Preparation

I've spent my adult life on hormonal birth control pills: Ortho Cyclen, Ortho Tri-Cyclen, Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, and Yasmin. Overall I didn't have any issues with the pills aside from the Ortho products promoting painful ovarian cysts and helping me gain a ton of weight. I suppose I could have stayed on them forever, or at least until I was out of my reproductive years.

Over the last few years my husband and I have decided that babies just aren't for us. We haven't completely discounted the idea of children, but adopting or fostering older children is much more appealing than actually having our own child. So we started talking semi-permanent to permanent birth control options. My first instinct, likely brought on by a hormonal cycle, was to ask my husband to look into a vasectomy. I've been on hormones for nearly twelve years, my body is the one having to endure pretty much any form of birth control, yet he would be the easiest to "fix". So why not? He contemplated it with that natural man-instinct backlash they get when it comes to anything involving their part, but he said he'd look into it when he was done with the teaching year. And then I started thinking IUD.

Honestly I had no knowledge of IUD prior to this point because it simply never crossed my mind as a viable form of birth control. I suppose I had preconceived notions that it was ineffective, expensive, painful, and who knows what else. I started doing light research, solicited my Facebook friends for anecdata, and sought out what I could to educate myself. Mirena's US website is a really great resource for the basic of insertion, how it works, etc. Everything sounded fairly appealing, so when I went for my annual "well woman" exam with my gynecologist on May 9, I grabbed a few brochures and asked about my options.

My GYN is an older gentleman, a little on the traditional side but not bad at all. He has his habit of reminding me annually that "When you're ready to go off birth control, you should have no trouble having a child." I guess I never really made it clear that I didn't intend to have children, but he didn't bat a lash when I asked him about Mirena. I explained that I'd done some research online, that I didn't want to have children ever, and that I'd like to know what his experiences with Mirena have been. At this point I almost expected him to be negative about the whole thing since I haven't had any children, and everything I've read says IUD is recommended for women with at least one child, but he was overwhelmingly positive.  He said that I'm healthy, I'm in a monogamous relationship, and I don't want to have children, so I'm a perfect candidate. He answered a few of my ridiculous questions (e.g. Can I wear tampons with an IUD?) and immediately set me up with his insurance counselor to see what Aetna would cover. I left his office feeling positive and excited.

A few days later I received a call from his insurance counselor. She told me that my insurance, an Aetna PPO, would cover 20% after I paid my deductible. So I would have to pony up $408 ($300 deductible, $30 copay [you have to be kidding me...], $78 for the 20%) for the procedure. Thankfully I'm in a financial position where this wasn't a major issue. She advised that I could schedule the procedure for as soon as I liked, and that she recommended I have it done while on my period to make it slightly more comfortable. That quick, huh? Wow! So I called the front desk and scheduled my appointment for May 26.