Pregnancy Paranoia Question

[sutaseiu.livejournal.com]

It's fairly common to see people here worried about pregnancy over all sorts of things. A number of these people are on birth control, using condoms, or not have PIV sex. This, plus the comments they generate, show that it's pretty common to be terrified of pregnancy when you're just starting out with sex, even if the risk is actually quite low.

Soooo is it weird that I wasn't worried at all about it, and totally trusted my birth control? I feel like it's a little odd lol. I'm far more paranoid now (five years after losing my virginity) than I ever was before. This is likely do to my experiences with the morning after pill and having once been pregnant, but the fear of pregnancy never once entered my head other than in situations where I feel that fear was valid (sex for the first time without any sort of protection, very screwy pill taking), and even now, I trust my birth control 99% of the time (condoms get zero trust though).

Comments

[f1011224.livejournal.com]

Can I ask why you don't trust condoms at all? Just curious because I hear this a lot from those who are on birth control, which personally makes me feel more paranoid (did I remember to take it, did it even work!?, is this going to make me sick, etc...) than just using a condom.

[sutaseiu.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with them while on birth control (I have to use them for STD protection, weeee herpes), but I hate the morning after pill sooooooo much that I'm terrified of having to take it again. Don't quite trust condoms to not break on me.


I hate the morning after pill so much that I would, and have, seriously considered not taking it, and risking pregnancy/abortion instead. It makes me horribly, horribly sick to the point where taking the second pill is a huge, scary challenge.

[f1011224.livejournal.com]

thanks :)

[shyshutterbug.livejournal.com]

Weird? No, certainly not.

Having worked in gynecology for four years and abortion care for two, I have seen enough birth control failures to make me sweat bullets about ever trusting any birth control method. Mercifully, I am not sexually active, don't have this to worry about, and can therefore get a decent night's sleep. I most definitely do not advise this particular brand of paranoia.

[paperispatient.livejournal.com]

Not weird at all! I haven't had a ton of PIV sex, so this might not be the case whenever I start getting laid on a more regular basis, but I've never worried about pregnancy one bit. I'm on HBC and I take it perfectly; when I was having PIV sex, we used condoms most but not all of the time, and I felt totally comfortable relying on the pill alone to prevent pregnancy. I know that I never, ever want to have kids, so it's interesting to me that I wasn't more worried and paranoid about possible pregnancy.

[shivadidj.livejournal.com]

I've been taking the pill for 13 years and have never worried about pregnancy. The only thing I have used condoms for during that time is protection from STIs. Whenever I have been in a long term relationship, I rely on only the bcp and I'm fine with that.

I am getting an IUD this month so I don't have to have hormones in me anymore to give me that security.

The reason I don't trust condoms for birth control as much as the pill is that even used correctly, condoms seem to have a tendency to fall off inside or break and I can't control that. However, when I do a bad job taking my pill, I can abstain for a bit (though I usually am very good about taking it).

[1girl.livejournal.com]

I've never been particularly scared of pregnancy although I've had a few hmmm moments when my period was extra late. I've only ever used condoms during one-nighters; in long term relationships I march my partner down to the free health clinic for testing and then I rely on the pill alone.

[cfoxrun.livejournal.com]

I trust my birth control. I mean, thats what i'm taking it for! As long as it take it at about the same time every day I have no reason to think it isn't working.

[archangelbeth]

Really, about the only things that tend to make me twitchy about unintended pregnancy were/are:

• My (formerly) screwy periods, which resulted in things like, "I don't recall anything weird with the condom, but where is my period??"

• Using sponges and being a bit late on the period thing.

I trust the lambskin condoms a lot. Probably more than I'd trust HBC, really; in all the years (over a decade!) of use, they've never once broken, even with some abuse that was probably a bit into the typical-use category.

And though it was very long ago now (1989ish?), I don't recall much paranoia around my first time. Odd.

[storychick.livejournal.com]

I never worried, either. I knew that I used all the methods I tried correctly, and I knew what my plan was should something happen and it fail.

I have also never, in my 20 years of being sexually active and using a variety of birth control methods, been pregnant when I didn't want to be. Despite getting pregnant quickly all three times we tried. So the statistics were right for me. :)

[littlravn.livejournal.com]

I didn't worry much when I was younger, but around age 22 I started to get paranoid because BC kept failing and I kept getting pg and it can be really frustrating to never be able to plan anything. I certainly didn't plan 6pregnancies in 6yrs, thats for sure!

I don't trust BC at all, and I actually expect it to fail.
Plan for the worst, hope for the best...isn't that how the saying goes?
hehe

[sonarafaey.livejournal.com]

I have never worried about failed birth control. With my first partner, we used BC pills and condoms every time, so the chances of pregnancy were extremely low, low enough for me to feel confident. With my husband we only use BC pills. If the pill should fail and I got pregnant, we actually would be thrilled. We're planning on having kids in the near future anyway, so a pregnancy now would be sooner than expected, but a blessing nonetheless.

[actorgrl04.livejournal.com]

I think its good and okay that you don't worry as much. probably because in most cases, if you do everything right and you worry, the worrying will cause wonky periods, such as stress does the same thing.

I think it takes some time to get used to not being "protected" when on HBC. meaning, my boyfriend and I use condoms, he hates them because of the mistakes that happen with them(slipping off, breaking, ect) we've had that happen before i had to get the morning after pill(which i hate taking, because of its effects) so i am mentally preparing myself for HBC(when i start it) because i know there will be some effects at the beginning. i think with any sort of protection there is questions and paranoia. anyway, that was a long answer. i guess what i am trying to say is i know what you mean,lol.

[dayglow.livejournal.com]

I've had 3 'pregnancy scares' in my life. I put it in quotes because some of them don't even really count. :P The first time was when my period didn't show up on time and ended up skipping that month completely. Freaked me out, because I had just become sexually active with my boyfriend. However, by 'sexually active' I mean 'oral and manual only' and since we were long distance, the last instance of sexins was in January. It was March or April when my period was MIA. :P So I reasoned with myself that I couldn't possibly be pregnant, and I know now that it was just stress. (And am slightly amazed that that's the only period I've missed, ever. I was regular from the start.)

The other two were a time when I was on antibiotics and was going to use the pull-out method but weighed my risks and decided to keep on going anyway. The other time was the most actually risky one, and that's when I took 2 pills missed/late (on the brink of the 12 hour cutoff) - in a row - in the last week of my pack. And we had just had sex the day I forgot to take it the first time. I ended up starting to stack my pills that month anyhow and I was fine, but it was a little nerve-wracking. But other than those 3 times? No worries whatsoever. I know my risks and I have a plan if I were to become pregnant, so all I have to do is make my 2 phone calls and it'll be dealt with.