During the pregnancy with my first child, I was diagnosed with Factor V Leiden Deficiency which meant I had to give myself shots every day during the duration of my pregnancy to make sure my body did not form a blood clot. I had to do this during 3 pregnancies every-single-day. It was tough, but I got through it.
Because I have Factor V Leiden Deficiency, I cannot take birth control pills that contain estrogen, so that meant I had to find other forms of birth control to make sure I did not get pregnant again. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my children and count my blessings every day, but I do not want to overextend myself and my family financially and right now getting pregnant would not be good for any of us.
I do feel like there is a plan and I do believe in God and all that he does, but I feel that if he wanted me to have more children, then no birth control will stop that from happening. My third daughter was not planned and we still scratch our heads wondering how that happened, but she is a blessing and we are happy about our “surprise”.
After our third daughter was born, I decided that we needed to find a really good form of birth control that didn’t involve getting my tubes tied. Just in case we do decide to try for that boy, i didn’t want something so permanent, so my doctor at the time suggested I get the Mirena and I was gung ho about it…until…I found out that our insurance would not pay anything! This procedure is not cheap at all, so I hung my head low and opted to go the condom route.
Normally, I would always encourage people to take the condom route. Why? Because they are the most effective contraception to protect against STI’s. It is so important that you always protect yourself once you are sexually active. However, the reason I was going to stop using them is because I am married and I know that my husband and I are only sleeping with each other. Therefore, we can rule out the risk of getting an STI.
My husband later changed jobs, so I decided to go back to another doctor and see if the current insurance would cover the procedure. Sure enough it did, but another obstacle jumped in my path. I found out that they had to order the device and I had to be on my period when it was time to insert the device to be sure I wasn’t pregnant. That sounded easy enough, but my husband had decided to change jobs which meant that we would not have the same insurance when it was time to do the procedure. Instead of scheduling the appointment, I decided to just wait till I had our new insurance in hand and then after finding out the cost, schedule the appointment.
I was pretty bummed because the insurance we carried covered almost all of the cost of getting the Mirena and was only going to cost us around $60 out of pocket. There was nothing I could do but wait and hope for the best.
Then good, no great news arrived! Our new insurance not only covered the ENTIRE procedure, but it also waved a co-pay. We had to pay NOTHING!!!!
I scheduled the appointment.
Long story short…I got the Mirena yesterday and couldn’t be happier! They told me to expect cramping…no cramps! They mentioned pain during the procedure… no pain and little discomfort.
I feel fine, the procedure took maybe 30 minutes and I’m covered for birth control for 5 years!!! Also, if we change our minds, the device can be removed and we can try and get pregnant again.
I’m happy with my choice.
So, what are your feelings on birth control and what forms do YOU use?
