Birth control

This infuriates me, that some men can just say, "Oh, I don't really like condoms, I refuse to use them." I understand that some people are allergic to latex or what have you, but there are other kinds of condoms. Do they have any fucking idea what women go through with birth control? I've been on three kinds: the pill (don't remember which one exactly, think it was Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo), NuvaRing, and now Mirena. The pill and NuvaRing didn't have really bad side effects for me, but remembering to do something at a specific time is a pain in the ass, and if you forget and take a pill even a couple hours later than normal, back to condoms. I'm so happy that my local Planned Parenthood has a free IUD month, so I only needed to pay about $250 for my Mirena, just the cost of the procedure if I remember correctly. Even that was almost out of my price range. Even though the Mirena is way more convenient, I've become incredibly moody and emotional while using it. I got in a huge fight with one of my closest friends because I hadn't realized what an asshole I'd been since I got it, and I cry all the damn time now, when I used to cry maybe twice a year. But some dude gets to refuse to use a condom because it's slightly uncomfortable for him. Fuck those guys.

I'm a woman who hasn't wanted to have kids since I was a teenager, and it is completely ridiculous that many places would hesitate to give me a tubal ligation or other form of permanent birth control. I guess since I'm still halfway young and don't have any kids, I couldn't possibly know my own mind well enough to know that I don't want children (because really, what kind of woman in her right mind doesn't want to spend the rest of her life raising children? Ugh). I did recently find out that one of the Planned Parenthoods in Des Moines does the Essure procedure, and I need to call and find out more about that. Permanent, non-hormone-based birth control sounds so wonderful to me.

And just as a side note, when I worked at a job that actually offered insurance (albeit shitty insurance), they wouldn't cover my yearly OB GYN visit. Apparently they'd rather I had undetected cervical cancer, which seems a little confusing to me...I mean, isn't it a whole lot cheaper to treat if it's caught early? Or maybe they were just hoping I'd die from it before it was noticed.