I was 19 years old and it was time for my annual Pap smear. I walked out of the doctor's office thinking that all was well. To my surprise, I was sent a letter a couple of weeks later saying that I needed to return to the office immediately to discuss my test results. When the doctor came in, he sat me down and bluntly said, "YOU HAVE CANCER!!!" Cancer??? My son had not turned a year old yet. The questions of panic flooded my mind. "Who will raise him if I die? How did I get cancer? I am too young, aren't I? How can this be true?" He talked about therapy and available treatments and about the cost that my insurance would not cover. I was just crushed. I pulled through it all and a few months later was blessed to be cancer-free!!! The thing that bothers me is that I was told that this did not come from HPV (human papilloma virus), but from those good for nothing birth- control pills. I later found out those pills were taken off the market. From that day on, I vowed to never take birth control pill again. The Depo shots, the patch, and anything that is hormone related in my opinion is no good. I believe that what we put in our bodies should be natural and helpful, not harmful - if possible. I was told that I would probably never have another child and if it came back I would have to have a hysterectomy. Then he offered me more pills. Can you believe it?
God has blessed me and it has been 7 years since that happened. Since then, I have not taken any birth control. My husband and I agree that God is the creator and He alone gives life. God has blessed us with three beautiful sons ages 7, 5, and 15 months.
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I understand where you are coming from. When I was 14 I had a similar experience with cervical cancer and it was terrifying. But it wasn't from birth control. I wasn't sexually active, but had been raped the year before. Long story short, I had the surgery and have been okay cancer wise since.
But I was diagnosed with PCOS and a brain lesion. After my first surgery to remove a cyst that had grown out of control I needed to take some sort of birth control to slow down the estrogen production because it was out of control and my ovaries were scarily enlarged because of cysts and the like. Because of the brain lesion, however, there weren't a lot of options, so I had to take the Depo shot. I was on it for 9 months of pure hell after which time i learned I had an infection from the surgery 9 months prior. And am now dealing with the fact that Depo may have actually compounded the problems.
Getting it all straightened out has been a mess, especially infertility wise. The shot on top of the PCOS on top of the infection and cervical cancer issues has made it incredibly hard to conceive. I hate birth control after the entire Depo experience.
But, it does do good for some people. I've met several people since my infertility journey began that have been able to save their fertility because of birth control. Others have to take it because getting pregnant could be catasrophic at that point in time. For some people, it's a life saver, for others it's a curse.
Contraception is always a good thing. In a world where there are nearly 7 billion people, contraception is not only a good thing, but it's also necessary. People aren't going to stop having sex, but there are many types of non-hormonal contraceptives that are not only cheap and easy to manufacture, they're also easy to use.
Depo Privera shots have been taken off the market. The patch was also recently recalled. However, there are other things, condoms (both male and female), spericide, cervical caps, the IUD (intra-uterine-device), and others that are non-hormonal forms of birth control that should not be lumped in with "those good for nothing birth control pills".
I've been on birth control for 5 years now, and have yet to have a problem with them. Thank god. And there are many people who are on birth control pills for upwards of 10 years who do not have problems with them.