All politics is local.
Sweet merciful Jesus.
I haven't slept properly in days. I've had backaches and headaches constantly. I've been eating like an asshole. I'm bleeding. Not a lot, but enough to make me uncomfortable and self-conscious.
I am in my last two weeks of having the Hardware. On the 18th, it'll be officially five years. I had forgotten how much my menstrual cycle dominated my life. It literally takes me out of reality. I become foggy, forgetful, clumsy. I drop things. And this isn't for an hour or two; it's consistent for at least a week. And when I finally clear my head, my abdomen goes nuts.
I've felt twinges of cramps. It makes me more scared than anything else. My cramps of old would literally lay me out for 24 hours. Luckily, nothing that bad has come up.
My skin is breaking out. I'm practically fucking 40, for fuck's sake. Acne!??! Really?
All in all, out of the 28 days of my cycle, a solid 14 were spent dealing with some symptom. That's half of my life. If I were dealing with any other body part in chronic pain for half of it's existence, I'd have some kind of House-esque team doing everything to fix it. But because it's my reproductive system, it not only is avoided as a discussion topic, it's laughed off as "normal", and "something that women just have to go through".
So, while these symptoms today are a shadow of what they used to be, they are a solid reminder that I am never going back to that. As long as I have a say in my medical care (and, realistically, that decision power is threatened), I'm choosing semi-permanent birth control, until such time as I am menopausal.
This is my choice. It's a choice to not have any children, and a choice for a general better quality of life. It's not for everyone, and while I do recommend it for anyone who doesn't wish to start a family for at least three years, it's up to you. But it should be up to you, and not anyone else.