Female Reproductive Health [explicit]

[Raederle]

Lotusii - if you're in the USA, is there a Planned Parenthood nearby? They do ALL types of female reproductive care and they're a bit less expensive than regular doctors.

[Lotusii]

I do live in the USA. I'm going to be moving again soon, April 1st I finally get my new place, so I'll check around to see if there is a planned parenthood I can get to since I don't drive. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

As for if the birth control pills helped me at all, they did. They helped me quite a bit. They did regulate things and the pain was much improved, I've been off it for a few years now though because I wasn't looking for a doctor. I was having bad experiences with them and working a lot of extra hours to save money so I could move.

[AdamSavage]

okkkkk...I'm totally unsubscribing from this..I'm getting very squirmy reading this stuff and I now know alot more then I needed/wanted to know. Guys and these subjects don't mix very well. I will say one thing before I leave..Cow..don't be so rough and if your making your ulcer worse then possibly be alot more gentle? (urges are hard to fight)

[Miraga]

I do live in the USA. I'm going to be moving again soon, April 1st I finally get my new place, so I'll check around to see if there is a planned parenthood I can get to since I don't drive. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

I hope everything goes well and planned parenthood can help! Those possibilities you listed can be quite serious and I hope they don't turn into a trip to the emergency room!

[Mania]

I'm a huge fan of Planned Parenthood and similar clinics. (I went to one in Massachusetts called (I think) Four Women - similar idea, but not under the Planned Parenthood umbrella.) I have an ... interesting ... sexual history, and I have found that type of clinic to be less judgmental and more open to questions. The downside is that they are usually a bit rushed and if you have particular questions you need to get them asked. I used to take in a list of questions on paper to hand to the people because I have trouble asking questions.

When I lived in Santa Monica and made lots of money (*snort*) I went to an ob/gyn near my apartment. Turns out I was on the edge of a very upscale neighborhood and so she was a very upscale ob/gyn. I have never had such an embarrassing appointment in my life. I was dressed like my normal slacker self; the waiting room was full of very rich women in designer clothes and their designer babies. Even before I opened my mouth the doctor was treating me like a child. And when I managed to ask her a fairly general question that I thought was related to my exam, she gave me this offended look and said "You'll need to see a specialist for that." No other answer, no info, nothing - just a referral to someone else. I had to read the referral to see what kind of specialist she thought I needed to see. Gah.

I'll take Planned Parenthood, thanks.

[Cerah]

I'm lucky I live in Canada -- my government health care plan covers regular doctor visits, including a pap smear and pelvic exam every two years. I just go to my regular family doctor for reproductive health, and he (yes, he's a man, and no, I'm not unconfortable with that) is very helpful and always professional. I pay for my own birth control, but hey, $20/month for pills is a lot less than whatever upteen hundred/month a baby costs.

Cow, you really have to be careful if you have an ulcer down there -- any issue regarding the reproductive organs is not something to be taken lightly. Maybe you should look into a softer vibrator -- there's some nice, flexible ones made of softer, more "skin-like" material that can be a lot better for you than hard plastic ones. Plus, the fact that they're flexible means you can bend them whatever way you want.

Hey, I have to cope with my bf being a 2-hour drive away somehow!

[Mania]

If I had ever found a family doctor I felt I could trust, male or female, I'd be happy to see that doctor for gyn exams. But I have very bad luck with doctors. Dentists, too ...

You pay $20/month for b/c pills? That's about what I remember paying as a college student in the US - but that was 20 years ago. I have no idea what they cost here now. I have to say that I envy people who can take hormonal b/c some; the hormones make my bipolar disorder worse even as they make my periods and cramping better. Oh, if only a tubal ligation stopped your period - how happy I would be then!

[zedxrgal]

Edit: Removed by me

[Krysannis]

Why don't doctors ever really listen to me? Crippling stomach and leg pain so bad I have to miss work sometimes, not having my period for months at a time followed by hideously heavy and often obscenely long periods. Hilariously, those are just the least embarrassing symptoms there are quite a few more that I'm just uncomfortable talking about.

I don't even know why I'm really posting his here. Guess I just wanted to complain. -_-

I would have to agree and say that you should find a planned parenthood. Also, if birth control helped before chances are it would help this time. I used to have periods so bad that I would miss school because I literally couldn't move, so my doctor put me on birth control and it worked wonders. I do, however, fall into that tiny TINY group that got pregnant while on the pill but I wouldn't change that for the world. Anywho, back to you. Before you move I would go see that doctor one last time and be forward with him and tell him that he needs to start doing his job. (maybe with nicer words... maybe) For a doctor to completely ignore a patients complaints is just wrong. You should tell him either he gives you a full and thorough exam or you will have another doctor give said exam. Should you have to go to another doctor and they do find something wrong with you (major or minor) then you should find someone and file a BIG complaint about your original doctor. A doctor in the town that I lived in just got his license to practice revoked because he refused to help a little boy. This boy came in with his mother several times about the large lump he had on his leg, the doctor kept saying it was nothing despite the fact that the mother was terrified and begging him to at least do an x-ray. Finally she caved and went to a different doctor in a major city about an hour away from our town. Turns out that lump on that boys leg was cancer. The new doctor said that if they hadn't treated it when they did it would have spread like wildfire.
You're pains are probably nothing major but they still need to be acknowledged by a doctor. I wish you the best of luck and keep us posted!

[Wark]

Ugh! I wish you luck Lotusii, and you too Cowmu. Not fun things to be dealing with.

My travails feel blessedly minor in comparison, but in the interest of sharing: I've been trying to get back onto some kind of birth control lately-- I did the pill in my teens for my acne (and just my acne...) but fell off it later as I got lazy and didn't feel the benefits were huge. Of late I've had non-acne incentives to start again, but now it feels like I can find the pea under every mattress!

The pill: too hard to remember to take it consistently enough, and woaaaah side-effects. Namely a week of nausea, tapering into 2-3 weeks of incessant hunger. Also turned me into a morning person somehow. Gave that 2-3 tries, but no thanks!
The patch: easier to remember, as you just change it once a week, but side-effects ho again! Still with the appetite problems. Particularly infuriating as I tried it for a month once when I was 20 and it worked perfectly. No more, apparently. Gave that three rounds, and it never got better, so nix.
The ring: the one I was most reluctant to bother with-- I have to stick it where?-- but so far... it actually works. The first day has minor nausea problems that evaporate by morning, and my appetite IS slightly suppressed all the time. But otherwise everything seems fine: no circulatory issues, no forgetting to deal with it, no breakthrough bleeding or other horrors. I only just started cycle two of it, and I am slightly annoyed by it insisting on a 4-week cycle (my natural cycle is 5-6 weeks) but it seems to have all the major benefits I want without massive horking-my-brains-out-at-5-am drawbacks! Now if only there was a generic that didn't cost a small fortune, oy.

Here's to hoping it keeps working as long as I need it to!

[Mania]

I'm not at all familiar with the ring. That's still hormonal, right? But internal? Like an IUD?

[SpiritBinder]

I tried toying around with a vibrator with my man, I wasn't very fond of it. =/

Hahaha, It's funny, some guys find the thought of you "helping yourself" all kind of sexy and what not, but when it comes down to it, and it's going down, they can get all weirded out by it. My conclusion is probably a combination of a weird jealousy and inadequacy from my past experience. He thought it was kinda cool.... for about 2 minutes....

The ring

I was looking for juice in the fridge about 3 months ago and found "the ring" in my fridge (they last better in there ) and was like.. wth is this? After reading the packet and chatting to the house mate, it was actually really interesting and looked a hell of alot better than allot of other options out there.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Yeah, mine likes it, I just personally didn't like the way it felt. Of course, not that he lasted long before getting 'jealous' by it and wanting to please me himself. XD

Hope that's not tmi for anyone, if it is feel free to delete it.

[SpiritBinder]

Hope that's not tmi for anyone, if it is feel free to delete it.

Keke, no need to delete, as much as it's true for most guys , but we should probably stick to the topic I guess

[Mania]

Yeah, mine likes it, I just personally didn't like the way it felt. Of course, not that he lasted long before getting 'jealous' by it and wanting to please me himself. XD

Hope that's not tmi for anyone, if it is feel free to delete it.

As long as you don't start describing exactly how he wanted to please you (with helpful diagrams and illustrations?) I think we're okay.

[TygerDarkstorm]

No no no, I plan to leave it right at that.

Totally random, but my boyfriend and cat get jealous of each other over who gets more attention from me (not in a sexual way). Come to think of it, I just have a strange cat in general.

Anyway, I'm done derailing now. You may have your topic back.

[cowmuflage]

Oh zedxrgal my doctor is a nice man. He gave me pills too stop the bleeding before we fully knew what it was and I have some ulcer stuff now that I am useing. Just yeah those silly urges heh XD

Cerah yeah I saw some of those when we went shopping but I only had enough money for a normal one sadly. Being a student who can't get a student allowence sucks but at least I don't need to pay for doctors vists.

[Wark]

I'm not at all familiar with the ring. That's still hormonal, right? But internal? Like an IUD?

Still hormonal, yes-- it's internal, inasmuch as you're shoving it into your lovely lady cavity and leaving it there three weeks, but it lacks the horror of needing a doctor to insert it/remove it. I'd liken it more to wearing a bracelet: you put it there, and it stays until you remove it. Well... as long as you put it in the right spot. I have gotten some bonus mental mapping of my ladybits done-- you're aiming to get it relative your cervix a certain way, which can be tricky when you don't know where your cervix is!

If you can handle tampons you can probably handle the ring, though. And as I said, once it's in the right spot, bam. Leave it three weeks. The biggest problem might be remembering to look at your calendar on the right days, since you deal with it two days out of four weeks.

[Nubhorns]

I have a funny story to go with my hot cup of rant today.

I think I was only 16, so this was two birthdays ago, but I used my birthday money in a somewhat peculiar mood and wound up purchasing something that, in retrospect, was probably too much for me to handle anyway. But I was going through that 'I'm an adult I have money!' phase. So long story short I wound up with an $18 sex toy and complimentary vibrator on the way to my house. Did I mention I was only 16 at the time?

It dawned on me that I could get in trouble for this sort of thing - technically you're not really allowed to purchase anything when you're under 18. So I made up a story and ran to mom. I told her that I bought the uh, phallic representation to glue to my neighbor's mailbox, because they bashed our mailbox in and spraypainted our car not too long ago, but I instantly regretted deciding to do so and felt like I needed to confess. I told my dad I had books on the way.

Of course this was an utter lie, but she bought it when I said I was allowed 'one stupid decision a year' at least. Okay so, ass successfully covered. I told her I'd take the box when it got here and put it in the trash. Couldn't very well send it back.

It finally showed up, but did so in a long, tall box that didn't look like it could hold magazines, much less books. I awkwardly backpedaled out of the confrontation with my dad, brought the box inside and shoved it under my bed. I eventually threw it away, free vibrator and all because I was feeling too guilty to use it, but now that I can legally buy stuff I'm somewhat miffed at being so eager to get rid of my mistake, especially since it was an $18 high-quality mistake. We ended up having a good laugh over it all, even though no one really knows that I bought it with Intent To Use.

For the ranty side, I'm admittedly a little confused by the Guy I Like™, mostly due to mixed signals. Nothing explicit(sorry) but we did have this tentatively almost psuedo-sexual thing going on. He's a guy, what can I say. And though we never got around to the ERP we kept joking about there was definitely some underlying mutual tension there. It all but stopped around the time that I worried about him 'losing interest'. Hell, I made a joke I thought was funny(if tasteless) asking him what porn I should buy since I can now(He said 'Never buy that' and I went 'I know, it's free') and got whapped in the face with silence, and prior to that he'd probably have been the one to make the dang joke. Thankfully it's starting to crop up again in a more playful way than before, so I feel like we might be heading in a positive(if dong joke-filled) direction. I'm just glad to be talking to him period. The distance between us makes it kind of hard to do anything about it, though.

Although it just dawned on me that he probably stopped so he wouldn't be perving on Jailbait. I'm 18 now, so he has nothing to worry about.

/shrug

[lilatha]

Late poster! Cas I can plus I wanted to know the do and don't before I commented D: So if I failed and there are words we are not allowed to use on this forum in here please mods feel free to edit them!
Hmm I know you've seen your doctor now about it and it's thankfully all sorted, but to clear it up for any others the ulcer is common amoung young women infact I'll quote this.

It's normal and healthy for a woman of childbearing age.

So for anyone else whom is going though the same thing don't worry! These 'infections' are normal its not just ulceration that is a symptom. Others are, Vaginal discharge (may be unusual in colour or smell unpleasant.), Irritation and soreness, pain during sex, bleeding after sex and ofcourse; redness, swellling, lumps, blisters or ulceration.
The sad part is the causes are something we all can't stop mainly from foreign bodies such as tampons or pads. The only way these things become a major life-threating issue is if you don't go to your doctor about it as soon as you can you may get 'toxic shock syndrome' but this is very rare so don't panic!
So for anyone else with any of these problems now or in the distance future don't worry! Your doctors may need a push in the right direction but they will do their best for you!

Now to the 'sex toys'. If you feel like your being to rough or are getting hurt from them I may point you into the direction of using a lubricant? Sometimes when people get their first sex toy they don't really know what to do with them and can sometimes be to rough and hurt themselves. You do have to stimulate yourself like you would with your partner, but if you don't feel up to it a lubricant may be useful to you, though I will offer this personal advice when picking a lubricant, I'll use the famous brand since it should hopefully be for everyone no matter where you are from. There are different kind, one that heats up, one that numbs and a tingling sensation one. And then you have the flavor ones but we don't need to go into them D: I would advise if your still a lil' new to them go for the numbing one its not as cold as people think and again it gives a numbing sensation you can still feel everything don't worry there! Also the tingling sensation one is rather good if you feel like moving up and is the common one to use in any situation I would advise againts the heat one .... As the name says it here it will heat up during it does say to heighten but many have said they felt pain when using this.

As for birth contorl in the UK we get 3 choices, the pill which you take every day and then take 7 days off which should be your time of the month. A implant, a smallish item which is placed into your arm and acts as the pill which lasts I think 3 month (to lazy to google.) And the injection which you get again every 3 month in your lower back. I started using the injection as it did seem like the easy option to me at the time, but sadly it wasn't for me I was told it would take 3 to 6 months for my body to get use to it sadly my body didn't like it leaving me bleeding none stop for a year. (and yes it continued after I stopped aswell.) Early this year I started taking the pill and so far no complaints, apart from the fact I hate taking anything in pill form ^^' I would advise taking this one as you take it everyday at a certain time for example I picked 9pm since I know my TV show is starting and it reminds me to take it.
From what I was told about the patch ... Well this is UK only, the patch is offered alot due to it being easy to forget about, so it can fall off and you might not notice till its to late and such.

Again I sorry if my post passed the line in the sand with certain words being used or something. Mods again feel free to edit and use forum friendly words I just haven't mastered the art of replacing medical terms ... Damn Med students!