of pills to make sure the hormone is working correctly.
I have Mirena and it’s fine. I generally don’t have a period and get extremely light spotting maybe 2-3 times per year.
I took birth control pills for ages before my doctor encouraged me to switch to Mirena because of my age and the risk of blood clots, I think? I slightly preferred the pill. I already take daily medication so having one more pill to take was no big deal. I liked that on the pill I was 100% confident of when I would or wouldn’t have a period. My periods on the pill were very light as well and usually only about a day and I never had cramps. With Mirena I usually don’t have anything, but again I’ll get very mild cramps and very light spotting a couple times a year, and I don’t love that I’m not sure when that will or won’t happen. But really, when I say very light spotting, I mean super light, like even using a pantiliner is generally overkill. Apparently my body loves hormonal birth control because I seem to react really well to everything I tried.
As a side note, I remember learning about periods as a kid and thinking, “Wait, I’m going to have this every month for how long?!?! And there’s no way to opt out?” And now I forget that periods are even a thing most of the time.
I had two Mirena’s over ~7 years (I had them before they extended how long you could use it). The first one I didn’t have a period after bleeding/spotting for the first 6 weeks. About a year after I got the second one I started having breakthrough bleeding every ~3 weeks. Light but annoying.
I have the other IUD, the copper one. ParaGard. Well, for about another month, and then it’s getting evicted! It’s been ten years. That’s the good side of that one, it lasts for ten years and it’s not hormonal (so you can appease your hippie-mother-implanted (ha!) ideas). The bad side is that since it’s not hormonal like the Mirena, it doesn’t stop your periods.
I didn’t like it for about the first year because it made my periods heavier than they had been and more cramping than I had had previously. But I didn’t get around to removing it and everything calmed down and it’s been fine for the last 9 years. But I’ve had periods all the way through, and if I could go back I time, I would have chosen Mirena instead.