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As an adult woman who is sexually active and in a monogamous relationship, there is one question that bugs me. Which birth control method is the best for me? It is a tough question! There are so many different options available now that it is hard just to keep up with them all. I don’t think that I need to worry about any sexually transmitted diseases because I only have one partner. This is only about keeping from getting pregnant.

Condoms would be great, but let’s face the facts: it is just not as pleasurable for the guys. So those get ruled out. Getting my tubes tied (or having him get a vasectomy) is also out because that one is permanent. I’m not saying that I’ll never want kids. I just don’t want kids now.

So that leaves me with only a few options. One of those options is the pill. A similar option is the patch. Both the pill and the patch work the same way. They alter a woman’s normal hormonal cycle. It’s darn near 100% effective too. But is it good to be altering my hormonal cycles? Honestly, I don’t suffer PMS as bad when I’m on the pill, and that’s a good thing. I just always have to wonder though: Is that really good for my body?

The last thing in the world I need right now is to get my wife pregnant. A baby is totally not part of the plan. I have one daughter who is turning 18 in a few months, and I love her dearly. But she is about to reach the age of majority, and I do not want to start all over again. I am in my mid forties, so if we popped out another kid now, I would be in my sixties when it graduated from high school. Maybe I’m selfish, but now it is my time.

So last week I went to an urologist for a little procedure to make sure that we would not have a little accident that would change both of our lives. It was my third appointment with the doctor, and this time was go time for the outpatient procedure. I had taken a valium that morning, so I was pretty relaxed. After a local anesthetic to my southern hemisphere the doctor told me I would experience a “pinch and a burn.” Yep, that pretty well described it.

After the procedure I felt fine though. We even went to lunch! But the next day I felt like somebody had kicked me square in the beanbag. A bag of frozen peas was my best friend that day. But by the second day, I was fine. After three days I was even riding my motorcycle. Getting a vasectomy is really not a big deal.

My husband and I are getting ready to have our first baby, and like most parents to be we have been planning for months and months. We are both so excited about this new addition to our family, but we also know that this is going to mean a lot more work for the both of us. And we are bound and determined not to take the easy way out by stopping being a “green” family. We are very environmentally conscious which means one specific example of baby rearing becomes a real job.

I am talking about diapers of course. Disposable diapers are just plain easy. Take the dirty ones off the baby, throw them away and forget about it! The down side of course is that these dirty diapers end up in a land fill. And we are talking about billions of these things! Look what they are made of. These things are not biodegradable! Disposable diapers are a very bad thing.

So we have decided to go with cloth diapers. There is the initial investment of buying the diapers that cost more than their disposable counterparts. But since you can reuse them the cost gets recouped pretty quickly. To start, we are going to launder them ourselves. It isn’t exactly rocket science. You do a load of diapers by themselves since you don’t want to wash other clothes with these things!

To some of you, this may come across like me being selfish. And maybe it is, but I have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. And that lifestyle is one where I date someone for a year or two, but really never any longer than that. I fall in love just like anyone else, but after a few years the feelings wear off and I am ready to move on.

The one I am dating now and I have been together for about a year now. And I do love her. The subject of children did come up, and she knows that I am in no way interested in having anything to do with that. She seemed not to be interested in that idea either, so we have been as careful as any other couple in this position. She has been taking birth control pills.

But her monthly visitor, Aunt Flo never showed up last month. And then a few weeks later her boobs started getting tender and a little swollen. When she started getting sick for no reason at all I started to panic for a very good reason. These are all signs that somebody is pregnant! So she went down to Walgreens and picked up one of those home pregnancy tests. She went off to the bathroom and performed the test, and the thing that was supposed to either stay white or turn dark blue. But it didn’t stay very white, but it didn’t turn very blue. So tomorrow we go to the clinic.

My husband and I had been trying to get pregnant for almost a year. I think he enjoyed that whole part of it, but that’s going in a whole different direction than I plan on going with this. You see, now that I am 7 months into this adventure, I consider myself an expert on the pros and cons of being knocked up.

Let’s start with some of the pros. I am glowing. I have never felt so alive. My skin and hair are perfect! And aside from the physical stuff there is also all of the excitement and anticipation. Decorating the baby’s room has been so much fun. My mom said we ruined the surprise by finding out that it was a baby girl ahead of time, but I disagree. I was still surprised when the doctor told us what it was going to be!

But there are some down sides to this whole pregnancy thing too. For one thing, I am fat. I am as big as a freaking house. And even though I have been using cocoa butter religiously, I am getting stretch marks. And just thinking about that is getting me cranky because I have been as moody as all get out. It’s a mixed blessing, but the pros far outweigh the cons.

I am ready to have a baby and have been off birth control for over a year now, but nothing has happened yet.  As a woman in my late 20’s this doesn’t seem right, so my husband and I both went in to make sure everything was OK on our end.

The doctor gave us both a clean bill of health and said we were good to go, and he saw no reason why we couldnt’ conceive.  That was 5 months ago.  Now I know that when you go off birth control, sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get back to “normal” or whatever, but it’s been over a year.  What gives?

One of my girlfriends (who is not a doctor!) said it might be because I was on the Ortho Evra patch.  She said it delivered a higher dose than some other forms of birth control, and therefore could be the reason I’m taking longer to conceive. Does this sound right?  I loved the patch when I was on it and never had problems.  Am I paying for it now?

I had been on birth control since I was 17.  I started using it because my cycles were so sporadic and birth control evened them out.  I have always been a proponent of birth control. 

My only problem was the pills.  Now, I can take a handful of vitamins a day, no problem, but I always got the gag reflex from the Pill.  I have no idea why; probably in my head.  Nonetheless, the day my gyno told me about the patch was the happiest day of my life!  I loved, loved, loved it!  Talk about convenient!

About two years ago, I went off birth control altogether, as I am now trying to get pregnant.  Since then, I’ve heard all kinds of bad things about the patch.  Is it really true?  Is it too high of a dose?  WIll it have side effects?  I worry because some day I want back on birth control and I’d love it if I could go back to the patch.  Does anyone out there know the answer?  Seems like you can’t trust everything you read these days.