Let’s Talk About Birth Control
I’m going off the pill, you guys!!!!!! (HAPPY MONDAY: Here’s some information about your friendly neighborhood blogger’s reproductive health. Let’s jump in!) I’ve been considering this for some time — I’ve been on it for five and a half years, which is crazy — and always for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because I felt like it was making me crazy. Or maybe it’s totally normal to burst into tears because your boyfriend is “asking you too many questions” I don’t know life is a rich tapestry and we’re all beautiful unique snowflakes!!!!!!!
I did some research over the weekend and kept running into the narrative that women stopped taking birth control and found out what they were “really” like — a different weight, a changed disposition, a pimplier face. I started it when I was 17, within a year of starting college and at the tail end of puberty…so, naturally, I gained twenty pounds in two months. (Once, while leading an admission tour at my college, someone had asked me about the freshman fifteen, and I told them the truth: yes, I had gained a lot of weight when I started college. “Well,” the Southern mother said, while stepping back and taking me in. “It looks like you needed it.”) I loved waking up to new boobs (who doesn’t?!), but I also feel like I don’t know my natural adult body at all, and it’s a really saddening, alienating feeling. A few months ago, I decided to stop chemically straightening my hair and let it grow out naturally, and after nearly twenty years of various manipulation, it was so satisfying (and scary and enlightening and sad and happy) to have my hair the way it’s supposed to be, for the first time in decades. Why not do the same to my body?
I’m not swearing off hormonal contraception forever, but I think it’s time to give my body a well-deserved break — check back here for cool and fun updates!!!! (Dear Reader: It’s been 100 days without the devil’s candy. The winter grows ever colder.) Stephanie Georgopulos wrote a piece for Medium detailing her issues with finding a method that worked for her, and though nearly everyone I know has had issues with their birth control, it’s still really reassuring to know I’m not alone. And to know that I probably shouldn’t try NuvaRing.
But I could talk about this all day!! What are your thoughts on birth control? Do you call it the devil’s candy? Do you take the pills in the placebo week (I refuse)?! Let me know.