Hormones

6 weeks ago I took a trip to the family-planning clinic. That was my first annoyance: Why call it family planning? Rob and I have only been dating a couple of months and I am dam sure he’d run a mile if I told him I went there as appose to “the doctors surgery”. As a nearly 28 year old, the nurse looked at me as if I was crazy when I started quizzing her on my options for contraceptives.

I haven’t had to worry since I was 21 – none of my relationships have been serious enough or trusting enough to consider using anything but condoms. So much has changed since then! I was put on the combined pill at 14 to help with long and painful periods, and stayed on it for seven years.

The nurse clearly decided to treat me as if I were a 16 year old with her first boyfriend, and went through a massive long leaflet talking me through each option. Implants, injections, coils, pills, rings, caps – the list was endless! Contraception should never be a taboo, but I couldn’t help but feel that for many women, of any age, this could be awkward.

The combined pill, the easiest of all the contraceptives, was not an option for me for various reasons (you smoke, you’re overweight, blah blah blah) so I knew it wasn’t going to be straight forward. Most of the other options open to me involved progesterone only hormones, which can lead to terrible side effects. I didn’t want anything permanent, so opted for a pill which I take every day (no gaps). The side effect list was endless: Irregular periods, painful breasts, lack of sex-drive, weight gain, mood swings. Go online and you read horror stories of women having continuous periods for months on end, gaining two stone and having no sex drive.

Rob and I (at that point) were in the early stages and I knew it was a gamble – a fat, miserable girlfriend that you couldn’t have sex with was not an option! He was incredibly supportive, but I knew for this to work I had to tell him the bare minimum.

I’ve been lucky – my periods so far have been regular. But I know my moods are all over the place, with paranoia, tearfulness and feeling very insecure topping the list of my emotions. I’ve had several pains in my abdomen at random points and sometimes my breasts are really tender. I’ve actually lost weight (hurrah!) but I have to admit that my sex drive has definitely declined. When I am with Rob I want to be with him, but I’ve definitely lost my feistiness and I am certainly not as adventurous. He doesn’t seem to mind, and if he does, he hides it well.

I’m nearly a month into it, and so far, it really is ok. Just hope that with time my emotions settle down, and for Rob’s sake, my sex drive bounces back.