Nuva Ring vs Diaphragm?

[alaskaberry]

Hi ladies. I am thinking seriously about switching my birth control. I've had the copper IUD for about a year now and not only is every moon is still a bloodbath but my cycles are completely irregular. They were 30 day cycles before the IUD (well before I was pg/nursing!). I also had the Mirena in between ds1 & ds2 and I bled for about 30 days after I got it, plus I had horrible mood swings and gained a lot of weight.

To top it off, I think I must have an iron deficiency because I have a major case of pica (craving potting soil--to eat. Yeah, I know!) that gets worse every moon time. I eat plenty of dark green vegs and red meat so this is pretty annoying. That would be ok to deal with (I drink nettle tea if I'm really crawling the walls), but I'm so sick of this heavy bleeding. Some months it last 9-12 days, other times it only lasts 4 days with 6 days of spotting. For my last moon I started late, then was bleeding through a super-plus tampon every half-hour (which is what usually happens on the first day).

So--if you wanted to switch...what would you get? And has anyone tried the Wild Carrot Seeds thing as a backup with a diaphragm/hbc?

I don't like the BCP because I always forget to take it, plus it gives me crazy mood swings and weight gain. I was off BC for a few years...that was great...but that was b4 I met DP. I got pg on the patch, so that's out. I was thinking of a really low-dose Nuva Ring to help get my cycle back on track and then perhaps switch to a diaphragm. We aren't really in that spontaneous place right now for DTD anytime, anywhere (2 small kids), plus DP works on the North Slope so I pretty much know when I will be DTD when he is home. The only prob with a diaphragm is that DP doesn't want any more children and he would be furious with me if I got pg (esp since he knows I want one more kid).

Please share your stories! :)

[lyterae]

I used the Nuva Ring for a period of time, but even with it's low-dose hormones it still affected me negatively. It was "easy" and convenient, but with the hormone problems it was most definitely not worth it for us.

I have used the diaphram and the thing I disliked most about it was the time it took to get "ready", it really interupted the intimacy to have to go put it in. At least for me.

Edited by lyterae - 12/22/10 at 10:47am

[Toolip]

I love my diaphragm!

[mommathea]

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Edited by mommathea - 5/11/11 at 1:01pm

[TrishWSU]

I tried the Nuva Ring and bled for the ENTIRE 3 weeks I had it in, plus another 4 days after I took it out. So yeah, not doing that again.

I'd vote for getting a diaphram and charting your CM and BBT. While putting the diaphram in does temporaily interupt things, you can put it ahead of time (no more than 2 hours or else the spermicide is no longer effective-trust me on this one :) ) If you're charting your cycles you'll have a pretty good idea of when you're even fertile and thus when you actually even need to use the diaphram. I successfully charted for over 18 months and used the diaphram during fertile times only as birth control. I'm assuming we were both fairly fertile people as I got pregnant the very first cycle I went of BCP, but we never had even the slightest worry of an "oops" with the charting/diaphram route.

[capretta]

Originally Posted by lyterae 

I have used the diaphram and the thing I disliked most about it was the time it took to get "ready", it really interupted the intimacy to have to go put it in. At least for me.

I've actually read that vaginal tenting, which occurs when aroused, can cause problems with placing the diaphragm properly. I like my diaphragm, but my biggest problem is thinking to put it in before I'm aroused!

I've never tried nuva ring, but after having problems with hormonal birth control I would never go back, even on "low-dose" HBC. We've been charting w/condoms or diaphragm during fertile times and I like that. So I second Trish's recommendation.