for women who have a history of hormonally linked depression...

[K-Mom3]

what do you use for birth control? What different things have you tried and what results have you had?

Here's my story...

Before baby #1 I used bcp, no problems. Got pg with baby #2 while still nursing, about 18 mo between pregnancies. Those were both planned. After baby #2 I had ppd and didn't want to use hormonal birth control and tried nfp. I guess I wasn't tracking cf well enough because I had an unplanned pregnancy from dtd 6 or 7 days prior to ovulation. So I know I have a large fertility window. I had depression during that pregnancy. I started using bcp again about 6 mo pp after baby #3 and got awful cyclical depression like I never had before. Now baby #3 is 17 mo and I would really like to avoid pregnancy right now.

So I feel kind of stuck. I know that everything except nfp and barrier methods can cause depression. So we're using a combination of both but my dh really doesn't like condoms and I'm not sure I can trust my charting, due to the unplanned pregnancy. I'm unsure about trying other methods because I think they are likely to make me depressed again.

Anybody had trouble with bcp but do fine with an IUD? Or have depression with one kind of pill but not with another? Or do most of you just stick with nfp and barrier methods?

[bri276]

I can't do any hormonal b/c or I become depressed and angry. Since DD was born I did NFP without charting and condoms. We did end up with an unplanned pregnancy this winter but it turned out to be a great thing. I don't want to do IUDs...I just don't.

DH hates condoms as well. Up until this totally bizarre cycle that lasted 36 days instead of the usual 30'ish, I ended up ovulating a WEEK later than I thought, which is why I ended up pregnant. But in the future, I think we're going to continue to avoid the fertile time and use a combo of condoms during the "possibly dangerous" time and I'm going to try out a diaphragm with spermicide during the "probably safe" times, and I'm fine with unprotected/pull out during/immediately after my period.

[texaspeach]

hormones make me crazy. didn't like the diaphragm. didn't want to chart (we did for 4 years, I was done and scheduled to get an iud the week I got a :bfp)

I have a copper iud. I've had it for 6 months and so far no issues, but my period hasn't returned yet.