Oh, my. My 20-year-old-self needed this article, while struggling to figure out why she couldn't escape from a whiplash cycle of depression and anxiety. My 21-year-old-self need this article, in coming off the pill for the first time and wondering where to go, who to talk to about a hidden current theory that the pill had been the root of the malaise. My 27-year-old-self needs this article, angry that neither my gynecologist nor primary care practitioner can offer any advice for helping my body recover from an upcoming IUD removal. Or how long it might take for hormones to cycle out in order to be fertile (it's instant, they swear!). Or what other side effects of coming off having hormones pumped into me for nearly 8 years might be. Or how hormonal withdrawal might interact with long covid symptoms. Or intermediate options for birth control while I get my hormonal system back into balance BEFORE trying to get pregnant. We NEED more information. We NEED more support. We NEED someone to listen and to advocate and to research. We NEED people to care about women's bodies. Thank you for caring, for writing, for seeing, for speaking.
Yes to all of this! I have such an odd personal anecdote with so much backstory that’s too long to explain, but I’ll try to sum this up quickly. I learned more about my body and how it works from the Catholic Church than I ever did from any doctor. That statement is absurd, but it’s true. Your article explains why my statement is possible. The medical system is failing women so severely that the Catholic Church (specifically their Natural Family Planning classes) have a leg up on teaching women how their bodies work. The church’s reasons for teaching this class are not great and yet it still managed to teach me more than anything else ever did. I started cycle tracking in 2008 and became intimately aware of how my body/mind/emotions/hormones were changing throughout the month. I haven’t been a part of the church since 2011, but I’m definitely grateful I got that education from them. It wasn’t until social media came around that I finally started seeing other women talk about their cycles and what they were experiencing. Before this it was only amongst Catholic women that I saw the conversation happening. Social media has been so powerful in allowing women to speak their truths and feel seen. Thanks for writing this!
Yes yes yes. Imperative response to this article. While the issues of birth control are the tip of the iceburg of the overall corrupt health care system- may this conversation be the fire that fuels the change we need to see in all of health care. Women have been gaslit on this issue for far too long, so glad we are seeing a tremendous response to this! xo
Thank you for using your voice and writing skills to share this with the world! I sometimes can’t help but think how different my experience of my late teens and my entire twenties would have been if I hadn’t been on birth control. I wonder if I would be a different person now, in a different place, or if I would have accomplished more if I hadn’t been on birth control. I genuinely feel that I missed out on some of the joys of that time in life because of it.
I remember feeling immense emotional despair when I had an IUD. It was my final attempt at trusting my doctor to try a birth control method that could "work" for me after over a decade of feeling awful taking the pill. Eight months into having my IUD, I turned into a shell of a human. I then had a 5-inch ovarian cyst rupture and put me out for over a month. I’ll never forget the day I went to have it removed. The doctor asked me why I was removing it before its expiry date. I mentioned my mental state and the ruptured cyst, to which she replied, “That's so unheard of and very rare. It’s probably unrelated” (I have three friends who have also had cysts rupture while having IUDs and felt immense mental health suffering because of birth control, and you're telling me thats....rare?). I remember looking at that little plastic T in the medical garbage as I walked out of the room. I looked at it, fingered it with both of my hands, and knew right away that an invisible weight had left my body. It was a cathartic experience. A big FU to all of the doctors who gaslit me during this process.
If only I had trusted my own intuition over a decade ago. Please keep writing and doing your work. You've got something really good going on and I will forever follow along <3
I got my first copper IUD in 2016.. for the following few months I had severe pain and bleeding to the point where I couldn’t stand up properly… the doctor had told my cramps would be bad for the first few months so I tried to get past it. About a month in I went to get it checked as the pain did not go away. Only to find out it had completely turned horizontal.
My doctor told me it was so rare and if we try again it should work. They also said that there would be no side effects from this happening. So I inserted another.. only to have heavy bleeding and random bursts of extreme pain. One more IUD later (to be fair I didn't' know what else to do without hormones) and after years of my body yelling back at me to make a change I had it removed.
I still experience an extreme sharp pain in my uterus every so often, I'm left questioning if my IUD(s) created permanent damage and if I will have fertility problems in the future. Of course doctors have not validated or honour my experience.
I wish I had this article when I was younger and thinking I was alone in experiencing difficulties with my birth control. And I desperately wish our medical system would listen to women, their pain and lived experiences.
Oh, my. My 20-year-old-self needed this article, while struggling to figure out why she couldn't escape from a whiplash cycle of depression and anxiety. My 21-year-old-self need this article, in coming off the pill for the first time and wondering where to go, who to talk to about a hidden current theory that the pill had been the root of the malaise. My 27-year-old-self needs this article, angry that neither my gynecologist nor primary care practitioner can offer any advice for helping my body recover from an upcoming IUD removal. Or how long it might take for hormones to cycle out in order to be fertile (it's instant, they swear!). Or what other side effects of coming off having hormones pumped into me for nearly 8 years might be. Or how hormonal withdrawal might interact with long covid symptoms. Or intermediate options for birth control while I get my hormonal system back into balance BEFORE trying to get pregnant. We NEED more information. We NEED more support. We NEED someone to listen and to advocate and to research. We NEED people to care about women's bodies. Thank you for caring, for writing, for seeing, for speaking.
Yes to all of this! I have such an odd personal anecdote with so much backstory that’s too long to explain, but I’ll try to sum this up quickly. I learned more about my body and how it works from the Catholic Church than I ever did from any doctor. That statement is absurd, but it’s true. Your article explains why my statement is possible. The medical system is failing women so severely that the Catholic Church (specifically their Natural Family Planning classes) have a leg up on teaching women how their bodies work. The church’s reasons for teaching this class are not great and yet it still managed to teach me more than anything else ever did. I started cycle tracking in 2008 and became intimately aware of how my body/mind/emotions/hormones were changing throughout the month. I haven’t been a part of the church since 2011, but I’m definitely grateful I got that education from them. It wasn’t until social media came around that I finally started seeing other women talk about their cycles and what they were experiencing. Before this it was only amongst Catholic women that I saw the conversation happening. Social media has been so powerful in allowing women to speak their truths and feel seen. Thanks for writing this!
Yes yes yes to all of this!!
Yes yes yes. Imperative response to this article. While the issues of birth control are the tip of the iceburg of the overall corrupt health care system- may this conversation be the fire that fuels the change we need to see in all of health care. Women have been gaslit on this issue for far too long, so glad we are seeing a tremendous response to this! xo
Thank you for using your voice and writing skills to share this with the world! I sometimes can’t help but think how different my experience of my late teens and my entire twenties would have been if I hadn’t been on birth control. I wonder if I would be a different person now, in a different place, or if I would have accomplished more if I hadn’t been on birth control. I genuinely feel that I missed out on some of the joys of that time in life because of it.
I remember feeling immense emotional despair when I had an IUD. It was my final attempt at trusting my doctor to try a birth control method that could "work" for me after over a decade of feeling awful taking the pill. Eight months into having my IUD, I turned into a shell of a human. I then had a 5-inch ovarian cyst rupture and put me out for over a month. I’ll never forget the day I went to have it removed. The doctor asked me why I was removing it before its expiry date. I mentioned my mental state and the ruptured cyst, to which she replied, “That's so unheard of and very rare. It’s probably unrelated” (I have three friends who have also had cysts rupture while having IUDs and felt immense mental health suffering because of birth control, and you're telling me thats....rare?). I remember looking at that little plastic T in the medical garbage as I walked out of the room. I looked at it, fingered it with both of my hands, and knew right away that an invisible weight had left my body. It was a cathartic experience. A big FU to all of the doctors who gaslit me during this process.
If only I had trusted my own intuition over a decade ago. Please keep writing and doing your work. You've got something really good going on and I will forever follow along <3
Yes Amen!
👏👏👏👏
I got my first copper IUD in 2016.. for the following few months I had severe pain and bleeding to the point where I couldn’t stand up properly… the doctor had told my cramps would be bad for the first few months so I tried to get past it. About a month in I went to get it checked as the pain did not go away. Only to find out it had completely turned horizontal.
My doctor told me it was so rare and if we try again it should work. They also said that there would be no side effects from this happening. So I inserted another.. only to have heavy bleeding and random bursts of extreme pain. One more IUD later (to be fair I didn't' know what else to do without hormones) and after years of my body yelling back at me to make a change I had it removed.
I still experience an extreme sharp pain in my uterus every so often, I'm left questioning if my IUD(s) created permanent damage and if I will have fertility problems in the future. Of course doctors have not validated or honour my experience.
I wish I had this article when I was younger and thinking I was alone in experiencing difficulties with my birth control. And I desperately wish our medical system would listen to women, their pain and lived experiences.
Thank you for this article!!