This week, Bayer has been under fire with the Food and Drug Administration for its birth control pills Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella. The pills in this family contain a synthetic hormone called drospirenone, which is being linked to the seventy-five percent increased chance of blood clots. Bayer went in front of the FDA and unfortunately, the FDA ended up voting 15-11 to keep the pills on the market. They did however vote “21-5 on Thursday that labeling on Bayer’s popular Yaz and similar birth control pills is inadequate and should be revised to better reflect the higher risk of blood clots associated with these drugs.” Some of the members of the panel voted yes because they feel there are women that do benefit from the drugs. Well, yeah I and many of the other women affected had benefits. And then we almost died.

After going through such a harrowing experience and reading about so many other women who’ve gone through the same thing, it’s tough to know they will stay on the market for now. The lawsuits are still ongoing, and I hope the women affected get some peace of mind and justice. If you don’t think it’s that common, check out some of the responses I got…

As college girls, we have a lot of on our minds. From balancing work and class, yoga and fast food, our boyfriends and Half-Off Ladies Night, there is a lot to keep track of! So maybe you can relate with me when I say that the last thing on my mind is remembering to take the biggest pain in my ass, The Pill. Ladies, I am going to be honest with you. I hate the pill. I truly despise it. I leave it everywhere, sleep through my ‘You Don’t Want a Kid” alarm, and often go days without even thinking about it. So let me tell you, when I heard that there was another alternative – that doesn’t involve shots or wearing a patch – I was intrigued. When I read that it was the safest and most effective alternative to taking the pill, I called my doctor. Read More »

Like most of my friends, I went on birth control my freshman year of college. But unlike most of my friends, I didn’t go on it because I was having sex (if you know what I looked like freshman year you’ll understand why that was a long way off), but because it seemed like the thing to do. And because I heard it would make my period more pleasant. And my boobs bigger.

It did all those things, but it also gave my terrible migraine headaches every time placebo pills came around. Finally, after two years of headaches and 5 pill changes, I gave up and quit the pill.

To me, it wasn’t a big deal. Condoms weren’t the most convenient thing (and were a bit of a ‘moment killer’), but they were a lot more convenient than debilitating headaches that had me lying in complete darkness with an ice pack on my head for 5 hours. I mean, what’s the point of birth control if you’re in too much pain to get it on?

And then I met my boyfriend.

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In this day and age, it seems like every one of my friends is on the birth control pill.  However, unlike most girls, most of my friends went on the pill to have sex at the end of high school, and simply stayed on it to enter college.  And while most people know the basics of birth control, few people ever bother to read the fine print.  So here are some of the most important things that you should know (i.e. all the stuff that’s on that little packet of info you throw out every month):

1.   Being on antibiotics can make the pill less effective

This is something that most girls do not know, but is often the most common mistake that girls on the pill make.  Even if you are taking your pill at the exact same time every day, if you are on antibiotics, they are working so hard to fight viruses that they can sometimes fight the effects of the pill.  If you are taking antibiotics, but are still healthy enough to be having sex, use a backup form of birth control.

2.   You may not get your period every month

As I personally learned from being on Loestrin 24, sometimes the pill may make your period so light that it will disappear for months at a time.  While you should probably get a pregnancy test just to be on the safe side, missing your period for a month or two DOES NOT mean that you are pregnant.

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There are a lot of decisions to be made in a long-term relationship — whose friends to hang out with more often, if and when to cohabit, whose place to crash at more often, and what you’d both like the future to look like. Once sex enters the relationship – whether if it’s on the first date or on the first night of marriage, there comes a whole new set of decisions to make.

For most couples, I think it’s fair to say that the go-to contraceptive plan usually involves condoms and some form of birth control (we were always told that two methods are better than one). Once that decision has been made and acted upon, the following months of getting-to-know-each other getting it on are usually passion-filled and use enough latex to make David Suzuki’s earth-loving head explode.

But regardless of what we’ve been taught, and regardless of how much we know we should be using condoms every single time no matter what, there does typically come a time in which the “should we go bareback” conversation will inevitably arise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge proponent of safe sex, and I would never suggest going condomless outside of an LTR or without a backup form of birth control, but let’s be real here – it feels better and it’s just so much more convenient.

Yeah, I went there. Read More »

I had just gotten out of a long relationship and immediately hopped into the sack with a new guy (…what? I needed some emotional support!) when I decided to change my birth control prescription. I had never really been happy with the old one, but had put off changing because I didn’t want to deal with the whole spotting issue with my BF around. So now, I reasoned, since the new guy and I were taking things slower, it would be a good time to make the switch.

Well, of course, taking it slow only lasts until somebody gets horny (or drunk), so a few days after I made the pill switch I found myself rolling around naked with my new beau. Everything was going fine – great, in fact – when he whispers in my ear excitedly “wow, you’re really wet!”

For just a second I was proud of myself for my impressive lubricative prowess (yes, it takes very little to make me proud) when suddenly he just stopped. He looked up at me worriedly and asked if I was OK. Confused, I looked down to see what he meant and almost had a panic attack. The spotting I had been worried about had started… all over his groin. Read More »

We talk a lot about birth control around here (a natural progression from our daily musings about sex). We think its ability to stop babies is pretty badass, but many of us aren’t sure if that is worth all the crappy side effects: headaches, bloat, moodiness, debilitating cramps….We seriously thought we had it pretty bad until we found out that all of our suffering was nothing compared to those unlucky ladies who opted for the birth control patch.

While it was marketed as every woman’s dream birth control option (“Lower estrogen! Lasts all month! No need to remember those pesky daily pills!”), it has recently become every woman’s worst nightmare.

“The patch actually delivered much higher doses of estrogen than the pill; Johnson & Johnson failed to reveal this to the public for six years. At least fifty deaths have been attributed to the patch because of this, with thousands more women reporting alarming symptoms.”

The people behind the patch have been dealing with major lawsuits from patch users who experienced blood clots, strokes and heart attacks! Read More »