girls! best birth control for college runners ? mine is killing my iron levels

belial wrote:

anonymouse1 wrote:

Hey girls, this is an unusual post but I thought this would be a good place to get some advice from other athletes. I've had a hormonal IUD for about 2 years and it's been nothing but hell..constant spotting and cramps. I need to find an alternative that won't affect my athletic performance or deplete my iron as I am a competitive college runner. Copper IUDs are out because of iron, and I've kind of had it with IUDs in general. I have heard horror stories from friends about the pill as well, but if you've had a good experience with one I'm totally open to trying it. Any advice (besides abstinence lol) is appreciated.

Best birth control is surrounding yourself with a bunch of male distance runners.

Yes, they will DNF, very reliable. Will not protect against sexiallly transmitted diseases however!

A few things are concerning about your post. First I wold recommend speaking with your physician before following advice given here. Next, Ill tell you my concerns.

If you are spotting with a contraceptive and have low iron levels to boot that is something that needs to be addressed. It will not only decrease your performance athletically but may increase your risk of injury and fractures especially at your athletic level.

Condoms? Please. They are 80% effective even if used perfectly. I understand wanting something more. Been there before.

Some things to consider. You want a birth control that allows you to have LIGHT menstrual flow at least once every 6 mo or will increase risk of endometrial issues. Yaz, patch, and other ocp forumulations are available. Unfortunately will be a trial by fire kind of process!

Do NOT use the depo shot! If used for prolonged periods increases your risk of hip fracture by a significant amount.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Did not read any of the responses here because I started and they were small-minded and sucked. So sorry if I repeat some info that has been said before me. I'm on the patch (ortho evra), and I really like it. It's once a week (so no need to remember to take it every single day), you have more leeway with the time you put it on than the time you take the pill, and I've never had a problem with the hormones for running.

You're an adult so you probably already know this, but DON'T just use condoms if you're having sex. They break, and having two forms of BC is the safest way to do things (3/100 people using condoms will get pregnant. That's a big chance for someone who depends on their body for scholarship/college career).

Something you've probably already considered as well--do iron supplement pills work for you? Definitely hit your GP of OB/GYN doctor's office and see if you can get some blood-work done to make sure it is low iron and get their opinion. They'll be the most help.

Cheers, and good luck in your college running career!

belial wrote:

Best birth control is surrounding yourself with a bunch of male distance runners.

Unless they're from Stanford.

beverythinn wrote:

I have heard many female runners dont get periods when they are very thinn. So you will be fast and no problem with birth control

Having no periods does NOT prevent pregnancy.

I love my Mirena!! I don't know what hormonal IUD you're on, but my Mirena ended my periods, regulated my hormones (and weight as a result), and made track better this year. And haven't gotten pregnant after a year :)

Who invented birth control?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Goodwin_Pincushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Djerassi

Carl Djerassi was born in Vienna, Austria, but spent the first years of his infancy in Sofia, Bulgaria, the home of his father, Samuel Djerassi, a dermatologist and specialist in sexually transmitted diseases.[5][6] His mother was Alice Friedmann, a Viennese dentist and physician. Both parents were Jewish.[1]

Retarded wrote:

Having no periods does NOT prevent pregnancy.

You are an idiot. Amenorrhea (aka the absence of periods) does prevent pregnancy. If you are not getting periods you are not ovulating. You cannot get pregnant if you are not ovulating.

No, you're the retard wrote:

Retarded wrote:

Having no periods does NOT prevent pregnancy.

You are an idiot. Amenorrhea (aka the absence of periods) does prevent pregnancy. If you are not getting periods you are not ovulating. You cannot get pregnant if you are not ovulating.

Yeah, but when for some reason your ovulation is back, you won't know it before you have your periods. So if you had sex assuming you did not ovulate but you actually did ovulate, you can get preggo and discover it very late since you still think it's normal you're not getting periods (with all the negative consequences of a late discovery of pregnancy).

Not to mention that amenorrhea doesn't prevent STD's.

Not to mention not getting periods is not healthy.

So, bad advice to rely on amenorrhea.

I thought thought that chick from "Charmed" called for a sex strike: Alyssaia Millano.

Problem solved. YouPorn wins again.

anonymouse1 wrote:

Hey girls, this is an unusual post but I thought this would be a good place to get some advice from other athletes. I've had a hormonal IUD for about 2 years and it's been nothing but hell..constant spotting and cramps. I need to find an alternative that won't affect my athletic performance or deplete my iron as I am a competitive college runner. Copper IUDs are out because of iron, and I've kind of had it with IUDs in general. I have heard horror stories from friends about the pill as well, but if you've had a good experience with one I'm totally open to trying it. Any advice (besides abstinence lol) is appreciated.

Just get abortions as needed. Better do it soon though as it looks like SCOTUS will be banning them in the near future. Should be good times. Get ready for big cities like NYC to be crime ridden sh!tholes again like they were back in the 70s pre-Roe.

As someone who had a difficult time finding a birth control that didn’t make me feel awful, and is now a primary care doc who prescribes a lot of contraception, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best birth control. Honestly though, past the basic things below, it is a lot of trial and error.

Besides dosage of estrogen/progesterone in OCPs, the progesterone type is the biggest component that requires trial and error about what you’ll feel normal on. I have found that Lessina (lowest hormone dose of the specific progest type) or Levora (next step up) or their generic/other brand equivalents (based on progesterone type) work really well for a lot of active women. The lower the hormone dose, the less general side effects except spotting. If you spot on a .02/.1 (estrogen/progest), then going up to .03/.15 would be a good next step, as that means you need slightly more estrogen to prevent spotting. Low dose equivalent of Yaz would also be something to try (different type of progest from the previously mentioned). Nuva ring is good if you don’t mind how it’s placed, as it actually has the lowest systemic hormone circulation and thus often less systemic side effects (mood, bloating, etc). The patch is a great option since it’s once/wk, but the estrogen dose is fairly high, which can cause a lot of side effects for some women.

Good luck!

Have fun with all your new STDs.

PSA: If a girl tells you she is on the pill, have fun raw dogging, but pull the F out. Squirt it on her tits, but never inside. Chicks lie.

college_runnah wrote:

I love my Mirena!! I don't know what hormonal IUD you're on, but my Mirena ended my periods, regulated my hormones (and weight as a result), and made track better this year. And haven't gotten pregnant after a year :)

My wife uses this IUD to because she is anemic. So no low iron problems. Trade off its lasts half the time of copper

Read up some proper peer reviewed studies on female endurance runners and birth control- there is no performance decrease on average. Also, oral contraceptive does not affect iron levels except to regulate periods to, in your case, decrease blood loss and therefore decrease the risk of anemia.

As a former D1 college runner myself, I recommend the combined pill, not the progesterone-only pills just for practicality of not stressing about taking it every day at the exact same time. I found there was none of the weight fluctuations that are so feared and actually made my iron levels go to normal for the first time in six+ years.

Also, read up on RED-S, the worse your menstrual function is, the worse you will perform. Oral birth control helps regulate periods and estrogen production, and can presumably help you avoid RED-S symptoms (including decreased bone density etc.). If you want to be healthy, running, or even functional as a 50+ year old woman in the future, consider this.

Good luck, make sure to do your own proper research on pubmed/ncbi before listening to these bozos.

-future sports doc, former runner

This board is ineffectual..how am I the first? wrote:

Here is what my girlfriend, who abhors birth control pills, and I do: pull out. It's pretty simple.

Yeah it's a pretty simple way to get pregnant.

Letsrun needs to have a women's forum, that is moderated by women.

Have you and a female partner ever consistently used the pull out for an extended period of time and gotten pregnant? We’ve been doing it for 8 months, and have had no pregnancy. I went and got tested at the fertility clinic, and they said my sperm are healthy. I don’t know what the ideal medical definition of it would be. Simply saying my sperm are fertile?