- Hi Dad!
- [Male] Hello.
- I'm being interviewed.
On Hannah's channel.
(upbeat music)
- Hey guys, welcome to episode four
of The Hormone Diaries.
This episode is an interview with my mum
about her contraception and period stories
and all of that kind of stuff.
But before we get into it,
I thought I'll just do a little update.
Tits really hurting right now in this moment.
So I think that means that my next period is due,
kind of like any minute now.
It has been six or seven weeks since my last one,
but I kind of expected it to be irregular at the beginning.
So no alarm bells ringing.
Also I wanted to talk about everything
that's been going on in the news recently,
with regards to the pill.
If you didn't see, the reports of a Danish study
were published, that found a link
between hormonal contraception and depression.
This is something that people kind of already knew
from anecdotal evidence,
but this is like the first official study
with data kind of proving it almost,
or like showing a very clear link.
Your mood and your emotional health
is linked to hormones and your lifestyle.
So like eating and sleeping and exercising
change your hormonal balance and impacts your mood.
But it's difficult to see the direct impact
of hormonal contraception on your mood,
because there are so many other factors at play,
like other hormones like melatonin,
which is the sleep hormone,
and cortisol, which is the stress hormone.
And both of those things can also impact on depression,
and mental and emotional health.
So it's interesting.
There's a lot that we do not know about the pill,
but it looks like that some people are starting to study it,
and some people are starting to give a damn
about female health.
So it'll be interesting to hear
what you guys all think of that,
and if you find any other studies or articles and stuff
that explain more.
But now, let's get into it.
Here is the chat I had with my mum.
This is my mum, Debbie.
- Hi.
(laughs)
- Yeah! - Yay!
- I'm thinking about maybe getting the coil.
And I know that you have had the coil.
(laughs) - Just leap in there.
- Yeah. - Alright.
Is there no warm-up to this conversation?
- No. - Alright.
- Tell me about the coil, Mum.
- Well, I had it after having you and Leah.
- Okay. - So, you know,
I was definitely not wanting
to get pregnant for quite some time.
I had different ones.
- Oh, so you had the copper coil and the Mirena coil.
- Just because, I had the normal coil to start with.
- Which is the normal one.
- The copper coil. - The copper, so that--
- Where you have periods.
Two lots of them, and then my periods were getting
longer and heavier and stuff.
And then they told me about this Mirena coil,
which is brilliant, 'cause you just don't
have periods at all, I love that.
- I need to have periods, I want periods.
- You don't need to have periods.
- No, but I-- - Lots of women
go and say, "Ooh, don't you want to bleed?"
It's like, no.
You want to know about your fertility and things like that.
So I'm not interested in my fertility, so.
- Yeah, you're just like, I'm done.
- So I'm done.
It's absolutely fantastic in terms of,
obviously throughout that period,
I was just with, I'd been just with your dad.
So it's just like not having to think
about contraception at all.
It's just, it's there for seven years.
It's hell on earth having it put in.
- Really, ugh.
- If you've had a smear.
- I've not had a smear yet. - Okay.
Well anyone that's had the smear,
it's like loads worse than that.
(laughs) The pain is not forever.
Your body sometimes tries to reject it,
so you sort of almost go into labor.
- Yeah, that's what I've been told,
that you basically get, like--
- But the first time I had it in, I wasn't warned at all,
and I went to just go straight into work,
and I thought I was, I was driving,
so I just left and drove, and I thought I was in labor,
and I shouldn't have driven to work.
No one explained anything to me.
- I remember you coming home one day
after you had the Mirena put in,
like the last Mirena you had.
And you said the doctor was just like,
"Well, that'll see you through." (laughs)
- Oh, no. - Do you remember that?
- Yeah, definitely, I quote that all the time.
Definitely, so I was about 45, maybe.
He went "Well that will see you through."
And I thought, "Well, I don't feel like I'm through."
But you know, I wasn't planning on having more children,
but you know, you still think you could if you wanted to.
- How's menopause treating you?
- So, it's a breeze. (giggles)
It's a breeze, I think.
- Are you on the other side yet, or you still in it?
- No, I think-- - How long does it last?
- I don't know, that's a funny story
if you want to hear that, when I got the last one out.
- Oh yeah. - I went to get it out,
purely because I was having other issues,
and I thought maybe the coil was causing it.
So I'm there at the sexual health clinic,
and I'm looking at all these young people,
and I'm thinking, "I wonder why they think I'm here,
"'cause I'm older." (laughs)
Got it taken out, and she said, well,
even though I had to have blood tests two years ago
that said that I was, um.
- Officially in menopause. - In menopause.
She said "Well, how many blood tests have you had?"
And I went "Only one."
She goes, "Well you never know."
So she made me take this big bag of condoms away
from the appointment, and I'm like 51, I think.
- But what if you got pregnant now?
- Well, that was two years, I was 50, it was two years ago.
- Okay, so it's not-- - And I've not got pregnant.
- So I think we're fine, no more brothers and sisters.
- No, no more for me.
- I'd be in the headlines of the paper, wouldn't I?
52 now I am.
- So before you had me and Leah,
what contraception did you use?
- So I was on the pill for a long time,
and then probably like you,
I decided I should come off it,
'cause I'd be on it a long time.
And then I had the cap.
- Oh really? - For a long time.
- How was that, they won't--
- Even just the smell of it now makes me feel ill.
- Oh really, they won't give it to me,
like on the NHS, they don't recommend it at all.
I don't know, it seems like real--
- It's bloody awful. - 1970s thing.
- Oh it was just awful. - But my friend
uses the diaphragm, but she had to pay for it,
because they just wouldn't give it to her in the NHS.
- I constantly had thrush when I had that.
- Oh really, maybe you weren't using it properly.
- Messy, and, I never got pregnant on it.
It obviously works.
- Oh, can you tell the story about why I'm in this world?
- Why you're in this world? - Yeah.
- Your dad was very keen to have, his put it on the agenda,
his dad died, he had a very old dad,
and he decided he wanted to be a young dad.
And I can't make decisions,
I can't make any, I'm hopeless at making decisions.
So I was at that time, applying to do law.
So basically, I said "Tell you what we'll do,
"I'll apply to do law, we'll stop using contraception,
"and see which happens first."
That was my way of making, he was like "Okay."
And literally I got pregnant straight away,
I had no idea, and I was like--
- So fertile. - Oh my god, oh!
- Contraception does work.
- Contraception, so I've never been pregnant before,
and I was like, "Oh my god, oh my god, it works!"
Which is such an obvious thing, but anyway.
- But also, I think because you hear so many stories
of people that, like have a lot of trouble
getting pregnant as well.
- Yeah. - And you never know
if that's going to be you.
- Yeah, so I was 27 then yeah,
and I didn't do law. - No.
What were your periods like then?
When you had periods, when you were a teenager?
- I was okay, actually.
They really, I never struggled.
- 'Cause I was fine as well.
- I never, my biggest thing was my tits
used to absolutely kill me. - Same!
- Before a period. - Oh my god, so painful.
- They would just be like really sore.
- Best thing about menopause.
That carried on, even with the coil, Mirena coil.
- 'Cause you'd still have a cycle.
- You'd still have a cycle, so I was only aware of it,
by my boobs, really.
But menopause sorted all that out.
- Go menopause, we'd recommend.
- I recommend menopause for that.
- I know that you've had to take
the morning after pill twice. - Yes.
- And I think I know that
because I had to take the morning after pill,
and I think I remember telling you.
- But that was condom incidents.
- Yeah, you said you got really nauseous on yours.
I don't feel anything. - Oh my god, so ill.
- I've taken the morning after pill twice now,
and it's like-- - That might be a good sign
for pregnancy, then, 'cause I think it makes you,
I think the big dose of hormones
is a bit like the sort of hormonal changes
you have when you're pregnant, I think.
- So maybe I'll have a smooth pregnancy.
- And I was really sick, in my early stages
of pregnancy as well, so maybe.
Horrible, absolutely horrid reaction.
- But you didn't like vomit back up the pill.
- No, I don't think so. (door opening)
- That's the father coming home.
- As I said before, I have got pregnant
like literally in an instant.
So it was Christmas Eve.
- Oh, so this was after you'd had kids.
- You were six months old.
So I was not on the pill.
I had him, of course, wear condoms at that time.
And we're up at James's granny's
in a remote bit of Scotland.
- James's mum's, my granny. - Your granny.
- Yeah. - So yeah, your granny.
And in a remote bit of Scotland on Christmas Eve.
Lots of family to look after you, you were six months old.
So we said, well we'll go and have a nap.
- A nap. - Well it was a nap,
we were nappers, a nap.
(laughing)
So we went and had a nap.
A mishap with a condom, absolutely terrified,
like you were six months old, that I was gonna be pregnant.
I thought that's it, I'm pregnant again.
Oh my god, I cannot go.
So we had to emerge from the bedroom.
(laughing) - In front of all the family.
- Very stern great granny, you know, and his mum,
to see if we could explain sheepishly what had happened
and what we required, and they had to go and find
some after hours doctor somewhere to go and get us.
They must have got it. - So you found a clinic
on Christmas Eve. - I think we found a doctor
that would prescribe something, eventually.
But can you imagine. - Ugh.
- It was the most embarrassing, oh it was
just so embarrassing. (laughs)
I think it was the summer after that,
and we're in France, and same thing happened,
a mishap with a condom.
Having to then try and communicate in French
to somebody, somewhere.
- It just really reminds me of that scene
in Bridget Jones. - Where you could possibly
explain A, what had happened, B, what you do about it.
Where do you go, going into a chemist in the pharmacy.
You know, it was just awful.
We did find someone eventually.
I think it was lots of miming going on.
(imitates squishing)
(laughs) - No it wasn't,
it got quite like that.
- So what do you think I should do, then?
- I think the coil is a bit severe
when you're not, it's very long-term.
It's like, for the amount of,
and I think it's even more painful, if--
- If you haven't had children.
- And actually-- - That was the first thing
my doctor asked me, was if I'd been pregnant.
- And if you're gonna have a coil,
I've had the Mirena coil, which is hormonal.
- I know, but I don't want the hormones.
- But why would you want a medical insertion
that makes you have more painful periods and longer periods?
- I just want periods. - Yeah, well have 'em.
Use a condom or something else.
The Mirena coil is absolutely brilliant.
- I've heard wonders about the Mirena coil.
It might be-- - But in seven years darling,
you'll be like 32, do you really, what,
you don't know where you're at in two years time.
You might decide you want children.
- In two years time? - You don't know.
(laughs) - Things happen very quickly.
You know, but having that cup,
it was horrendous, it really was when I got it put in.
And taken out, is really uncomfortable.
- I think I might just use condoms for now.
- You know, you can have it in
for up to 10 years I think now they work for.
- Yeah, eight to 10 years.
- Yeah, which is worth it, is comfort for that.
But you're not planning your, a 10 year future are you, so.
- I'm not, yeah, I don't know what I'm doing in one year.
- Exactly. (laughs)
So, you know.
- Ooo, thanks Mum! - Mmm, muah.
- I got lipstick on my cheek now.
- Only a bit. - Thank you so much
for watching, isn't my mum great?
I think my mum is great.
Please give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it,
and let me know all of your thoughts
on hormones and birth control and periods,
and all of that stuff that we talked about in the comments,
and don't forget to subscribe,
'cause I make new videos every week.
And I'll see you soon, bye!
(upbeat music)