Posted on 07/12/2024 8:34:42 PM PDT by Morgana
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the guest author.
Editor’s Note: Featured image shows the author during Prednisone (left), which caused her to gain 45 pounds, and after stopping the medication (right).
When I entered my first relationship in high school, I was 16. I was extremely naive about anything having to do with sex. My mom, along with my boyfriend at the time, wanted me on birth control; I was indifferent and went along with it. Because of her negative experiences with many other contraceptives, my mom believed the IUD was best for me.
One day while I was still 16, she took me to a Planned Parenthood, where one of her doctor friends worked. I had no idea what to expect, and before I knew it my legs were in stirrups, and my cervix was being dilated, with on heavy pain meds administered to be able to insert the IUD. I had not had any sexual experiences before this. This left me traumatized, in pain, and confused about what sex even was.
Adverse effects and misdiagnoses
From the beginning, I had serious issues with the Mirena IUD, including headaches and prolonged periods which often lasted 14 days. Planned Parenthood doctors told me to take 800 mg of ibuprofen every four hours until the bleeding stopped. I did not realize how bad that was for you, and it didn’t stop the bleeding.
About a year and a half later in the last month of my senior year at 17, I began to get rashes. This quickly intensified with rashes covering my entire body, debilitating joint pain, and 104-degree fevers. This went on for three months while I underwent countless blood tests, doctor appointments, and a 10-day hospitalization. I feared I was going to die.
I was eventually diagnosed with an autoimmune disease (systemic vasculitis, later changed to junior rheumatoid arthritis — a misdiagnosis I could write a whole other story about). I was treated for this with seven different medications for five years. In those five years I relapsed three times and had other urgent care visits and medications added.
During this time of visiting multiple doctors, not once was it ever suggested that my birth control could be the cause of my illness — and some even discouraged me from removing it.
Fast forward five years: I am off of most of my medications, all of which gave me horrible side effects, and it is time to replace my IUD. I relied on my IUD and thought if I did not replace it and I got pregnant, my life would be over. That is the narrative: getting pregnant = life is over.
I decided to go with an IUD that is supposed to be more fit for people who have not had children. I got the Liletta IUD — and the replacement procedure was an exceedingly painful experience.
From the beginning, I knew it was a mistake.
I ended up in urgent care and was admitted to the hospital. This second hospitalization was another traumatizing experience where I was misdiagnosed again, given an antibiotic treatment that did nothing because I had no infection, and was discharged without any of my symptoms improving. And yet, I was continually encouraged to keep my IUD in.
I now know that I was experiencing the rupture of multiple (at least five) ovarian cysts. When I had suggested this diagnosis to doctors, I was dismissed; instead, they suggested my boyfriend had given me an STD — despite the fact that my STD panel was completely negative, and despite an ultrasound scan that confirmed the presence of visible cysts.
About a month later, the IUD embedded in my uterus. The pain was so excruciating, I fainted in my boyfriend’s (now fiancé’s) arms on the floor of my bathroom.
Terrified to go back to the ER, I scheduled an appointment with my primary care doctor because it was the soonest available. At that point, I had no idea the IUD was embedded — and my doctors were unable to remove it. I was referred to a gynecologist, who said I needed to have it surgically removed. This process took about two weeks during 2020, when all “non-essential” procedures were on hold.
I had an IUD embedded in my uterus for two weeks before I could have it removed. I was unable to do anything, including work.
Unfortunately, my journey did not end there.
I was then put on the pill, despite telling doctors I was a smoker, which poses a huge risk of blood clots; again, I was not warned of this risk at the time. After a year of falling deeper and deeper into depression and eventually becoming suicidal, my now-fiancé suggested that I stop birth control altogether. I fought this for a few weeks, refusing to accept that this could be making me feel so terrible. Eventually, I could not take it anymore and I was willing to try anything — so I finally stopped.
A dramatic change
Since stopping birth control in 2021, my life has changed dramatically. My cycle has finally regulated, I get “normal” periods now, I am ovulating again, and I feel so much better mentally and physically.
Looking back, I can see things more clearly. Rather than having birth control shoved into me, I wish I was taught that sex is a big deal and my body is valuable. I wish it were not normalized as something teenagers just do because, honestly, I had no desire to do it. It’s almost as if getting birth control made me feel as though I should be having sex.
Secondly, I was never, not once, informed of the potential negative consequences and adverse reactions I could be subject to, nor was it ever suggested to me that my birth control could be causing my medical issues. I understand that I cannot prove that this is the cause, however, since removing it my autoimmune issues have subsided without relapse, and the only issues I have are my hormones regulating after stopping (again, I could write a whole other story about coming off of birth control and the time it took for my hormones to resume to normal levels). I had no idea of the significance of hormone health, nor did I realize how deeply it affects both the body and mind.
I wish somebody had told me.
***pictures on link****
Tell me then, o Wise Ascended Master who sees through the Catholic Church’s BS, what is the best, most purpose-filled life for a man?
Describe it to me, so that I may live vicariously though your exalted blissful existence! Tell me what life I should have aspired to, instead of 21 happy years of marriage with 5 loving children.
That said, just when I think my contempt for Big Med can’t grow any greater, there’s this...
I won’t print the rest of what I’m thinking.
There is no movement to protect fertility. Dangerous ground.
Good for you, that’s what made you happy. Each needs to find there purpose that makes them happy. Not every marriage is good ,nor is every one bad. The key is iron clad prenups something most young men can’t afford the council for or have the premarital assets to make one worth the legal fees for. In the USA this is the only way to protect yourself from a court system set up to screw men over.
My current GF is half my age so still very much in child years in her mid 20s. Hence the desire for male birth control to be legal here. I have a 26 year old from my first wife while I was in the service who is a model in Las Vegas like her mother was. So I have no desire for another biological heir. For me travel and adventures far off the beaten path make me smile I chose companions now who can appreciate those things as well. They also need a decent food sense nothing worse than having to deal with picky eaters while abroad vegans are right out.
That is WELL above the normal or recommended dosage.
It’s not just about fertility.
It’s about health and well-being, of the individual and public.
None of which appear to be on Big Med’s radar.
It’s a thing...
https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/can-ibuprofen-reduce-menstrual-flow
Don’t get me started.
Which is why I think pregnancy is totally a woman’s responsibility and the support afterwards.
Concomitantly I think men have no claim on children not born in wedlock. None.
Get the state out of the picture open some orphanages and people will think more about their behaviors. Particularly as society begins to judge it negatively.
“Tell me what life I should have aspired to, instead of 21 happy years of marriage with 5 loving children.”
You lucked out. Too bad there are no guarantees for a happy ending like yours.
I agree. However fertility is a huge public health issue. I speak to parents who put their daughters on these major medications. Fertility bis seen as a curse and infertility as desired.
Twisted.
People react differently to drugs..I’ll be damned.
Big med is treating a normal bodily function in females like a disease.
With no regard to the future fertility, health, mental health of the patient.
Parents who listen uncritically to the crap providers are peddling are not taking care of their daughters.
The relation between primary dysmenorrhea in adolescents and body mass index
...Comparative research found that women with > 27.5 kg/m2 body mass index (BMI) had significantly increased risk of dysmenorrhea compared to normal controls [8]. Increased odds of dysmenorrhea were reported in underweight and obese participants [9]....
Mrs gitmo and I recently had our 62nd anniversary.
I’m starting to suspect she might be The One.
The best birth control is the baby pill method. Hold a little pink baby aspirin between your knees. Stop throwing your legs wide for every Tom, Jose and Hamza. Keep your pants on.
Likely a work of fiction like most of these articles are. Easier to hand your kid a box of condoms. I find it hard to believe even evil PP would jump straight to an IUD when there are a dozen other options.
Hard to believe? See FReepmail I just sent you.
Thanks. Part of the reason I was so snarky is that I believe learning and practicing the Catholic faith is why our marriage is happy.
Everyone knows the no birth control thing. But here’s what else it teaches:
* it’s a sin for spouses to withhold sex from one another, except by mutual consent. How many modern marriages could have been saved if only the wife got sternly reminded of THAT in the confessional?
* No fornication means women aren’t creating pair bonds with many other men, so when you marry she bonds to you and you alone.
* No birth control means women’s hormones and sex drive are naturally regulated instead of artificially thrown off by the pill. It also means kids that—despite what the modern world says—bring joy and life to the household.
* Marriage isn’t pitched as an idyllic fairly tale...it’s pitched as a vocation of sacrifice. So the proper expectations are set in the beginning.
* and finally, all that said, it’s completely voluntary, and no one has to get married unless they want to. You want to go monk mode? Knock yourself out!
Yes, the US laws are idiotic and have been used to destroy men financially. Yes, feminism has made a mess of everything. Yes, all the problems in modern marriage exist.
But don’t be so dismissive of Catholic teaching without understanding the whole picture. In my opinion, it does an excellent job of balancing male and female wants and needs and ordering everything for the good of the couple and of society.
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