I’ve come off the pill, now what?

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So, as you may or may not know, (it’s all I seem to talk about now so if you don’t know, I’d be pretty surprised), I’ve recently been told I have cancer. And had to undergo surgery to remove said cancer. All of which was successful.

As dramatic as that sounds, it’s also meant that I decided to come off my pill. That was as soon as I heard I would have to have surgery as the pill can increase your risk of blood clots in your legs. This was a decision I made after hearing about the surgery, I made this decision completely on my own with nobody telling me what to do. Since then, and meeting various nurses, they all have told me it was a “smart” thing to do.

I’ve been on the pill for a long time. Something that I haven’t really thought about much apart from a while back (before I met Elliot) when I was single and had been for about, two years and it seemed it was a trend for women to come off the pill. Seriously, every other day there was a new post about various bloggers coming off their pill.

So, not only can the pill cause blood clots in your legs, it can also cause cancer. This is something it talks about in the little leaflet in the package with the pill, however, doctors do like to strongly discourage that it does.

But knowing this and knowing the risks (however small they may be), why have I thought it was a good idea to take it for so many years?

The pill is incredibly easy, you pop the tiny little pill each morning (or night) and you’re covered. It’s simple, it’s easy and you don’t have to think about it.

However, if lets say five years ago you’d have told me I’d have thyroid cancer, would I ever have started taking it? Probably not. 

Did I want to go back on it after surgery? No. Have I? Yes. 

Why? Because I felt like I had no choice.

Having cancer has made me feel really out of touch with my body, I don’t feel I have any control over it. I’ve always thought I’ve been relatively healthy but I’m not. I feel a bit disappointed with my body that I have cancer, like I’ve let myself down in some way. 

After the surgery, I highly doubted that I’d decide to take fake hormones again which got me thinking about other options.

And while there are LOADS of options out there, there just doesn’t seem to be any to suit me. Aside from condoms, it seems like it’s totally the girls responsibly. Either having the pill, the implant or various other methods, they’re all aimed at the women. All these methods bring their own set of side effects too, depression, weight gain, fatigue, mood changes, nausa.. the list goes on. It doesn’t exactly, inspire you to go on them.

However again, I feel like the level of control I have over my body is taken away from me. I’ve had to go on the pill as because of good old cancer (and my next lot of planned treatment), I need to double up my method of protection. Ultimately, I know this is to protect me but for me, it doesn’t make it any less annoying. 

I don’t know why I decided to write this post, I just felt so displeased about the methods of contraception available and I wanted to share that. 

What is everyone’s thoughts on this? Are you as annoyed as me or is contraception not something you really put too much thought into (apart from when taking it obvs)?