I have been reading up alot on birth control lately because i want to be more safe. I saw a commercial for Mirena IUD and i did some research on it and it sounds like a dream come true! I was on Ortho TriCyclen Lo for about 2 years awhile ago and i hated it. I was so bitchy and i NEVER wanted sex. I am a smoker so i was getting a bit freaked out about the health risks when you take the pill and smoke...so i went off them. I do not want to take pills every day and i dont wanna use just a condom because they arent always reliable. I read that Mirena is ideal for women who have already given birth. I have not had a child. Im 21 years old. Can i still use Mirena if i havent had a child? Is there any other forms of BC that i can get over the counter? I saw something in the condom section the other day and they were like strips that you insert in the vagina? I have also seen the spermacide foam. Can anyone help me out?
the best information i can give you is to talk to your doctor or go to your local health dept and speak to the planned parenthood professionals. they will be able to help you weigh all the options
For some reason I seem to recall an age requirement, or you already have to have children, but not 100% sure. Talk to your doctor and discuss your options and go from there.
I used that IUD. I didn't have a period for like 3 years! It was great..UNTIL...I started spotting...went to docs..and was told I had signs of conseption! Not cool....but those chances are rare. I had to have a D/C...then I got my tubes tied. Good luck..and yes I would recommend it to anyone!
the mirena iud is still a hormonal form of birth control. the reasons doctors want you to have a child first is that there are greater chances of infection with iud's than other forms of birth control because... well, it sits in there in your body. especially if you have multiple sexual partners, it is not a good idea. and an infection (often in the form of PID or pelvic inflammatory disease) can cause infertility, which is bad if you want to have kids in the future. i had the copper iud for a while, and i hated it. i too have not had any children, and somehow convinced the dr. i guess that it was a good idea, not sure. anyways... my uterus had never expanded with childbirth, and i had horrible periods, as my body saw the iud as a foreign object and tried to expell it. the cramps were rediculously bad, and it was just not a very positive experience. it also made deep penetrative intercourse very painful. if you aren't opposed to hormonal forms of birth control, there is the patch or the nuva ring that i've heard work similarly to the pill but you don't have to take a pill daily. the over the counter birth control methods are simply spermacides that you put into your vagina (films, creams, etc.) and they can be irritating to the vaginal canal, and don't work any better (percentage of failure might actually be higher than with condoms) than condoms. the other possibility for you might be a diaphragm... you can get one from your doctor, and i've heard that lots of women like them. hopefully this helps.
That's not why they want you to have kids first. The risk of infection is minimal and doctors do not make value judgements when making across-the-board recommendations like that. They want you to have kids first because it opens your cervix up and makes it a lot easier to insert the Mirena. When you've never been pregnant, your cervix is very closed and hard and it makes it very difficult to insert the IUD.
