{"id":9724,"date":"2016-01-15T23:46:19","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T23:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/01\/15\/why-i-stand-with-planned-parenthood\/"},"modified":"2016-01-15T23:46:19","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T23:46:19","slug":"why-i-stand-with-planned-parenthood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/01\/15\/why-i-stand-with-planned-parenthood\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I stand with Planned Parenthood"},"content":{"rendered":"

spiralthorns<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

carafem<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

sweaterkittensahoy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Multiple gynos refused me an IUD because \u00a0\u201coh, it hurts so much to put in when you\u2019ve had kids! We don\u2019t want to put you in pain!!\u201d<\/p>\n

I was at a 7-9 on the pain scale regularly for my periods, and the docs were determined to make me run the gauntlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what about the pill?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSymptom-swap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you thought about depo?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMood drop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the patch?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFamily history of breaking out in rashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what about the nuva ring?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow will that NOT give me the same symptom-swap issues?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I\u2019m in pain so bad I wake up in the middle of the night. I\u2019m in pain so bad I didn\u2019t know I had appendecitis. I need SOMETHING.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you tried an ibuprofen protocol?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYES.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are yoga poses that help with cramping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t uncurl from the ball of pain I\u2019m in. How the hell am I supposed to hold position?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, how much caffeine do you drink? That could be a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have three cups of coffee a day and drink lots of water.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so on.<\/p>\n

Then, one day, I made an appointment and went to Planned Parenthood.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. Hi. I have incredibly painful periods that are fucking crippling me, and I need an IUD.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay. Do you have a chart of your periods I can look at?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay. Looks like you have regular, heavy periods where the pain is worsening. Is that right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYup. And the fatigue. And the mood swings. And all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFatigue and mood swings, too?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026is there any history of endometriosis in your family?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYup. I\u2019ve never been diagnosed, though. They say it takes a biopsy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biopsy can confirm tissue, but if you don\u2019t have excess tissue, it doesn\u2019t really help. You can have endo without excess tissue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay. So, what are my options?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI suggest Mirena. Paraguard can make period symptoms worse even though it\u2019s got no hormones while Mirena has a low-dose hormone that should help with all your pain and other issues. Here\u2019s all the info on both of them. Here are models of both of them. Why don\u2019t you take everything with you, read through it, then call if you have any questions? We can go ahead and schedule for insertion before you leave, and you can just call and say which type you want after you\u2019ve read up. Is that okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Yeah. That\u2019s. That\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have any questions right now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUm, I got told a bunch I shouldn\u2019t get an IUD because the insertion will hurt too much because I haven\u2019t had kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the pain you\u2019re usually in, I think you can handle it. It will definitely hurt, but it should only last about twenty seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty seconds?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been refused the best option for dealing with my symptoms because of TWENTY SECONDS?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, we hear that a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood treated me like a PERSON who was in pain, not a walking uterus bitching and moaning about womanly things. Planned Parenthood showed me respect and kindness and respected the knowledge I brought of my own medical history to the conversation. Planned Parenthood respected my autonomy where other doctors rarely had and paid attention when I explained why I felt the IUD was the best choice. Planned Parenthood showed me I mattered, and I want to show how much they matter to me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

^ the difference between a person\u2019s symptoms being diminished versus believed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s really terrible that the first doctors got \u201ccramps\u201d out of \u201cso much pain I didn\u2019t notice appendicitis.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

spiralthorns: carafem: sweaterkittensahoy: Multiple gynos refused me an IUD because \u00a0\u201coh, it hurts so much to put in when you\u2019ve had kids! We don\u2019t want to put you in pain!!\u201d I was at a 7-9 on the pain scale regularly for my periods, and the docs were determined to make me run the gauntlet. \u201cBut … Continue reading Why I stand with Planned Parenthood<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3066],"class_list":["post-9724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-this","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}