- Hello, you guys.
We are about to film a very interesting
and highly requested video by you, guys.
Basically, talking all things, birth control.
Obviously, you guys know I've been very open
about my birth control experience
so I'll be going into mine.
And then we have a bunch of other women
that have tried different birth controls
that are also gonna talk about their experiences
so that you get all high perspective,
that after this video,
you're fully informed on which type of birth control
you should be trying or want to try,
and have all the info you need.
I do feel like I need to clarify.
I am not a doctor.
I did not go to medical school.
Neither did any of these women.
This is literally just speaking from personal experience
of the individual.
So don't take this as medical advice.
Speak to a gynecologist or professional
if you have more questions.
But if you just wanna hear from people
who have experienced it,
then you can go ahead and continue to watch the video.
(upbeat bright music)
Okay, so I'm going first.
And I'm going first
because I've actually never been on the pill.
I've never had the implant in my arm,
the patch, the shots, no hormonal birth control.
And that was a choice I'd kind of done a lot of research for
before I got married,
just 'cause we have like a history in my family
of like hormonal imbalances,
so I was afraid of going on hormonal birth control,
and then it like affecting a lot of different things.
So I did a ton of research about like,
'cause you hear of like rumors from people and stuff
that unless you're all on the pill
or unless you have the bar,
or on some kind of like legit
like doctor prescribed birth control
that you're gonna get pregnant,
which is totally not true.
I'm like five months into marriage
and I am square okay guys.
Don't worry, no baby in this tummy.
I use just condoms and natural planning.
So I actually use like a temperature gauge
that can tell me when I'm ovulating.
I can actually feel when I'm ovulating
but some women can't.
So I have this like temperature gauge
called the Daysy that I found on Amazon.
So I test my temperature every morning
and that tells me when I'm fertile.
So obviously, you wanna be more protected
when you are fertile versus not.
And then just condoms.
Just so for anyone that's trying to come at me,
condoms are actually an effective type of birth control,
people don't use them properly.
And that is why people deem them as non,
like, safe version of birth control.
But it's totally fine.
And I'm speaking from experience, so great.
I use non-latex condoms 'cause a lot of women
have allergies to latex,
and that's not something like a lot of people talk about.
So if you are interested in using
this type of birth control,
you can go on Amazon,
you can go to Target,
you can go to Walmart,
look for non-latex condoms.
They're great, they're gonna be pretty much everywhere.
You could probably find them at a gas station.
Very easy solution.
For, and then the Daysy,
the temperature gauge,
there's lots of different ones.
That one I found on Amazon.
So super easy.
That's all I do.
That's my type of birth control.
There aren't really many side effects.
I don't deal with any of like the weight gain,
or the hormonal,
or like feeling sad or any type of feelings
that sometimes the pill can cause.
I forgot to mention an important fact
about the type of birth control I use,
is that I still have a regular period.
So just like you would normally have
without using birth control,
get a period every month,
I ovulate every month.
Nothing is like changing or messing with my cycle.
That's an important part of knowing
which kind of birth control I might use.
So I forgot to mention that.
- Hey guys, it's me, Bethany.
Brooklyn And Bailey's former roommate.
If you go back that far.
If you don't, then just their besty,
is all you need to know.
I'm here to talk to you about my Nexplanon implant
for birth control.
It is a little matchstick size metal bar
that releases hormones into your body
that is implanted into your arm every three years.
And you leave it in,
it releases the hormones.
You get it taken out
and then reput in whenever three years is up.
I was about 14 when I started using birth control,
but I started on pill
because I was on Accutane.
And you have to use birth control when you're a girl
and on Accutane,
so I just chose the pill cause it seemed the easiest.
And then it was great because it regulated my hormones,
but it was also awful
because I never remember to take it on time.
So I would wake up in the middle of the night
in a cold sweat,
realizing I didn't take my birth control.
Take it, and then feel awful the next day.
Only because I have terrible ADHD.
Only 'cause I'm a disaster.
Whenever we decided that the birth control
is probably not using its full effect
because I was in fact not taking it at the same time.
We looked into other options
and so I looked into both IUDs
and the Nexplanon implant.
And the Nexplanon implant
was by far the best choice for me
because I was horrified of someone putting an IUD into me.
It sounded like my worst nightmare.
Now, I wouldn't care.
I think the IUDs are great.
A lot of my friends have 'em
but at the time, I was not about it.
So I got the Nexplanon implant in my arm.
All they do is they numb your arm, which hurts.
Them numbing your arm is the only thing that hurts.
And then they put a device against your arm
and insert the bar in there.
And then you're good for three years.
And that's like how the insertion process goes.
I didn't get my period,
I stopped getting my period after I took it
because it doesn't allow your body to produce eggs anymore.
That's how it works.
The hormones that are released through the device
or through the bar,
it's not like electronic.
Just through the bar, stop ovulation.
So you can't drop an egg.
It makes like your cervix makes the mucus thicker
so that perm can't get through.
Some of the good side effect
are that I don't have my period,
which is fantastic.
I've never really had any bad side effects.
I know that some people do have
some bad side effects with Nexplanon.
And those could include like having spotting every day.
My friend that went on Nexplanon spotted every day
and had to get it taken out
'cause she just couldn't handle it.
I don't get my period at all.
My friend who's on gets her period every month.
It's just like not her actual period
because there's no egg being released.
It differs for everyone,
but it's been a great experience for me
and I absolutely recommend it.
One and done in there, three years, 99.9% effective.
It's one of the most effective birth controls available,
and you don't have to worry about it,
which is fantastic.
So I highly recommend it.
- My name is Mindy.
I am Brooklyn and Bailey's mom.
- [Bailey] What birth control you chose
and why you chose it?
- I used two.
Started with the pill,
but then I switched to the IUD after I had Rylan.
And I decided the IUD
because I didn't love
the synthetic hormones that were involved in the pill.
But I had heard really good things
from friends about the IUD
and it's not hormone-based
so switched to the IUD.
The IUD, you have to go to your doctor.
They have to put it in it.
It's like a little tiny,
it looks like just a tiny, tiny, little,
like, I mean, it's very small.
It's like a toothpick, like, width.
It's very small.
Put it up past your cervix,
and then it like flips open
so then it's shaped like a T.
And they kind of pull it down
and it sits right on inside your uterus
but right where your cervix and uterus meet.
I think it depends on if you've had a vaginal birth before,
not I've heard,
people that have had a vaginal delivery
have an easier time of having it put in.
I had not since I had had C-sections.
And so having it put in
is definitely a little uncomfortable.
They don't numb you or anything like that.
It's just an office visit.
It doesn't take very long,
but you do have like just like weird cramping
and like they're tugging
and kind of pulling on your uterus (indistinct),
and they use like the speculum,
you know, to open you up,
and then just kinda insert it.
And almost like a little bit more invasive
gynecological visit.
So side effects,
the first few months,
I know it's really common
for you to experience spotting,
like pretty much the whole few months.
And then thereafter, most women
stop having a period, like altogether.
So I did.
I stopped having a period.
And you can have it in I think for five years now
is what they say
before you have to have it removed
and a new one put back in.
I decided, I think it was maybe like two and a half years
after I had it put in for three years
to have it removed
to try to get pregnant again.
The removal process for me was not awesome.
So, I mean, for a lot of women,
I have a friend that pulls her own out.
So I think for some women,
it's like not a thing.
Like they just fill the strings, give it a yank.
That's what the doctors are supposed to be able to do.
For mine, it had like implanted in my uterus,
and so digging it out and finding it
was extraordinarily uncomfortable.
And it was a doctor's visit
and I left with quite a bit of cramping
and thereafter subsequently had infertility.
So I don't know if it was IUD that caused the infertility
or the removal that caused infertility issues,
but that was the end result for me.
I will say I know that's not common.
Like, it's a very, very small percentage of people
that have side effects from the IUD, post IUD.
I just happened to fall in that.
At least when I had mine done,
the copper was not as highly recommended anymore
because like people had weird really heavy periods
and heavy cramping with it.
Where the Mirena is the one I used.
And that one was being found
to be much more, like, just easy to use
and comfortable for women.
Not sure what they say anymore.
Advice as a 20-year-old would've been,
I'll just jump on the pill
'cause that's what I hear everyone talking about
and that's what seems most common.
Advice as a 40 something year old would be,
don't use the pill because it really can screw
with your hormones and have a lot more side effects
than I think people are talking about.
If I had to go back and choose one twos,
I probably still would use the IUD
'cause I feel like that's the least hormone-based.
I just had a personally like a bad experience with it.
But I also think, overall,
men should be much, much, much, much more responsible
for some of the birth control when possible.
Because I think that there are a lot less invasive
and a lot healthier for females.
- [Bailey] Do you wanna say bye or anything?
- Oh, bye. (Brooklyn and Bailey laughing)
- Hey, my name's Allison.
Y'all may or may not remember me
but I'm Brooklyn and Bailey's friend from high school.
So they just asked me to come on
and say a little bit about my experience
with the Depo-Provera shot or the Depo shot.
I started using birth control when I was about 16, 17.
Kinda regulate my cycle,
make it more manageable
'cause things like athletics and stuff like that.
So I actually didn't start off with a Depo shot.
Started with a pill.
That's what almost every doctor is gonna have you do.
And so tried some of those, wasn't the biggest fan.
I had heard my mom had tried the Depo shot
and I knew some other people that had used it.
And it really appealed to me
because they never had a period
the whole time they were using it.
And I was like, "Wow, that sounds fantastic."
I was like, "I'll give it a shot."
And so it's just an injection in your upper arm
or your glute.
And it pretty much works the same
as every other birth control.
It thickens a cervical mucus and prevents ovulation.
It just works a little bit longer.
Works for three months at a time.
You only have to get the shot every three months
which is super nice, super convenient.
Also very appealing.
I tried it for about a year.
Everybody else I knew didn't have a period for a year.
However long they used it,
just never had a period.
I on the other hand didn't but did.
I pretty much spotted for the whole time I was on the shot.
So it was just very annoying, very inconvenient.
It had no rhyme or reason.
It just did what it wanted to do.
And that wasn't very convenient or anything.
And so I was like, "Well, I gave it a shot."
After a year I was like, "Eh, well, not my thing."
But tons of other people love it.
I will say that some of the negative side effects
is that it can take a little bit
for your fertility to get back to where it was,
which makes sense because it is a three-month shot.
So either way you go,
three months after your last shot
is the next time that you'll be fertile again.
So it's gonna take some time to come back for sure
just because it is a longer lasting birth control.
It's not like stop taking the pill and that's immediate.
And so once it's there, it's kinda there.
This is three months.
Really easy, super convenient.
- Hello everyone, it's Brooklyn.
And in my experience with birth control,
I was on the Loestrin birth control pill.
I actually originally was experiencing
a lot of hormone fluctuations
that were affecting my moods,
and I was having really extreme mood swings,
and it was affecting my personal life
and my relationships with people.
And so that's when I first decided to approach the OB-GYN.
And I went to the doctor
and you know, I discussed these problems with her.
Her suggestion was that I get on
the Loestrin birth control pill.
Obviously, she had the medical degree
to back the information that she was giving me,
but I think that the better option probably would've been
to get a blood panel done to test
what actual hormones were, you know, low,
at what times of the month,
so that I could better supplement those
in a more natural way.
And then I say that only because my experience
after getting on the Loestrin birth control pill
was pretty negative.
I gained a decent amount of weight,
I felt really uncomfortable in my body,
and it did actually cause my anxiety and depression symptoms
to like elevate to a completely different level.
And I've heard a lot of women say that happens to them.
And the best explanation I can give you
is it turned me into a very mean person.
Like, meaner than I was before.
And I was also gaining weight
so I was a lot more unhappier,
as in regards to my body and my self-consciousness.
I wasn't using it for pregnancy prevention,
which I know is necessary for a lot of people.
And so, you know, that would obviously be a side effect
of taking the birth control pill
is that it does prevent pregnancy.
I wouldn't be able to speak to the success rate of that
because that's not what I was experiencing
when I was on the pill.
But essentially, I started taking the pill
and what it is, birth control pills.
Sorry, Fin's right here.
What birth control pills look like
is they're in little plasticky container
and you kind of have like a slip package you can put it into
so you can take it with you on trips and stuff.
But it's four rows of actual hormonal pills
that trick your body into thinking that they're pregnant.
And so this means that they're pumping
different hormones into you via the pill.
Mine was low estrogen
so it was basically tricking my body very subtly
into thinking it was pregnant for three weeks of the month.
And then the final week and row of pills are red pills.
And they're basically considered placebo pills.
There's not supposed to be anything in them.
You're just taking them.
And what that does
is it allows your body to recognize
no more hormones are flowing in,
and it allows your body to essentially have a period.
The only problem with that
is it's actually a chemical bleed.
It's not a natural bleed
that's caused by the pills you're taking.
And so it can actually really mess up
your natural reproductive cycle.
A lot of women struggle when they get off the pill
with getting, you know, healthy reproductive cycle again.
And some people struggle,
basically, people struggle getting pregnant
when they get off birth control for a while
just because your body has to get acclimated
to like its own hormone production
instead of these, you know, synthetic hormones
you're putting into your body.
But I've actually also heard a lot of positive things
for women who take the pill and really loved 'em.
So there's different experiences,
I can only just speak to my own experience.
I know a lot of people say
that if you are using it for pregnancy prevention,
if you miss a single day of the pill,
there is a chance that you could get pregnant.
So it is a little bit more difficult
in regards to like other versions of birth control
that aren't so high maintenance.
There are different versions.
Loestrin is kind of like the base level.
I think they even have like one called the mini pill
that's even lower than that.
And then you can raise the levels of hormones and stuff,
and it goes all the way up.
And there's a bunch of different brands.
I had a really generic brand
so it was like $30 at the,
or, at the, you know, grocery store pharmacy every month.
Just go pick it up and they'd give me packets of three,
so it'd last me three months.
And then I'd have to go back and get more packets.
I actually made the decision a little over a year ago
to get off my pill birth control,
just because I did not like the way it's making me feel.
I did not like the way my body looked.
I did not like any of my side effects.
And I was reading a book at the time
that kind of gave me more insight
on how I could now naturally supplement
my hormone imbalance.
And I've been taking vitamins and stuff to help with that.
And it's actually done a way better job
than birth control did.
So, give or take, you know,
take it with a grain of salt.
I did not love my experience on the pill
but a lot of people do,
so that's all I can really do,
Hope that you guys enjoyed this video,
and it was informative, and helpful,
and you got the information you needed out of this video.
If you want us to do more girl talk videos like this,
let us know in the comments below,
and we will try to do more of them for y'all.
And you can also probably give us some ideas
in the comments below as well
for what you want us to film.
Anyway, see you guys next week. (smooches loudly)
Bye. (upbeat bright music)