Injection vs Pill

I have mentioned it before in the blog, and I am likely to mention in many more times in the future. I am utterly terrified, horrified by needles. And yet, not only do I have to be stabbed at least once every 3-6 months, but I choose to get stabbed twice. So I thought that I would write up a quick blog about the injection and why I chose to get on it.

When I was 17 going on 18, I went off to University. Before I left, my mom and I had a very brief chat in the car one day where she told me in no uncertain terms that if I was going to have sex, I should be on the pill. Shortly after starting University, I met Grant, and shortly after that I started on the pill. Not because I was having sex, actually, but simply because I wanted to be prepared for when I would start.

In the beginning, keeping up with the routine of taking them was difficult. Having to remember to take a pill at precisely the same time everyday is not something that comes easily, and no matter how many alarms I set, I still found myself forgetting. And at that stage, it wasn't so much of an issue! There was no sex, there were no risks. It was just something that I needed to get used to, and in time I did. In time it came to the point where, whenever my alarm went off, even if I was half awake and it was, oh, say 5pm, I would take a pill. It happened more than once where I woke up after a mid-afternoon nap and popped one  of my pills before realising that I had already taken one that morning.

When I started taking my thyroid medication, it fit in nicely. I could take all of the pills together, and it meant that I wouldn't forget. It was of no inconvenience to me any longer to be taking pills in the mornings, and even if I were to go off the contraceptive pill, I would still have to take my Eltroxin whenever the alarm went off in the morning.

And then, in my second year, we found out that my sister had a brain tumor. She was really lucky. It was benign and in a spot that was easy enough to remove, and though she lost her sense of smell, her sense of taste is still intact, so the doctors are sure that her sense of smell is merely in hiding and not, you know, dead. Anyway, a couple of months after we found out and after my sister's operation had been a complete success and she had returned to working on the cruise ships, I was home for a vacation and came across a needle in my mother's car. It freaked me out a little, what with my needle phobia. And then my mom explained how the doctor had insisted the my sister get off the pill, since he was worried that the oestrogen in pills helped the tumor along. Considering that he also thought that the tumor was genetic, the thought of this freaked me out more than the needle itself. Not enough for me to go on the injection at that time, but enough for me to  know that I would have to at some point.

I stayed on the pill for a good 3 years after the incident. I was trying to avoid injections as much as possible. I jumped between different Nordette and Triphasil to try and switch from an oestrogen based pill to a progesterone based one. It didn't help my mental block much. And yet, my fear of needles kept me far away from the injection until earlier this year, when I finally gave in. You see, I am the age now that my sister was when her tumor was found. The thought of this freaks me out a lot. Whenever I get a headache, I can't help thinking, even if it's just for a moment, what if... And so I made the switch earlier this year.

Now, the injection has a number of side effects, some of which I was aware of, some of which I was not. And if you are in the stage of making the choice between the pill and the injection, you should know what you are in for. The pill also has a number of side effects, including (in my experience, and depending on the pills that you are taking) increased bladder infections, moodiness and menstrual pain. You also need to keep in mind that if you are kept on the pill for a number of years, there are side effects. Many doctors will tell you that you should not stay on the pill for more than 5 year consecutively. Women over 30 are also encouraged to go off the pill because of the health risks involved and the threat  of tumors and cancer.

In terms of the injection, the most commonly discussed side effect is weight gain. That is not all that there is to it, however. Though your periods will eventually end when you are on the injection, you should expect to experience spot bleeding, stomach cramps and tiredness. The tiredness and the weight gain can be helped with good exercise, and the spot bleeding and cramps will eventually fade, but you need to stick with the injection long enough for your system to get used to it, and particularly when you already have a hormone deficiency like hypothyroidism, you may find that your body takes  longer to adjust. There are also long-term side effects to be considered with the injection, of course. Many women experience  long periods after being on the injection for a number of months or years where they struggle to fall pregnant. Others experience no menstrual periods even after being off the injection for a number of months.

There are things that you definitely need to consider when deciding which contraception to use. Of course, some will choose neither of these options and opt for condoms or abstinence. This was the route that I decided to take with my life, and I just thought I would explain some  of the decisions that I made along the way and the reasons for them on the off chance that someone else may be thinking about these questions too. I hope that, if someone does stumble across this blog post and find this article, it will at the very least give them something to think about.