Heya there, I have a question pertaining to birth control.
I was on Depo Provera before I transitioned. Recommended time to take it: No more than two years.
I took it from the time I was fifteen until I was twenty one, so six years total.
Already, that can destroy fertility, but I have no way to check whether things 'down there' work enough to give me grief.
I already know something has gone wrong with the system though: Once I was two days late for the shot and had intense pain, needed to go to the bathroom every few minutes, nauseous when sitting up, medicine wouldn't help the pain except naproxen sodium, and it went away by the next morning but it was several hours of feeling as though I had a UTI and food poisoning or something, then I was fine for a few months.
About four months after that, I wasn't due for another shot until a month later but I began bleeding every day very lightly and having abdominal pain that would come and go.
That was in June and now I am still bleeding lightly and still in pain but until October I can't make another Dr's appointment. Family history of disease, so I believe it is likely a malfunction that got worse over time but Depo Provera covered up the symptoms.
Now, I am hoping that my insurance will cover getting ovaries and uterus removed due to the pain and bleeding. Anyone know whether it would? Also I think my work MIGHT have listed me as male, but I was never given out insurance forms, s if they deny me gynecological care I can sue, right? After all, it would violate bad faith law for them to tell me an entire organ system is not covered under their insurance when they never notified me.
As for the birth control issue, I am taking testosterone in what my doctor tells me is the full dose and have normal male levels. I have heard it is still possible to become pregnant on testosterone so I would suppose it is less effective than the Depo Provera. I am in a long term relationship, monogamous, with my partner and we are both clean. We prefer not to use condoms since we didn't when I was taking the Depo shot but I cannot now that I am on HRT since it suppresses testosterone.
From what I am aware of the Today Sponge is actually pretty effective and a goodly number of people use that as their sole birth control, and by them I mean women, so a guy on T should be as safe as or safer than them.
Has anyone else used that as their sole method? Did it work well or not? Maybe someone at least knows another person who did.
It would only be for a month or so because my partner has a consultation to get a vasectomy but I was interested in this in the mean time.
