Over the years I've used:

1. Pull out method (My first time and never again. It worked, but I wouldn't recommend it for obvious reasons.)
2. condoms (it was new, and I loved it, so the condoms didn't bother me)
3. birth control pills (awesome after those damn condoms)
4. nothing (kinda scary cause I wasn't sure I was ready for kids even though we were trying for them)
5. pills again (excellent)
6. nothing (I was cool with it this time and liked it)
7. condoms (hated this stage a lot)
8. vasectomy (awesome again)

there better be no number 9 for this list...

Marriage.

*rimshot*

All you have left is dismemberment. :thepain:

Although as a form of contraception, this one's bound to be a little less popular than some of the other methods...

I probably shouldn't post this since my friend swore me to secrecy, but since you don't know her and never will, it probably doesn't count. She's been using a coil as a way of tackling heavy periods as well s birth control. I just got off the phone with her, she's got all the symptoms of ectopic pregnancy.

She and her boyfriend (who is also a friend of mine) have been seeing each other for less than a month. Hell of a thing to have deal with that early in.

Nothing until I recently started the quarterly cycle pills. The hormones have always scared me a bit, but I really super duper don't want to get pg again at this point.
I'm hoping and bugging that LJ will step up and get the V... I mean, I did happily suffer thru natural childbirth of his giant spawn, but obviously its his choice, and I probably won't get cancer from the pills...

That abbreviation puts BigV's username in a whole new light...

In case any lurkers out there are wondering, a vasectomy is really no big deal. The only thing I would suggest is that you find a urologist who routinely performs no scalpel vasectomies. The first urologist I went to (referred to me by my primary care doctor) only did it the old school way of making an incision that needs to be stitched up and the stitches later removed. Fuck that.

The more modern and superior way is to make a small puncture, do the procedure, and then close it up with liquid bandage (super glue.) I found a local doctor who does hundreds of these a year, and the process was fast and the recovery was no big deal at all.

Oh yeah, and then drop off a sample a month later to make sure no stray swimmers are hanging around.

did it hurt?

is yer mangravy thinner now?

did your health insurance pay for it?

did it hurt?

LJ - I will let you know on Friday afternoon how it goes. According to my doc, it will be a non-event. He did say that after seeing my junk...

FYI: I only have to pay my $25 co-pay.

Yes. They spray you in the very beginning with a numbing spray. They didn't tell me why, but I was happy to be numb down there with the all the attention being paid to my privates. (Two female nurses and a male doctor.) Then came the "novacaine" shots. I felt them and they hurt, but they felt just like any shots you ever get. The procedure itself was painless but felt a little weird. I could feel what he was doing, and it didn't feel "right" when he was cutting apart the plumbing. I'm not talking about a sexual way or a homophobic way or anything like that, just that I could tell he was doing something that was changing me and it felt a little unnerving. But I mentally reminded myself that that was the whole point. And it was fine. Then when the "novocaine" wore off later at home, it felt like I'd been kicked in the nuts earlier in the day. Not the intense pain of getting kicked in the nuts at that moment, but the memory of having been kicked in the nuts earlier in the day. I just sat around and watched tv for the rest of the day. The next day I went back to work, and I felt fine even though I was swollen the size of a softball. The day after that, I was basically back to normal. It was a little tender if I was probing around the site, but if I wasn't thinking about it, I didn't even notice it.

In theory yes. In reality, I notice no change.

The insurance company told me before hand that it was 100% covered, but I forgot that since it was in a "surgery center" instead of in the doctor's office there was a deductible applied to it. So I ended up paying like $200 or something like that. Pissed me off, but they were right. I just wasn't expecting to pay anything for it other than a $25 copay.

Oh yeah, there was another weird thing. For a couple weeks afterwards, I felt like I had "blue balls" right after coming. Like I could feel that there was a new blockage in the way and I wasn't getting the release you normally feel. I didn't like the feeling, but it was a very mild one, and went away after a couple weeks. Just a mild annoyance. I can't tell you when that feeling went away because it was gradual, but things work and feel just like before now.

Edit: In case I sound too negative above, let me state clearly that I'm happy I did it, and I'd do it again without hesitation. I just wanted to be honest.

glatt, your post did not make me feel better about the process.

Sorry. It's really not that bad. Kind of like going to the dentist. I think getting a filling hurts, but I go anyway, and it's no big deal. This is similar.

TOG: Just think of how much another child will cost. This pain is far, far less, and far, far more temporary.