[Amagi82]

It seems like the universe is conspiring against us. Here's our situation

1) She's extremely sensitive to hormone treatments. We had her on the Mirena IUD, and the hormone levels were enough to drop her libido to almost zero. The pill, back when she tried that, created horrifying mood swings and other side effects.

2) She experiences really bad cramps already, and the prospect of making those worse with a copper IUD is daunting for her.

3) It's tough for me to reach orgasm. Having sex with her on the IUD, I had about a 90% chance of being able to reach orgasm. With a condom, even a thin, properly-fitting one, the reduced sensation brings that down to about 10%. That's unacceptable and killing our sex life right now. Now that she finally has a libido again, after the Mirena is gone, the condoms stop me from being able to enjoy it.

4) We're in a committed relationship, and not worried about STDs, but we're getting married in 6 months, and accidental pregnancy (read, her being 6 months pregnant at the alter), is not cool. We may want to have children at some point, so a vasectomy is out.

I hear about an alternative treatment in India involving a shot, that's reversible, long-term, safe, near-100% effectiveness, and destroys sperm cells, but it's not available over here due to legal nonsense. I'm not sure really what else we can do, besides get her the copper IUD and just have her deal with being in massive abdominal pain occasionally.

Is there anything else that's hormone-free, highly effective, and doesn't affect sensitivity?

Thanks for your help.

[rosekitten]

Hormone free birth control is pretty much limited to the copper IUD so far as I know. Birth control works by convincing the body it's pregnant, which requires hormones. It's possible that it is only some types of hormones that have that sort of effect on her, because they do vary. How long was she on the pill? When messing with hormones, it can take some time for the body to adjust, which is why it's usually suggested to try your birth control for at least 3 months to give your body time to adjust.

[Amagi82]

Hormone free birth control is pretty much limited to the copper IUD so far as I know. Birth control works by convincing the body it's pregnant, which requires hormones. It's possible that it is only some types of hormones that have that sort of effect on her, because they do vary. How long was she on the pill? When messing with hormones, it can take some time for the body to adjust, which is why it's usually suggested to try your birth control for at least 3 months to give your body time to adjust.

I'm not sure how long she was on the pill- several months, but that was years ago, before I met her. She had the Mirena for around a year, and it started out great, but her libido became less and less after the first few months, hitting basically zero by 6-9 months in. We had it removed a couple months ago, and her libido has gradually returned. I've read about many other women having this problem with Mirena, so it looks it's just how a certain percentage of women react to the hormones released.