Contraceptive Implant.....your views on it

Odette

I have irregular periods too on implanon, at the mo, I have one every 3 months which I can live with. Also I have (so far!) lost 4 st on it so, it can be done

Lara44

I'm on my second Implanon too. When I first got it I had lots of irregular bleeding. This eased after arund 6 months, and now I have no periods at all, which I love. Despite the bad press it has suited me very well. There is no way I would remember / be organised enough to take a pill every day. Not sure about the weight thing, guess I am about half a stone over where I'd ideally love to be, but I have been on Implanon for so long it's hard to tell?!

delain

I had the implant, I put on 2st in the few months I had it, I had what felt like PMT (you know that feeling where everything is winding you up on purpose and you're just so angry with everyone that all you can do is snap) the whole time.

I was never so glad to have anything removed in all my life!

charlie792

I had an implant put in at around 17...basically under doctors orders - for some reason they were so worried about me getting pregnant they practically forced it upon me (long story but not going to discuss that here). Its not like Im stupid, jeez I am perfectly taking tablets but apparently they didnt see it that way...It was litterally the worst thing ever and I HATE the several doctors who refused to remove it.

Irregular bleeding was not the word - the only reason it worked as a contraceptive was because I bled constantly. Trying to get it removed was a nightmare, and ended up having it in for 2 years as a result :eek: I moved to university and the doctors there refused to remove it as they were too concerned about my blood pressure - no damn wonder! I went back to the docs that put it in, the only thing they would do was give me the pill to take WITH the implant, still refusing to remove it every time I went back. Finally moved doctors at uni but it was a tiny surgery and the doctors there said they wern't trained to remove it so the nightmare continued. One day I had enough (mood swings and constant bleeding get somewhat tiring after 2 years) walked into the hospital and demanded it was removed, had it out within the hour and got put on the pill at the same time. Why the hell they refused to remove it on so many occasions Ive no idea.

Been on the pill for almost 2 years now and its certainly improved my life, the implant was an absolute living hell!

missbishi

Hi OP, I know it doesn't suit everyone but have you considered a standard non-hormonal IUD? I switched to this from Implanon a few years back and I can't recommend it highly enough. The only thing you have to do is check your threads each month, to make sure the IUD is still in place and has not turned into a "mantrap" (post 2) !

xangeleyes

missbishi wrote: »

Hi OP, I know it doesn't suit everyone but have you considered a standard non-hormonal IUD? I switched to this from Implanon a few years back and I can't recommend it highly enough. The only thing you have to do is check your threads each month, to make sure the IUD is still in place and has not turned into a "mantrap" (post 2) !

I'm not sure about the coil. I know a few people who have had severe stomach pains, but then again, I know some who are fine.

I will consider it after being on the pill for a few months, as I just want a few months being 'normal' lol.

On this damned implant, I still have my periods too.
I was on the depo injection and that was just as bad! So bad that my husband admitted that he was considering leaving me!! That was a few years ago, I had it taken out when he said that and we were happier than ever before :T Of course, with this implant, we have my bad days alot, but we have a few more better days on this than I did with the injection.

With condoms, they HURT! Not sure if I'm allergic to the latex or the spermicide, but I've learnt in the past that ultra thin condoms work better on me

What us women go through!

I have bad PMS anyway no matter what I'm on, so some of them inhance it.
I'm on anti-depressants an SSRI type which helps with PMS apparantly :cool:

Thanks for your input ladies

KittyKate

I had a bad experience with the implant too. I got it when I was 23 (I'm now 28). Terrible mood swings (literally, violent tempers, which are so unlike me), tiredness, weight gain, no sex drive, it was awful. I was so glad to have it removed, and I've lost the weight and reverted back to my placid self

xangeleyes

KittyKate wrote: »

I had a bad experience with the implant too. I got it when I was 23 (I'm now 28). Terrible mood swings (literally, violent tempers, which are so unlike me), tiredness, weight gain, no sex drive, it was awful. I was so glad to have it removed, and I've lost the weight and reverted back to my placid self

Oh yes, tiredness and lower sex drive has also been an issue!

Before I was on this, we were still having sex daily (pretty good as we've been together for 11 years lol) or several daily.
Now, on this, we're lucky if I want sex once a month!
Poor thing lol. I feel sorry for my husband at times lol. But he's very good with me, too good you know, he's stuck by me no matter what - even when I was on the injection.

**confuzzled**

I had Implanon for a year after being persuaded time after time by my doctor to persevere with it! Eventually got it taken out when the doctor decided to prescribe Anti-Ds for my 'depression'.....needless to say I changed my docs asap and got the thing whipped out, in 24 hours my 'depression' had disappeared.

justAnotherGirl_2

I got it about half a year ago, I am 23, didn't ever take any sort of hormonal contraceptives before, so wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Overall, I like it. Negative points:
-irregular bleeding, though it looks like it's stopping
-for the first few months, I would burst into tears very very easily and for craziest reasons. I never really got any PMS symptoms ever in my life, so this was a bit scary :} I think I got through that now as well though, last few months were more or less normal.
-maybe weight gain, though I gained maybe half a stone and there was that xmas period with loads of food and stressfull exam perios with no time and loads of junk food... I seem to gain a bit of weight during the winter and lose it during the summer anyway, not sure if I can blame the implant for this (though I want to ) also, my breasts started growing, so... maybe extra weight is not that bad in this case

Positive:
-don't need to think about it, I am really not the type of person who can be trusted to take the pill. I would be worried about it all the time, so I wanted implant specifically because of it. I can't remember to take my tablets if I am sick and need to do it for a week, managing it for years is so not for me :eek:
-breast size increase went from small A to B, though not sure if it stopped yet and it's about half an inch from C

Kind-of neutral - my skin is not too nice, so I hoped implant might help, but no change at all. Though, it didn't make it worse and that's always good