Has anyone here ever used Norplant? - Birth Control Message Board

wrin · 04-01-2003, 06:03 PM

Does anybody here use norplant? Ever used norplant? know someone who uses norplant?

I'm considering going on it since I plan on being childfree for a few more years and my faith in the pill is iffy at best. This way we can avoid the human-error end of things (IE me forgetting pills and whatnot).

Was curious about the procedure, etc, if anything changed (period patterns and things like that), side-effects, that sort of stuff.

md puta · 04-02-2003, 12:54 PM

wrin:

Well, my experience with it wasn't the greatest. I've heard some people who swear by it and others who had the same experience as me.

The sound of it at first was great... I'm like "Wow, no pill for 5 years??" I contemplated on it, got a bunch of information, and then decided to have it done sometime in '98 (I'm pretty sure that's when it was, either then or '99).

The procedure itself wasn't too bad. I had mine done in a planned parenthood facility in my hometown. They take out the actual device (I think it was 6 capsules, each about 1.5" long and fairly thin), they used a diagram to mark on my skin where the capsules would go, in a fanned shape. (on the inside fleshy part of my arm, the incision is 1/2 way between my elbow and armpit, the capsules pointed toward my armpit) They then injected me with a local anesthetic and made a small incision 1/4" long with a scalpel in my arm. They then pushed each capsule into place. I didn't feel any pain during the procedure, only some tugging and pulling. Afterwards, they closed the wound with a paper suture (no stitches) and sent me on my way.

My arm was VERY sore for a few days, and I had some bruising... it also took some getting used to being able to feel the capsules under my arm (that was pretty gross). Some of them were more visible than others.

The first month or two, I was like "Hey, this is great!" Those first two months, I also didn't get my period. After the first two months, I started breaking out HORRIBLY, and I never had much of a problem with acne. I also started having pretty severe mood swings, and depression as well (I never thought of the beginning of my depression as connected to having the Norplant, but it's a possiblity). I continued to have break outs, nothing I did could prevent them. I went without having my period for 9 months to having constant spotting. I obviously went to the doctor during that time, and they said the first year on Norplant usually requires some patience and adjustment. So I stuck by and waited. And waited. My periods became so erratic that I thought I was going to lose my mind. Towards the end, I bled for 2 months straight. I finally begged them to remove it, and they reluctantly obliged...

I ended up having Norplant for about two years, most of the first year being semi-okay and the second year being pure hell. In addition, when they took it out, they had a hell of a time digging the capsules out of my arm... apparently I had an incredible amount of scar tissue built up around the capsules, and it took them about an hour and a half to extract them all. When they were halfway through, they wanted to close the wound, let it heal and then try for the rest of them another day... I told them that they'd better get all of them then, because there was NO WAY that I was going back in to have them dig around in my arm.

So anyway, do what you want!

That's just my story...

If the pill is hard for you to remember to take, I've heard that they have a new birth control patch... my best friend takes it and she swears by it, she's another person who can never remember to take her pill on time. (Uh oh, did I remember mine last night...?)

Hope this helps.

Lauren

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I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle these 3 things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.

camden · 04-02-2003, 03:25 PM

Have you thought of depo provera. You get a needle every 10-13 weeks so you only have to remember it at these times. Most women stop having their periods(I spotted for a couple of weeks then had no more periods).

It can however take up to eighteen months to start menstrating again(not sure about the norplant), but after a year of use, I went off of it and had a period at the end of the thirteenth week!

md puta: When I went on the depo shot I too noticed alot more acne(I believe that norplant and the shot contain the same things). I have come to realize that it probably wasn't the depo causing the acne, rather the birth control pill that had been keeping it cleared up until then.

wrin · 04-02-2003, 08:10 PM

I wouldn't go on depo-provera. Too many horror stories.

I'm considering norplant mostly because (1) it uses a progesterone I'm already on in my birth control pills (levonorgestrel) so I don't think it'll cause me any adverse effects since I've already been taking it for 2 years, and (2) I'm getting annoyed with being terrified that my pills are going to fail on me for no reason whatsoever. I don't trust them and the paranoia is really getting on my nerves. I take them perfectly but they're slowly making my periods disappear and especially over the last 3 months my periods have been INCREDIBLY light (2-3 days only) and this month was only 1-2 days. I hate worrying every time I get a period that was lighter than the last that I'm pregnant and this is my only warning.

I was tempted to try NuvaRing but then we're inserting the element of human error into things again, where we depend on me to take it out and put it in on time. I know it's probably hideously reliable but I'm absolutely TERRIFIED of getting pregnant. Nuvaring is a serious consideration though because I'd be changing progestins and I don't know if I want to get used to another set of side-effects. That AND I'm sure I'd be petrified that it'd fallen out during the day sometime.

Meanwhile I think I'm driving my doctor nuts phoning him going "my period is late again" and him being like "that can happen on the pill, don't worry about it, you're on the lowest dose you can get and it's giving you SIDE EFFECTS, you're most definetely protected, don't worry, it happens," etc etc etc, and every time he's right, but I'm still ****ting myself with worry.

I think I'd almost rather just have norplant DONE and be DONE with it and not have to worry about the god damned pills. I've so little faith in my own ability to protect myself -- I mean, I use other protection, but I don't trust that either.

Calixte_Silas · 04-02-2003, 08:52 PM

To my knowledge they have discontinued Norplant in the US. because of many problems with the capsules, them coming out, bleeding, etc.
However, if I'm correct, they now have newer better Norplant similar capsules, instead of 6 there are 3. I don't know if they've changed the hormones inside them or not, but they have made the whole deal better and safer.
I read all this in a women's health catalog at Planned Parenthood (in case anyone's wondering.)