Contraception conversations I did not expect to have

Started 9 July 2025 · 21 replies · 186 hearts · read 2.4k times

TheaBergen, NO · 9 July 2025

about a year ago

Contraception conversations I did not expect to have Writing it down partly to work out what I actually think.

Some background first, because it matters for the question.

This has been dismissed as being part of my condition for years and I have started to wonder whether that was ever properly checked.

I have a specialist appointment in six weeks and I want to use it properly rather than spending it explaining background they already have.

Not looking for interpretation of anything. Looking for what other people asked for and whether it helped.

GavinDundee, UK

The thing nobody warned me about was that a returning cycle brings back everything that comes with it, and I had forgotten what that was like.

RinManchester, UK

Thea, I have been where you are and I would rather say so than stay quiet.

I would gently say that if you are trying to conceive, this needs to be a proper planned conversation rather than something worked out from threads.

RuaridhFort William, UK

What I found is that my symptoms moved at different speeds. Some things changed in months and others have not changed at all in two years.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

I am pleased with this thread. Somebody arriving with fifteen years of being disbelieved and being believed here is most of what this circle is for, and it only happens because people read properly before they answer.

BrennaEnniskillen, NI

Coming back to what Ruaridh wrote further up, because it is the bit I keep thinking about.

The hair side of things is its own subject and I found the general advice unhelpful because it did not account for the underlying picture at all.

GittaBonn, DE

I have been under a specialist throughout and I would say that made an enormous difference compared to being managed generally.

BodilÅlesund, NO

What worked for me practically was resistance work twice a week. Not for any aesthetic reason — the effect on how I felt was noticeable within two months.

SorayaTehran, IR

Gitta, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

My cycles came back after years of nothing and it was genuinely emotional and I had absolutely nobody to tell until this circle.

10me too 2

SaraOslo, NO

The dismissal is the part that lingers. The physical side has been manageable; being disbelieved for a decade is what I am still working through.

NadirCasablanca, MA

#10

I asked specifically about the fertility side before starting and got a clear answer and a plan, and I would push anybody to have that conversation early.

BeaDublin, IE

#11

The insulin explanation was the thing that finally made the whole picture make sense to me, after years of it being presented as four unrelated problems.

NadiaCairo, EG

#12

Picking up Bea’s point rather than starting a new one.

My experience of appointments improved enormously once I brought a written summary. Nine minutes is not enough time to retell fifteen years.

4me too 6

CoralieMarseille, FR

#13

Sitting with you on this one.

FreyaReykjavík, IS

#14

I have found this circle more useful than any other resource, mostly because everybody here already knows the background and I do not have to explain it.

MaryamBirmingham, UK

#15

Building on what Freya wrote rather than answering the original question.

I want to name that this is not only about how a body works. The years of being dismissed do something to how you approach any appointment, and that is worth talking about too.

10me too 1

TildaCambridge, UK

#16

Mine has been steady rather than dramatic. Small improvements across several things over two years, none of them individually remarkable.

NualaArmagh, NI

#17

Mine improved and then plateaued and I had to learn to be pleased with where it had got to rather than disappointed it had stopped.

AmmiKarachi, PK

#18

The bloods I asked for, on advice from this circle, turned up something entirely separate and treatable. Ask for the fuller picture.

SalmaManchester, UK

#19

Somebody here pointed out that most of the general advice is written for people without this, and once I stopped trying to make it fit I did much better.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

#20

Facilitator note: being dismissed for years is a real experience and it does something to how you approach every subsequent appointment. It is welcome as a subject here.

NadineLyon, FR

#21

Gently disagreeing with Salma, or rather adding the other half of it.

What changed for me was being taken seriously by one clinician, once, and everything since has been downstream of that appointment.