WHAT??!! How the hell is it that 58 percent of BCP users cannot look at the package, see that pill one in the pack is labelled “Monday” number two is labelled “Tuesday” ad infinitum, and not extrapolate that you should take one on Monday, one on Tuesday, and keep going thus until all the pills are gone and Aunt Flo shows up? Are we making origami with the instruction insert? Was the packaging written in Portugese and sent to Swedish drugstores by accident? Is sexual education in the West really this shitty?
Yeah, #3 sounds about right. So for god’s sake, if you use contraception of whatever sort, do some research, use it right, and keep the stork away until you choose to issue him a formal invitation.
(hmmm…don’t use whipped cream as a condom lube…no Bag Balm either!?..scribble scribble…
When I first went on the pill, the nurse sat down with me and explained the DialPak very slowly and patiently, as though I were a two year old. So I guess there are enough people out there with Fundamental Failure to Get It that medical personell find it necessary to deliver that level of instruction.
I used to listen to Loveline pretty frequently, too, and just about every night there would be a girl who called in saying that the pill “hadn’t worked for her” so she’d had to switch to condoms (which she should have been wearing anyway, what with STDs and all). Dr. Drew would always call them out, saying “The pill probably worked just fine for you; you just couldn’t remember to take it, right?” and nine times out of ten, they’d quietly admit that that was the case.
Jesus, people! What’s so hard about putting the pills next to the alarm clock or next to your toothbrush so that you see them every day and remember to take them? But this plan presupposes the use of alarm clocks and toothbrushes…I guess you could keep the pills next to the Boone’s Farm or the crack pipe, though.
The green ones, that were sugar pills, that you took the week you had your period. I just didn’t take 'em.
I was able to count to seven and knew to start a new pack of pills the following week.
No disrespect intended, VW_Woman, but your theory doesn’t work when your date is holding you down on the couch. Or for married women whose husbands believe “I do” means “I will” at any moment for the rest of their lives. Sex happens, sometimes when you don’t want it to.
And no, I don’t want a repeat of magdalene’s locked, “Now get off my fucking couch” thread.
Re the OP, so the idjits who habitually forget to take pills counted in the stats on BCP effectiveness? Because that would mean for women who aren’t idjits, the failure rate is considerably less.
Every once in a great while I’ve forgotten to take a pill, but I always remember the next morning (or sometimes just a few hours later). Use a back-up method if necessary. It’s really not that difficult.
My wife and I have the perfect system - I always go to sleep after her, so I’m responsible that she take the pill. I nudge her awake, put the pill in her mouth, bring her a glass of water and tuck her back to sleep. If I forget… well, no nookie until next month.
The way she sees it, she’s the one in our relationship who’s stuck with the complicated reproductive system, so the least I can do is shoulder some of the responsibility.
Alessan: Do you know the Heimlich maneuver? Because putting a pill and water in the mouth of someone who is mostly asleep and in a reclining position is a great way to start them choking. Much better to get her in a seated position.
Most statistics on birth control effectiveness have two columns, one for perfect usage and one for real-world usage. This accounts for people who forget to take their birth control pill sometimes, or put the condom on backwards, or whatever.
xyzzy: Condoms aren’t foolproof either. Whatsit Jr. is living proof of this.
If you REALLY REALLY don’t want to get pregnant, you should use at least two forms of birth control.
If you REALLY REALLY REALLY don’t want to get pregnant, you shouldn’t have sex. No method is perfect.
If you’re the type of person who forgets to take medication, why not just try one of the other hormonal b/c options that only have to be remembered every few weeks? I can kind of understand if someone is very squeamish they might not want to do the Lunelle or Depo Provera shots, but with things like the Ortho Evra skin patch, and the NuvaRing now becoming available which were invented with women who forget the pill in mind, this really should be an increasingly obsolete problem.
As for the abortion comments in this thread, I don’t know what abortion has to do with this issue, since obviously there are ways to avoid pregnancy that are not being used to their full potential. A significant number of aborting women weren’t using birth control at all (about 42% according to Alan Guttmacher Institute), and of those who do use birth control, this thread indicates many do not use it correctly. These types of problems can be remedied without abortion.
“Anti-choice arsewits” should “get railed”, X? Wow, that was profound. I have no idea why the abortion debate has dragged on for decades when people like you obviously have all the answers. Yes, you discovered the big secret. We pro-lifers are all really anti-choice, because obviously anyone who happens to disagree with your personal view must be a monster. And, gosh, it’s hard to see why anyone would ever have a problem with abortion. After all, nobody could possibly see any value in the life of a fetus unless they’re REALLY just looking for a way to torture and oppress women–that’s why nobody ever feels bad about having a miscarriage or stillbirth. :rolleyes:
