BIRTH CONTROL!????!!?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2004
BIRTH CONTROL!????!!?
3
Sun, 07-04-2004 - 12:24am
Okay, I'm 20 years old and I'm getting married in about 6 months. I've saved myself for my husband, but now I'm faced with the question of what birth conrol method is best for me? What are the positives and negatives of the pill and everything else? I don't want to take anything that would be potentially harmful to the baby if I was to conceive. please help me out. thanks a lot.

~zdk~
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-14-2004
Sun, 07-04-2004 - 12:47am
Hi zdk, and welcome to the board!

I'm 21 and will be married next July, so I'm sort of in the same boat as you. But, because my fiance and I didn't wait for marriage, I have been dealing with birth control issues for five years. My personal experience has been sort of trial & error; I've been on several different kinds of birth control pills, I've tried Depo Provera and now I've got a copper IUD and I love it. Mine is the Nova-T IUD and it's good for 2.5 years, whereas the Paragard IUD is good for 10.

Since you're starting with a completely clean slate, you have a LOT of options ahead of you. Firstly though, you should really consider what your lifestyle is like and what would work best for you. For instance:

*If you're not great at remembering to take a pill everyday / change a patch every week / change a ring once a month, the Birth Control Pill, Ortho Evra patch and NuvaRing may not be the best choices.

*If spontinaity is very important to you and your partner, condoms, the sponge, a diaphragm or cervical cap may not be your best options.

*If you already have a rather heavy/painful period, you may want to stay away from the IUD

What I'm trying to get at is that for every method out there, there are women out there that love them and there are women that just had no luck with them. It's a very personal choice and your own personal prefrences and lifestyle need to be taken into consideration.

I recommend cl-judie_rae's birth control page for some information. The link is posted just under the wecome message on the board's home page, but I will give you it anyway: http://pages.ivillage.com/cl-judie_rae/ I also highly recommend that you check out your local Planned Parenthood for further information.

Good Luck with your decision and I hope I helped a bit :)

~*~Jenn~*~

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-30-2003
Sun, 07-04-2004 - 8:34am
Hi zdk, welcome!

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage! Jenn has given you some good things to think about. I’d just like to add the links for the Planned Parenthood list of choices with their pros & cons. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/bc/cchoices.html And, since you specifically asked about possible harm to the fetus should there be an accidental pregnancy, that is a con for IUDs. It can be dangerous to the fetus and possibly the mother should an IUD wearer become pg. Hormonal contraceptives, barriers and spermicides are pretty safe should a pregnancy occur. Thanks for stopping by. If you have any more questions please ask. Let us know what you decide, ok?

Good luck,

      Jill

    

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-04-2004
Sun, 07-04-2004 - 9:01am
i use the depo and i love it one shot every three months u don't have to worry about a pill everyday and u don't get your period it's 99.7% effecttive which is more then the pill. the only downfall is when you do decide to have a baby it could take up to 12 to 18 months. or it could just take a couple of months. i give it two thumbs up.