Episode 16: Birth Control Chronicles: Our Journeys and Choices

Ever wondered if your painful periods are actually normal, or if the side effects of birth control are worth it? In this raw and refreshingly honest conversation, Rachael, Sarah, and Brandi open up about their deeply personal journeys with reproductive health.

The hosts don't shy away from addressing the gender imbalance in contraceptive responsibility either, pointing out how male birth control trials were abandoned when men experienced the very side effects women have endured for decades; highlighting the double standard that places reproductive burdens primarily on women.

Whether you're considering your birth control options, curious about tubal removal, or just tired of feeling alone in your reproductive health struggles, this episode offers comfort in shared experiences and empowerment through honest conversation about the choices available to us all. Ready to join a discussion that's long overdue? Listen now and join the Girl Gang in breaking down these important taboos.

Transcript

Rachael 0:35

Hi everyone, welcome to Girl Gang Podcast. My name is Rachael,

Sarah 0:38

I'm Sarah.

Brandi 0:39

And I'm Brandi, and we are your hosts for this week's episode.

Rachael 0:42

So this week on the podcast, we are talking about periods and birth control. Fun feminine subjects here.

Sarah 0:49

It's so fun being a girl

Sarah's Birth Control Journey

Rachael 0:51

, yes, exactly. So we're going to focus on, first off, our story with birth control and current methods of birth control that we're using. We'll then kind of dive into the negative side effects of birth control and then advice for women and what advice we might be taking ourselves currently and see what's working well. So, Kozy, tell us about your history with birth control.

Sarah 1:14

Birth control is fun. I mean I don't think I started until like college age.

Brandi 1:19

Oh, wow, okay,

Sarah 1:20

I mean I think the last, uh, the therapy episode we talked about my college and they had like a whole health program that was a resource our the students could use. So part of that was also like our woman doctor. So I think I started.

Sarah 1:35

I know I'd been to like an OB before then, but I think birth control is when I started, like college, and I mean it was mostly just to regulate my period. Like periods suck and I had absolutely horrible cramps so I needed something to help relieve that. So we looked into birth control, got on the pill and I think we messed around with like maybe two or three types, not at the same time, obviously, but over the span of, you know, maybe four to six years, trying to find the right birth control that worked and didn't have any, you know, funky side effects or you know, could be mixed in with an antidepressant, because that was something I was going into as well. So I haven't found exactly the right thing for me yet

Brandi 2:19

is there really such a I

Brandi 2:20

mean, I feel like there's no perfect like solution like every woman has something they don't like about what they're on because it's not natural. It's literally blocking our natural hormones,

Sarah 2:34

right,

Brandi 2:35

you know? So I don't think you. I think you're in the majority for people that have like it might. I mean, obviously it works for its sole purpose. Like you don't have kids, right,

Sarah 2:44

right right,

Brandi 2:45

but you have, you know it. It it messes up one thing or another, or

Sarah 2:53

it does

Brandi 2:54

you know, your medications offset or something like that.

Sarah 2:56

It's like you get on birth control thinking it's going to help one thing and then it could help that thing and then it's going to give you a whole nother three other problems, right, I mean mine was hormonal acne. I mean, I've had such acne prone skin for forever that when I got on birth control I was really hoping it would help relieve some of that acne that really flared up during my period week

Brandi 3:16

yeah,

Sarah 3:17

and you know it didn't necessarily help with that, so I never really got a chance to solve that.

Brandi 3:24

Yeah, that's a whole other issue. I think you know.

Rachael 3:28

So you were on birth control throughout college and what is your? You know, where are you at right now with birth control? Are you on it, are you not?

Sarah 3:36

Well, I got off of birth control, gosh, before I got married, I think, probably right when Brian and I honestly met or started dating. Maybe that first year I got off birth control because I was trying different antidepressants and getting on Adderall. So during that time I really wanted to make sure that the hormones and the mood swings that I was feeling weren't I thought they were more hormonal versus looking into, like other types of, you know, mental illnesses and all that. But I wanted to get off of birth control to really just figure out how I feel and how my body was reacting.

Brandi 4:21

Yeah, absolutely

Sarah 4:21

Not being on anything before I got on to. You know, Adderall, that was something. You know that goes for the brain, but I think

Brandi 4:28

Did you get back on it?

Sarah 4:30

I did, and it was kind of not planned.

Brandi 4:33

Did you notice?

Brandi 4:33

some differences

Sarah 4:35

With this last birth control. I was on absolutely

Brandi 4:38

yeah.

Brandi 4:38

I was wondering.

Sarah 4:40

So I had never I've always had normal pap smears, but the last one that I went to was a little bit abnormal or something was caught, something was shown, so they said they need to do a little biopsy. So I went in to the doctor again to get a biopsy done. Everything came back benign. But because of that I had voiced some of the concerns that I had. You know hormone acne and you know my cramps and my flow were just crazy and I didn't know what was normal. I mean just.

Brandi 5:11

Were they like irregular or?

Brandi 5:14

were they just

Sarah 5:14

I won't say irregular, because I think they were pretty much on the dot time-wise, maybe like a day or two off, but it was just like the overall flow and just how I felt. And I know that it happens to every woman. No one feels 100% when they're, like you know, bleeding from their body.

Brandi 5:31

Shedding that lining.

Sarah 5:33

But I was trying to determine, like okay, at what point is it a concern, like at what point is this not normal? And I really had felt like for a long time my periods were very abnormal and I just didn't realize it. I just thought that was the norm.

Brandi 5:48

Well, yeah, because you don't know what other women are feeling. Yeah, you don't know.

Sarah 5:50

People talk about it, but we don't ever get that into detail.

Brandi 5:54

Well, and everyone's got a different pain tolerance too,

Sarah 5:56

Exactly

Brandi 5:56

you know.

Sarah 5:57

So I had one. That was just a very, very terrible period, like I am pretty convinced that I had like a cyst rupture. Like that is

Brandi 6:04

oh, wow,

Sarah 6:09

if and I don't know exactly what that feels like, because I have not been able to, you know, confirm or deny it or anything but if that's the feeling that I thought happened, it just it just felt like that. So I ended up going, got the biopsy done and, um, I went to go pick up um, a prescription that I needed and they had handed me birth control and I wasn't expecting it to be birth control. So I was kind of taken back a little bit. I'm like, well, I don't think we really had a full conversation on if I was going to start birth control again. You know I wanted to talk about it more, but they just kind of gave it to me. So I'm like, okay, well, I really don't want to have another period like that again, so let's just try it. So I did three months on that birth control and

Brandi 6:46

was it a pill?

Sarah 6:47

yes,

Brandi 6:48

okay,

Sarah 6:48

back to a pill um,

Brandi 6:50

have you tried anything other than a pill?

Sarah 6:52

no, I just said back to a pill, but I haven't tried anything else a pill and abstinence are the only two things that I have done.

Sarah 6:58

Okay,

Brandi 7:01

Just the pill you mean then.

Sarah 7:11

But it was amazing. I mean, I can't even remember what it was called. I'll have to find out what it was called but that made everything change. I mean, that made me think that maybe these are actually how my periods are supposed to be, and not so.

Brandi 7:20

When you were on it.

Sarah 7:21

Yes,

Brandi 7:21

Okay,

Sarah 7:22

when I was on it, they felt more normal than they have ever felt in my life, so I think

Rachael 7:27

you only did it for those three months.

Sarah 7:30

Yeah, the doctor that I went to, I was not fully in love with them, and then you know how the time stuff changed.

Brandi 7:35

Know you should always love that doctor just because it's such a intimate moment.

Sarah 7:41

It's a very intimate moment

Brandi 7:42

well, not only that, but, like you, two want kids, so, like most of the time, that doctor is going to be the one you go through, through all that process

Sarah 7:50

that one in particular will not be um, we'll find another one, but yeah, so I'm kind of in between doctors at the moment.

Sarah 7:56

so I really want to get back on that birth control, because I thought it really was helpful for all the side effects that I was experiencing. But TBD on that,

Rachael 8:05

and what about so when you're not on the pill, how do you and Brian handle?

Brandi 8:11

I don't need too much so easy on the TMI.

Rachael 8:14

Do you use condoms? Is it like pull and pray?

Brandi 8:15

Oh, pull and pray.

Rachael 8:18

What's the method there?

Sarah 8:19

I don't think I have that kind of luck for the pull and pray.

Sarah 8:21

I wish I did but no condoms.

Sarah 8:24

You know, not everyone loves them, but you know they 99.8.

Brandi 8:28

They do work when used appropriately.

Sarah 8:30

They work and knock on wood, they've done us luck so far. So that and blowjobs yeah, that has been my birth control at the moment. Oh, that and blowjobs uh, yeah, that has been my birth control at the moment.

Rachael 8:42

Okay, yeah, I like it. I like it. What about?

Rachael 8:43

like you, just give more blowjobs and less sex,

Brandi 8:44

or they just finish that way, so

Sarah 8:46

it's a little less work sometimes, and it doesn't cause a baby.

Rachael's Experience with Von Willebrand's

Brandi 8:59

Facts

Sarah 9:00

, so that's it.

Rachael 9:01

So I have a different experience in the sense that when I was probably 15, I was diagnosed with Von Willebrand Disease.

Sarah 9:07

And what's that?

Rachael 9:08

It's a blood disease. So basically, my platelets don't clot, so I'm more likely to bleed to death.

Brandi 9:15

Oh, that's lovely.

Sarah 9:16

That does not sound good for your health.

Brandi 9:18

So is that like lifelong?

Rachael 9:22

It's lifelong, Like it'll always. I guess it was hereditary somewhere in my gene.

Brandi 9:24

So you definitely won't be able to get on blood thinners when you're older or anything Like. You're at your limit.

Rachael 9:29

Yeah, and like certain. So I think IV IV protein is a blood thinner.

Rachael 9:34

And so I'm like.

Rachael 9:41

I'm supposed to take Tylenol Got it, but I have the lowest form of Von Willebrand's disease so I don't have to. Some people have to wear like a bracelet or a necklace to signify if they have the disease, because if they were to get into a car crash or something like that they could pass away more easily because their blood isn't clotting right, but the way that I found out that I had this disease is I would be on a period for three weeks and then I would be off of my period for a week and then I would start again, and so I was like.

Rachael 10:05

This seems very the

Sarah 10:06

opposite of normal,

Rachael 10:08

un-normal, you know, it doesn't seem normal that I'm having three week long periods

Brandi 10:11

definitely, definitely red flag

Rachael 10:14

, so went to my doctor and they assigned me birth control. So, honestly, it was nice because I never had to have that awkward conversation with my parents of like, hey, I need to start birth control because I'm having sex now. But that being said, I've been on birth control for, you know, half my life.

Brandi 10:37

I know that's crazy to think about. I was thinking about that the other day. I was like, oh, wow

Rachael 10:41

So half of my life I've been on birth control and I've gone through phases like I. When I was in high school I was on one pill and I switched to a different pill and that made me a little crazy, like I was having mood swings.

Rachael 10:58

I got depressed because of it. So I switched back to the original pill. I never really noticed like weight gain or acne or any side effects or anything, except for that one time that I switched and I kind of had some mood swings there. But there was a period of time where instead of having a monthly period I started switching to having a period every three months.

Rachael 11:21

So I would skip my sugar pills and just continue on to a new pack, and then every three months I would have a period, and I did that for more like selfish reasons, in the sense that the person that I was with at the time, like I, could only see them during certain times of the year because we were in a long-distance relationship.

Rachael 11:40

So it's like you know I was planning it around when I was going to see this person and when I wanted to have sex.

Rachael 11:47

But after we separated I went back to having a monthly period and I feel like my body thanks me for it. It feels a lot more natural,

Brandi 12:00

absolutely.

Rachael 12:01

I still feel like my period it's a week, like it's a solid, like it starts on a Monday and it goes until the next Monday, but I have a pretty good gauge on how it's going to go. Like the first day it's like, hey, it's here. Day two and three are the worst, and then it's just kind of like

Brandi 12:17

that's pretty normal, though,

Rachael 12:18

yeah.

Rachael 12:19

And then it's kind of like medium to light flow the rest of the time. But as time has gone on, I've kind of thought about this is a conversation that I have with my you know gynecologist every year. I'm like, hey, I might be having kids soon. And she's probably tired of hearing about this, because when I was married, you know, I would say, hey, we're going to start having kids soon. You know, then I was dating people and I'm like not kids yet. Now I'm kind of on this. You know, I do want kids sooner rather than later. So it's always this conversation of is birth control?

Rachael 12:59

fucking me up and like

Brandi 13:00

what do you mean by that.

Rachael 13:02

In my mind and here's where I definitely want your opinions in my mind, it doesn't seem natural that taking a pill is healthy because it's it's doing something to my body to where I'm not having a baby not getting pregnant you know changing things, and this is me being just a naive woman in a lot of ways and I feel like I'm not the only naive woman out there.

Brandi 13:26

Oh no, I mean. A lot of people consider this conversation taboo.

Rachael 13:30

Yeah. And so in my mind I just think, yeah, birth control is great, like I haven't gotten pregnant this, that and the other, but like when I want to have kids X amount of years from now, because I took birth control for over 15 years, am I not going to be able?

Rachael 13:47

to have kids

Brandi 13:48

Okay, so here's something to think about. Here's something to think about. Women have been on birth control for decades now, some than others and they've come a long way and they were able to get off of it and have babies.

Brandi 14:04

Majority of women

Sarah 14:05

do we have a lot of research on that, though, or as,

Brandi 14:08

yeah,

Sarah 14:08

I know birth control has been around for a while, but has it really been around?

Brandi 14:12

well mean there's been all kinds of birth control from the very beginning,

Sarah 14:15

right?

Sarah 14:15

right, there's all kinds of it, but I mean, like you said too, it technically is preventing our bodies from doing something it's naturally supposed to do. But that's I mean anything because, like you said too, you have another medical reason that your body's already naturally doing that you need a medication for.

Rachael 14:38

And that's the thing, too is in my mind. I'm like, maybe long term, I'm maybe messing up my chances to have kids. But also, if I were to get off birth control, I still have that blood disease to take into consideration so it's like man if I get off this birth control?

Rachael 14:51

am I now going to go back to three week long periods because I just

Brandi 14:54

there's a good chance,

Sarah 14:55

yeah,

Brandi 14:55

so I don't.

Brandi 14:57

I'm not saying that it's not. I'm not a doctor, so I can't go and be like, oh, you'll be fine and there might be a slight chance that it could impact you. And when you actually do start trying, they usually say like I think give it three months after you've been off of it to like really start. You know, like if you want to try, like you know it takes about three months for like everything to kind of work out of your system. But I know people that got pregnant on birth control like like they forgot it, you know.

Rachael 15:33

So and my doctor every year. My doctor is like when you're ready, like it's fine, like you're not hurting yourself by doing it but then you hear podcasts out there who are like oh, it's bad like this, that and the other. Um, but the last time I just had my last meeting with Julie. She's my doctor, she's great. You should, you should really meet with her, Sarah um

Brandi 15:56

my doctor's also great

Rachael 15:57

though.

Rachael 15:57

So julie and I like julie and I are close. She's been my woman, um, for all these years and so, um, she said, you know, let's say you want to start getting off the pills. Um, she said, make sure that you finish a full pack, like finish out the full pack with the sugar pills, then stop, like don't stop mid-cycle, because that's gonna fuck your whole flow.

Rachael 16:21

And regulation up yeah.

Sarah 16:22

I feel like I've always been really bad at that part too, that's probably.

Sarah 16:26

Why,

Rachael 16:26

yeah,

Brandi 16:26

not surprised.

Rachael 16:28

So finish your pack and finish your sugar pills and then from there you know you can do whatever. But I think, uh, she said at least have one period, like get through your sugar pills, stop, have a period and then like, really start going forward if you want to try to have kids.

Brandi 16:47

Yeah,

Rachael 16:47

I'm definitely not at that level yet, but I think she like eases my concerns every time that I see her. But then I always leave and I'm like, but is she just, you know, is this like the western medicine way of saying, like it's not fucking us up, but it actually is? I don't know.

Brandi 17:00

So I mean there are like. I mean it's not natural, Like nature wants you to.

Sarah 17:06

Nature wants us to bleed.

Brandi 17:08

Well, they want you to have babies.

Sarah 17:09

That too,

Brandi 17:10

this is punishment for not

Rachael 17:12

Back to the old days.

Sarah 17:13

So it's a blessing.

Brandi 17:14

So like you are going against nature. But I think there are enough women in the past 30, 40 years that have successfully gotten off birth control and had kids where you're concerned about it but you don't hear it being a bigger problem, because it's not a bigger problem now, for it's a case-by-case basis.

Brandi 17:38

Every body is different, but I think that the risk of that is so low that I think you're just kind of in your head which is fair it's fine to think that, but I I think you are kind of being hard on yourself and I think that's just your biological clock yeah,

Rachael 18:00

I mean this has been my concern for years because it was like do I stay in my marriage to have kids? Because I wanted kids and that was not a good answer.

Brandi 18:09

don't do that the way

Rachael 18:11

Babies are never the reason to save a relationship

Brandi 18:12

no, that's.

Brandi 18:13

I'm pretty sure I'm an example of that so

Rachael 18:15

yeah, so.

Rachael 18:17

So then it was okay if I need to get out of my marriage to find a different partner to have kids with. Like it's always, it's this forever. Like am I with the right person, am I ready to have kids with this person? But when I finally get to that stage, will I actually be able to have the kids? Because I have been on the birth control for so long, so it's a forever cycle.

Brandi 18:35

So I think you have plenty of years left to have babies, but I think ultimately, it's not the birth control right, it'll be just your body aging out. And I'm not trying to rush you or give you concerns, but like I think that's gonna like, I think that's going to be what. I think that's more of a problem for women than being on birth control and then getting off.

Rachael 19:03

And so I'm 32, and my doctor did say that.

Rachael 19:08

She said honestly, the research just isn't there for like these women in their late 30s, early 40s to have babies, like

Brandi 19:17

it's becoming more common

Brandi 19:18

though

Rachael 19:18

becoming more common, but the research is just it's behind, so we don't have all those statistics to say that it's okay yeah,

Brandi 19:25

you are gonna be the statistic, right

Rachael 19:27

so she was saying that as long as I basically have all my kids by the time I'm 40 should be okay and like I'm an active human and everything should,

Brandi 19:36

and I do know women in their early 40s that have had kids like

Sarah 19:40

oh yeah, my mom was 36 and 38 when she had me and my sister.

Sarah 19:43

Yeah, she was up there, but she also had trouble getting pregnant, so I know that you know.

Sarah 19:49

Things like IVF, too, have been more and more common ways for women

Brandi 19:54

oh, absolutely

Sarah 19:55

too, and, and I have no idea if any of that, like you said, it's just our own body, if it has anything to do with, you know, birth control or medication we've taken or the food that we're ingesting, like I think there's so many different factors.

Brandi 20:05

It could be a number of things.

Sarah 20:06

So many different factors. But I think we kind of live in an odd generation too, where, like you said, we are the lab babies.

Sarah 20:18

We're kind of we're the ones figuring it out, to bring those statistics to light,

Brandi 20:22

because I feel like there was some like gen x, that's her parents well, at least my parents ears might be I think mine are boomers. Yeah, our parents are boomers, we're I know my parents are x, but mine had me young

Sarah 20:33

yeah, mine are boomers

Brandi 20:35

my grandparents are boomers.

Sarah 20:36

I'm pretty sure. How old are your parents?

Brandi 20:39

my dad will be 55

Sarah 20:41

okay, yeah, mine are 10 years older.

Brandi 20:43

Yeah, exactly that's what I'm saying.

Brandi 20:44

Like no, my my parents had me very young, so like my grandparents are the age of like

Sarah 20:51

got it okay,

Brandi 20:52

of like your parents are closer to that.

Brandi's NuvaRing to Tube Removal Story

Rachael 20:54

So tell us about your experience, Brandi, because you have a vastly different experience.

Brandi 20:58

Yes, okay, okay. So I got on birth control the summer after high school and I was like I wasn't really into the dating scene in high school. I was just focused on like friends, schoolwork, like graduating, getting into college. I went to a small town too, so it was kind of everyone dated everyone, and so I think I also didn't try, like I'm sure if I'd asked my mom like I lived with my dad primarily, but I'm sure if I asked my mom she would have helped, have helped me get on it.

Brandi 21:36

I wasn't gonna ask my dad, because that would have been awkward.

Brandi 21:40

I'm sure eventually he would have come around to it, but that's just not our relationship anyway. Um. So I kind of used it, I think, as an excuse to like not tempt myself, because I feel like I probably would have been sexually active in high school if I'd been on it.

Sarah 21:55

Okay,

Brandi 21:56

um, whereas this I was so terrified of like being that teenage pregnancy you know that I was just like I'm not, I'm not even gonna tempt myself, like I'm not gonna get on it, I'm not gonna even want to like partake in those activities, like I just um. So I did it the summer after high school, just because going to college it's a different experience and I knew I'd probably at some point sleep with someone.

Sarah 22:24

Yeah,

Rachael 22:25

um way to be prepared.

Rachael 22:26

That's

Sarah 22:27

right,

Brandi 22:27

it's really um, but I went to my doctor and I was like I'm terrible at taking a daily pill, like, like, I don't want a pill. Is there another option? And so she put me on the NuvaRing.

Sarah 22:38

Okay, I forgot all about that.

Brandi 22:41

Yeah, so I loved the NuvaRing.

Sarah 22:44

Yeah?

Brandi 22:44

like you get all up and personal in your body because you have to, like, shove the thing up there and take it out.

Sarah 22:50

I've heard mixed emotions about the NuvaRing

Brandi 23:00

yeah, I loved I was on it six or six or seven years,

Sarah 23:01

okay, um,

Rachael 23:01

but it wasn't it and you had to take it out every once in a while right and replace it.

Brandi 23:04

Yeah, every month

Rachael 23:04

every month?

Brandi 23:05

yeah, you just put it in,

Rachael 23:06

I don't know,

Sarah 23:07

and then fall out,

Brandi 23:09

yours would?

Sarah 23:10

no, like just yours. Did it ever fall out?

Brandi 23:13

Um,

Sarah 23:13

that's always my fear.

Sarah 23:14

I've heard some stories of like

Brandi 23:15

yeah, yeah,

Brandi 23:16

there's people that have like

Sarah 23:17

the dirty and it ends up around there, you know.

Brandi 23:20

Yeah, I also have a. We also have a friend where, um he went in there and was like what is that and flung it across the room. So anyways, I think I am at least shaped or at least my doctor showed me how to put it in properly to where I never had that issue

Sarah 23:44

okay

Brandi 23:45

um,

Rachael 23:45

so you just slip it in

Brandi 23:47

so there's actually like almost like a shelf in the back of your vaginal canal, right for forget technically, and it sits on that.

Brandi 23:56

so I think my either like my shelf was like deep enough or like shaped enough, maybe, or I actually made sure it got up there that it didn't really move, like sometimes I had to like really like get up in there to get it out,

Rachael 24:09

yeah,

Brandi 24:10

so, um, I never really had that problem. The problem was, after about six or seven years, though, my body started to like reject it, like so your vagina is a self-cleaning organ, right, and after a while it just got to the point where it was seen that almost as invasive and it didn't like it.

Brandi 24:30

So the doctor said that does happen, like it just gets to the point where it's an irritant for it and it doesn't like it. So after that I was like, no, I love this, but it was just causing like problems for me. I wasn't getting like yeast infections, but like it was not happy down there,

Rachael 24:48

yeah.

Brandi 24:50

So then I went to an IUD and I did that probably for I think it was about a year, because I think the next time I went in I was like get this thing out of me. And it was great in the aspect. I know there's a lot of horror stories about them getting embedded and things like that.

Sarah 25:09

Yeah, a couple people who have unfortunately had to go through that.

Sarah 25:11

It's always made me terrified of it.

Brandi 25:13

Honestly, it was great as far as, like, getting it inserted hurt. I didn't have any problems, like they did the appropriate ultrasounds and everything, because that's how they check every year right to see it's still good yeah, isn't that the? The part that's supposed to be work like the birth control part, is still like actively where like because

Rachael 25:33

so they insert it for you

Brandi 25:35

oh, it's, it's like it's not quite, as it's a minor.

Brandi 25:38

It's a minor procedure yeah

Rachael 25:40

okay,

Brandi 25:41

like you go home that day and you feel like it was like the worst period of my life, like cramp, wise and stuff. No, but it was just for a day

Rachael 25:50

did

Brandi 25:50

yeah yeah, I've always so all my birth

Sarah 25:53

Oh you still get periods with it?

Brandi 25:54

yeah,

Sarah 25:55

oh, for some reason I thought I didn't get periods with it a

Brandi 25:58

lot of people. I mean

Rachael 25:59

because IUDs are like you keep them for a few years and then

Sarah 26:02

yeah,

Rachael 26:02

replace them,

Sarah 26:02

yeah.

Brandi 26:03

So every birth control I've been on I've had periods like I've never. Now on NuvaRing you could like it was lighter I feel like um, but I've always had one. It's never bothered me, like it's natural. So I would just would rather have it and then just have the birth control part work too. Yeah, whereas I know a lot of people take birth control one because they obviously don't like kids but they also don't like their periods. But I'm like this is my body working

Rachael 26:33

like it needs to get out,

Brandi 26:34

yeah um.

Brandi 26:36

So I've always been of the mind like, yeah, I want to have it every month, and it's just a reassurance too that things are working, you know like I'm not pregnant kind of thing.

Brandi 26:46

Um so uh and I there was a lot going on at that time. It was like I'd been on it for just a couple months when COVID happened. Um so I, there were, I think, a lot of factors, but I got really depressed during that time frame. I had a lot of mood swings. So I mean, I feel like there was some like the isolation part, the new birth control and things like that. It was just messing with me mentally and it wasn't.

Brandi 27:17

There was enough other stuff out there that it wasn't worth it to me to keep the IUD. That was when I did. I got again a lot of different factors. I don't know if I was eating my feelings. I obviously wasn't as active because all the gyms and stuff were closed, but that was when my weight gain started was when I was on the IUD, and then I was on the pill for a hot minute, and obviously that doesn't help too, because the pill's like the number one type of birth control to cause weight gain

Rachael 27:49

oh interesting, so I'll lose like if I get off birth control, lose like 10 pounds because I'm here for that.

Brandi 27:55

Well, tbd, because yeah,

Sarah 27:57

there's some birth control pills that I've been on where I did gain quite a bit of weight in a short time, and then there's been birth controls where there's been no weight fluctuation.

Brandi 28:07

Yeah, yeah,

Sarah 28:08

it's crazy,

Brandi 28:09

Well, and they all have different hormonal makeups and things like that. So I think it kind of depends on your body and you know how it's reacting to the kind of medications.

Sarah 28:17

Did anybody?

Sarah 28:18

ever get the shot?

Brandi 28:19

No

Rachael 28:20

no,

Sarah 28:22

that was one I really looked into for a while too. And my roommate she chose to get the shot and she had not the best experience with it.

Brandi 28:30

I've only heard bad experiences, so I was like absolutely not.

Sarah 28:33

Yeah, I don't like shots and I love tattoos, but I don't like needles. That you know.

Sarah 28:38

Go that kind of thing.

Sarah 28:39

so I um I'm going to vote no on that,

Rachael 28:40

Right

Sarah 28:41

I'd rather force myself to remind myself to take a pill every day.

Brandi 28:46

Yeah, and I was that was the other thing Like even at what was I like 28, I was still terrible at taking daily pills. So, um, that one, so the pill. After the IUD, I got on a pill because I was about like my only other option, um, and I think that just made me even more nervous because I wasn't taking it like I should have. Um, I mean, I wasn't having sex as frequently then either. So I guess that kind of worked out, um, but then I guess it's been about two and a half years now.

Rachael 29:25

Yeah,

Brandi 29:25

I can't believe it's been that long.

Brandi 29:27

Um, I decided once and for, like I, without shadow of a doubt, I didn't want kids, like I've always felt that way, but like it just was solidified, I don't want them. It was also around the time when, like again not getting political, but that was when, like Roe versus Wade was overturned or right around that time, and I know that there's like options out there, but, like I, we live in Missouri which is had one of the like most strict like abortion bans and things like that um, and I was like you know what? I know I don't want this. I know birth control has a lot of negative side effects and I don't want an oopsie because I probably at my age I would have kept it, because, yeah, you know it is what it is. But I was just like you know what, I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna get my tubes tied

Sarah 30:28

there you go.

Brandi 30:28

I was like yeah,

Rachael 30:29

walk us through that process

Brandi 30:31

yeah, uh, so

Sarah 30:32

you've been thinking about it for

Brandi 30:34

oh,

Sarah 30:34

you've always like,

Brandi 30:35

yeah, my whole like I don't remember a time like I didn't want kids.

Brandi 30:38

Even as a child, I was like I'm not getting married and I'm not having kids, like, and everyone's like, oh, you'll change your mind. You'll change your mind like if I had a dollar for every time someone told me that I wouldn't have to work right now like it's fine, whatever I.

Brandi 30:53

They all listened as soon as I came out that I had the surgery anyway. So I went to my doctor, which I absolutely love. Um, she always explains things really well, she always gives me all my options, and the best thing about her is she didn't like she didn't require my husband to sign off, she didn't require me to be 30. She didn't. Yeah, like all these things that a lot of women run into

Sarah 31:22

sad that we have to like

Brandi 31:25

that's that's a reason

Sarah 31:26

considerations

Brandi 31:27

yes I know which is why I love her so much, right

Sarah 31:30

you are an unmarried woman who can make your own decisions.

Brandi 31:33

Yeah,

Sarah 31:34

about your body

Brandi 31:35

exactly so I was 29. And she's like look I, I will tell you the risks. She's like I will tell you that once this happens, you cannot have children. Like she's like it is my job to tell you what will happen after this surgery and what it will cause your body to do. But she's like, as a doctor, it's not my responsibility to convince you one way or the other.

Brandi 32:03

It is your life

Rachael 32:05

preach

Brandi 32:05

you know,

Sarah 32:06

say a louder for the kids in the back

Brandi 32:09

tell everyone at your medical conferences, please like so like, she's like.

Brandi 32:14

She's like I, you know you've said this for years, you know because I've been going to her for since I basically moved back from college uh, so like like 10 years almost at this point. And um, so yeah, she's like the only thing is is I don't tie tubes. Um, she's like I remove them. And she was like because tying your tubes is basically metal clamps getting put on your, your, your tubes. She's like sometimes it will grow around the metal clamp and reconnect. Sometimes the clamp falls off, sometimes it's just free. You have a piece of metal free floating in your abdomen, like all of these things. And she's like. She like if you're tying your tubes, it means you are secure enough in your decision that you're not having kids. So she's like I only do removals.

Brandi 33:11

And I was like

Sarah 33:12

I didn't know that was even an option. I don't even heard about tube tying or getting the whole thing removed.

Brandi 33:17

Yeah, so she educated me on that and again I appreciate her for going in and explaining things, because she didn't just say, no, I don't do that, I do this. She was like this is why I don't do tube tying and I was like that's fine with me, whatever. It was laparoscopic, so three, I have three half inch scars,

Sarah 33:39

okay

Brandi 33:43

and she's really good at placing them to where you can't see them. So like one's in my belly button,

Sarah 33:45

nice,

Brandi 33:45

so you can't see that one, and the other two are like so faded and small that you can't hardly see them. Um, so she's like very selective of like where she makes her incisions. Um, but yeah, I mean I go in. She has like, so she's an OBGYN, so she doesn't have her own like surgical room, but there's places in St Louis where you can like rent a surgical room, like that's what the building is, it's a hospital.

Sarah 34:16

Like a hospital incubator.

Brandi 34:18

Kind of yeah,

Rachael 34:19

it's like an outpatient place.

Brandi 34:21

Yeah, so she

Brandi 34:22

picks

Rachael 34:23

surgery and then you leave that same day,

Brandi 34:24

yeah, so she like rents out her surgical area but they have their own nursing staff and everything at the place and so she only did surgeries on like Tuesdays and Thursdays those were like her days and then she was in her clinic like doing normal OBGYN stuff like Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So she had set dates that she would go in and do surgeries. So I went in. The prep was the hardest part.

Brandi 34:49

Pre-surgery prep is terrible

Rachael 34:51

yeah, what'd you have to do for that?

Brandi 34:55

Um well, you have to take Miralax. A whole bottle.

Rachael 35:00

Get all that stuff out of here.

Brandi 35:01

A whole bottle and a gallon of water.

Rachael 35:05

Oh well, I do that every day.

Brandi 35:07

With Miralax?

Brandi 35:10

And no food. Okay,

Rachael 35:12

I got the gallon of water part down.

Brandi 35:15

You could only have clear liquids, so it was

Rachael 35:18

so vodka?

Brandi 35:20

and no alcohol. So it was chicken broth, lime jello and Miralax water is what I had.

Rachael 35:29

For how many, for how long?

Brandi 35:31

the entire day before

Rachael 35:32

the entire day before.

The Double Standard: Men and Birth Control

Brandi 35:33

Okay so to tell you I was hangry

Sarah 35:37

oh god,

Brandi 35:39

it's an understatement. So that took like that was. The worst part was just being completely empty, which is the whole point of it.

Sarah 35:48

And then on top of the anxiety too, I'm sure you might have felt

Brandi 35:51

no, I was excited for the surgery.

Brandi 35:54

Now, it was my first surgery where I went like I was put under anesthesia, so there was probably a little bit of anxiety there, but I was just pissed, I couldn't eat. So yeah, she went in. You know, I started counting back. I think I got three numbers in before I was out, like they were talking to me, and the next thing I know I'm in the like outpatient room, like oh okay, that was awesome.

Sarah 36:19

How long did the procedure take?

Brandi 36:24

45 minutes

Rachael 36:26

oh wow,

Sarah 36:26

nice.

Brandi 36:27

Yeah, it's in and out

Sarah 36:29

you wake up and you can go home, Like obviously, once you're awake and you're feeling good.

Brandi 36:33

Yeah, I mean, obviously you can't take yourself home, like someone has to be there with you, but yeah, I was within 30 minutes of waking up, like I was, you know, released to go home. She came in afterwards and was like you know, everything looks great on the inside. She's like everything was fully removed, like you don't have any like cysts or anything. Like everything looks great in there. So it was a nice little inside checkup too. Right. Um, so yeah, so now I'm been two and a half years since I've been on any kind of birth control and it's been, it's been wonderful

Rachael 37:10

What was the recovery like? And then, how have your periods been since?

Sarah 37:14

B ecause you still get periods?

Brandi 37:16

absolutely yeah, so

Sarah 37:17

you just can't get pregnant

Brandi 37:19

correct

Sarah 37:19

right

Brandi 37:19

so the only way to like not have periods anymore is to get a full hysterectomy, which I didn't want because, again, unfortunately, you're into pre-menopause.

Sarah 37:28

Oh yeah,

Brandi 37:28

and I didn't. I was trying to be natural here, like I just didn't want kids, but I still wanted everything like hormones and everything Like.

Brandi 37:36

I just wanted to get that as natural as can be. So, recovery that week. So obviously the incision sites were a little I mean, there's like they were glued because they're small enough. Um, those were a little sensitive for about a week.

Brandi 37:52

Um, the gas that they pump into you, um, for these surgeries and she had warned me she's like you're gonna get it's gonna move around in your like abdominal cavity, um, just they're just air bubbles and it's just one giant. So she, it's kind of hard to describe, but basically she's like there will be times where it's gonna work its way up into, like your shoulder area and it is going to feel like

Sarah 38:21

freaky.

Brandi 38:22

Honestly, that was the most. It wasn't painful, it was uncomfortable, um, and I know a lot of women who do surgeries like that say it is again, it's your pain, tolerance and all that. So it was uncomfortable and there were times where I was like fuck this, but that was only for like two days and all the gas worked out um where it would get into that upper arm and it was almost like you had.

Brandi 38:47

Well, she warned me. She's like if it's your left side, you're not having a heart attack, I promise Um, you know. So she, she did warn me. Like everything she warned me about happened and I was prepared it, and maybe I have a high pain tolerance, I don't know. But it was a very easy recovery. Like I said, a week and I felt back to normal.

Brandi 39:09

You can hardly see the scars, so, like the first two days or whatever, I did it on a Thursday, took that Friday off work and by Monday I was feeling fine.

Sarah 39:21

Did you have to schedule that like around your cycle?

Brandi 39:22

No,

Sarah 39:22

or it didn't matter.

Brandi 39:23

It didn't matter because I it doesn't impact your uterus at all. It just literally prevents your ovaries from delivering an egg to it.

Sarah 39:33

Okay,

Brandi 39:34

so it didn't impact any of that. It wasn't anything around your cycle that you have to worry about. The only reason you know it might.

Brandi 39:47

She probably doesn't they probably don't want you actively on your period doing it because, like when you're cutting into someone.

Brandi 39:53

You don't want blood going coming out from other places right,

Sarah 39:56

right, right,

Rachael 39:56

that makes sense.

Brandi 39:58

So that would probably be the only thing you have to schedule against. But I know the date we did it was like immediately after I was, because I've always been very regular, like almost to the day. I can tell you honestly, within probably 12 hours I could tell you when it's gonna start, uh, so now, um, I will say now, granted, I've it's been 14 years since I haven't been on birth control. Like I was 18 when I got on it and I couldn't tell you. I can't remember what my periods were like then before I got on it.

Brandi 40:34

Um,

Rachael 40:34

yeah,

Brandi 40:36

so yeah, like um, I will say the cramps the first day and a half are worse than when I was on birth control, but again, it's nothing that a couple of Midol or a heating pad for a little bit can't fix. The flow's been the same, the length's been the same. I'm still just as regular. Um, you know, my hormones are like I don't have the mood swings like I had on the IUD and things like that. So I'm basically running how it, how it would have always been I just

Rachael 41:17

no babies

Brandi 41:18

can't um, the eggs can't be delivered.

Brandi 41:30

Um and one thing. Like she's like, in worst case scenario, like if you ever did absolutely change your mind to some people, you know they maybe meet someone and they're like, oh okay, maybe I did one IVF is still an option because you're still producing. Like the eggs are still there, they just can't transport themselves to where the sperm can get to. So you can still do IVF, but again, that's like $10,000.

Sarah 41:50

Yeah, that's not cheap

Brandi 41:51

That's like you absolutely want kids. So like it doesn't mean it's impossible to have kids, but it just stops it from naturally happening. Like an intervention has to occur. Yeah, so, but yeah, I love it. I've recommended my doctor to probably half a dozen ladies that have asked, because I'm very vocal about you, know my process and like how it went and everything. So I've recommended a lot of of women who are in the same boat as me and they've they've gotten it done or at least started looking into it. And the crazy thing was is insurance covers it. It only cost me about 250 dollars total.

Sarah 42:33

Okay, nice.

Brandi 42:34

Yeah,

Rachael 42:35

that's awesome

Brandi 42:36

the only thing they won't cover? Um. Obviously they don't cover IVF to begin with. Um, but if you got, say, your tubes tied, you can technically reverse that because they're just putting a clamp on it. Um, and again, more and more doctors aren't doing that just because of all the complications that I listed before. Um, but you can. They won't pay to have it undone, like if you got them tied things like that.

Brandi 43:04

But yeah, it was like copay for prescriptions and then there was like a small $200, like copay for, like, the surgery aspect.

Sarah 43:14

I wonder if this is the same case for men too with getting snipped, because I didn't realize that also can be reversible.

Brandi 43:24

Yeah, it is.

Brandi 43:25

I had a friend's husband that just got it reversed

Rachael 43:26

when Roe versus Wade.

Sarah 43:27

So why are we not normalizing that? That like so?

Brandi 43:29

because men control the

Sarah 43:33

sorry

Rachael 43:33

when Roe versus Wade was revoked.

Rachael 43:35

I was like really in my head about this because I was like this is fucking bullshit, that, uh, if I were to get pregnant and you know I don't have options like why can't it be a standard for guys to just like get a vasectomy at a younger age and then reverse it later.

Brandi 43:55

Uh,

Sarah 43:55

we make birth control for men,

Rachael 43:57

right exactly

Brandi 43:58

so

Sarah 43:59

this seems a little one-sided and I'm not upset, or I am upset, okay.

Brandi 44:03

So this is where the patriarchy comes in, and they've tested man's birth control, and you guys are going to find this funny. They complained about the side effects.

Rachael 44:18

Oh, what were the side effects?

Sarah 44:20

Did they give him tummy aches?

Brandi 44:22

It did. It was the same things women deal with mood swings and being uncomfortable and all this other stuff. I know and I'm like now. You know what we go through all the time.

Sarah 44:35

I want to get one of those period simulators so bad.

Brandi 44:38

Well, I I want to know how mine stack up to, like I wanted to say how much pain I endure versus other women and things like that. So we should probably all go in on one together.

Sarah 44:53

I think so because the biggest thing I hear from some of my guy friends too-

Brandi 44:56

Getting kicked in the balls.

Sarah 44:58

Getting kicked in the balls hurts worse than giving birth, and you want to know their reasoning for it is because women continue to do it again to get pregnant and give birth, and I'm like that is.

Sarah 45:08

I want to smack you what.

Brandi 45:14

Just because you're getting something good out of the situation and your other hormones kick in.

Rachael 45:16

Men also just have a lower pain tolerance than we do as well

Brandi 45:18

Yeah, naturally. Yeah, they do, because we're designed to push seven, eight pound babies out of a not very large area.

Sarah 45:28

Oh, my goodness.

Brandi 45:34

So yeah, we were

Sarah 45:35

let's normalize men getting involved in this too, and you know forms of birth control, microscopic procedures that they can absolutely go through as well

Brandi 45:41

yeah, I

Sarah 45:42

we do it every day

Brandi 45:43

I have always kind of in a joking manner because this is probably overstepping, like government, like this is more of like what you'd find in like a dystopian hunger games book. But I've always said that, like, when boys hit puberty they should be snipped,

Rachael 45:59

yes,

Brandi 46:01

and you have to approve financially.

Brandi 46:04

Um, emotionally

Sarah 46:06

You have to get their wife's permission in order to fix it back up again honestly.

Brandi 46:12

I wouldn't go that bad, because that's just pot like that's hypocritical

Sarah 46:16

oh my gosh.

Brandi 46:17

But.

Sarah 46:17

I know

Brandi 46:19

it's I. I mean, if you think about this, men can get in a normal pregnancy. So we're stuck for nine months, right, they could technically get hundreds of women pregnant in that amount of time. So to me they should be the ones like oh, what was the analogy? Someone said it's easier, or they compared it to like a gunshot. Okay, it's safer to just take the bullets out of the gun than it is for the victim to wear a bulletproof vest.

Sarah 46:57

I like that

Brandi 46:58

right. So so they're like why and I've always said like as soon as they hit puberty they should get snipped, and then they have to prove like all these, like financially, emotionally, all this stuff, and then they can get and then that prevents a lot of people who shouldn't have kids from having them

Sarah 47:13

Absolutely.

Rachael 47:14

And I'm also not saying that it's all on the guy at that point.

Brandi 47:17

No, no no,

Sarah 47:17

I know it's not all, men we're

Sarah 47:18

also talking shit

Rachael 47:19

she should still take her own methods as well,

Sarah 47:20

yes.

Rachael 47:21

But it is very disheartening to know that it's all on us.

Brandi 47:26

Yeah,

Rachael 47:26

and then people are regulating our bodies. But you know we won't get too political in here. But yeah, that's fucked up.

Sarah 47:32

It takes two people to tango, two parties are involved. It takes, you know, the sperm and the egg from one and the other I think

Brandi 47:39

kudos

Sarah 47:39

should be both responsible

Brandi 47:40

to the men that man up and get snipped,

Rachael 47:43

yes,

Sarah 47:43

so we threw.

Natural Tracking and Future Plans

Sarah 47:45

One of my co-workers had a party for her husband when he got back from surgery and I thought that was the coolest thing ever and she had like little cookies that were like penis shaped

Brandi 47:54

that's cute,

Sarah 47:54

you know getting little snip snips.

Sarah 47:56

Yeah, because

Rachael 47:56

also covered under insurance

Sarah 47:58

yeah, and

Brandi 47:59

I don't think the reversal is, and I think it only gets covered once, like if you reverse it and want to do it like after the first one, I think it is out of pocket.

Rachael 48:08

Yeah,

Brandi 48:08

but yes, but yes, the first one should be covered.

Rachael 48:11

But it's like a very easy procedure as well, Like it's a half day, you know, by the next day

Brandi 48:17

yeah and then no physical activity for three weeks.

Rachael 48:21

Yeah

Brandi 48:21

which is probably like the hardest part. Yeah, but because I have a friend. They had one child and they were that was going to be. They were going to have one child biologically and then they were going to adopt. Well, then they started running into all these hurdles. It's not easy to adopt and it's expensive and so but they really wanted to give their kid a sibling. So recently they decided that he was going to get the reversal so that they could start trying again, because they really wanted a second kid in adoption they were running out of time because, you, they were of the opinion that, you know, they only wanted so many years between

Rachael 48:59

yeah,

Brandi 49:00

you know, they didn't want like a 10-year gap between them. They wanted, you know, maybe a handful. So, uh, but, yeah, they, he went to his doctor, scheduled surgery and he's just, you know, his biggest problem is he can't go to the gym and he's afraid he's going to lose his muscles after three weeks.

Rachael 49:18

Once he goes back, like he'll just be better.

Brandi 49:21

Oh, he's in very good shape to begin with, so he is not losing that in three weeks.

Sarah 49:26

And I think you know it takes us a lot longer than three weeks to bounce back from giving birth. Yeah,

Rachael 49:31

yeah, yeah,

Brandi 49:31

yeah, yeah. I was like.

Brandi 49:34

I asked my friend. I'm like are you ready to go through that again? She's like not really, but she's like this is kind of our only option. So I'm just going to tough it out.

Rachael 49:50

And I was like okay having kids, because I've always wanted kids. But my mom struggled a lot having kids from like a mental health side of things, like

Brandi 49:59

postpartum kind of stuff?

Rachael 50:00

Not postpartum but severe depression and you know I feel like she wasn't really connected with us on kind of that motherly level. You know, she I think she likes us much better as adults, where we can be friends, versus being that motherly aspect. So I was always kind of in my head of like, do I have that motherly aspect? What will that look like? But recently I've really thought like I do want to have kids. You know, I do have that feeling that I want to have kids and things like that and um, so I don't know, we'll try.

Rachael 50:36

I pitched the idea to my partner of starting to try sooner rather than later and I don't think he's quite ready for that yet. But uh, we're in alignment with we do want kids. You know, we're kind of on the same page of how many kids, that sort of thing. So when the timing's right, I guess we'll start and go from there,

Brandi 50:55

Brandi's ready!

Rachael 50:57

Yes, but what I have done is since this idea of like birth control has kind of been in the back of my head, so I downloaded the Flow app and this was a recommendation from one of my boxing coaches. She went off birth control like like five years ago and downloaded the Flow app and she just tracks her cycles on this app and it's a really helpful app because then I can see which days I'm more likely to get pregnant and the days that I'm not likely to get pregnant.

Rachael 51:25

Um so this is like a new experience. Probably too much information, but like nobody's like ever come inside me until this partner

Brandi 51:33

which blows my mind.

Rachael 51:35

I know

Brandi 51:36

Blows my mind,

Rachael 51:38

and so you know it was always like condoms, birth control and the pull-out method um

Brandi 51:45

what was that?

Rachael 51:46

I started,

Brandi 51:46

you called it

Rachael 51:48

pull and pray?

Brandi 51:48

pull and pray,

Rachael 51:49

pull and pray yeah.

Rachael 51:52

So even with this app, it was funny because the first time that I let him come inside me I was like, oh, it's fine, because my chances of pregnancy are low and I'm still on birth control. And then another time I was like, oh no, I'm on the sugar pill and now I'm concerned. So I think it'll be interesting getting off of birth control and only using the Flow app and trying to track it that way. And you know, maybe we have to bring condoms back into the mix. So I think that that will be an interesting experience

Brandi 52:21

so I did have a close friend of mine.

Brandi 52:24

She went and I didn't ask about the condom situation, but she went probably five years on the like on the Flow app and just monitoring, um, like they were confident enough in their relationship that if something had happened they would roll with it. Yeah, but it wasn't until, like, based on her Flow, like the chart and everything, when they actually actively started having kids and they got pregnant like that.

Brandi 52:54

So, um,

Rachael 52:55

and that's what my coach recommended. She's like, since you haven't been on birth, haven't been off birth control in all these years, like just start testing it out and you know if there are those higher days that you're more likely to get pregnant.

Rachael 53:06

Like use a condom and it'll be fine um I'm

Brandi 53:10

or abstain, as much as that isn't

Rachael 53:12

yeah,

Brandi 53:13

that isn't as fun,

Brandi 53:15

but

Rachael 53:16

yeah, um, and then I'm also going to talk to like a cyclical coach, just to kind of understand, you know, from somebody who does this on a daily, just like

Brandi 53:26

honestly that should be part of, like women's health class in high school.

Brandi 53:30

Like they don't do enough to teach women and men about periods like it is so taboo with men. Like I think that should be something that they everyone gets educated on.

Sarah 53:43

I remember going to a place in like fifth grade where they first kind of introduced like puberty and how everything works to us and they separated like the guys and the girls and then they brought us together to you know kind of uh, lightly explain, you know birds and the bees and the health process and all that and yeah,

Brandi 54:00

and you get the birth video, which traumatizes everyone

Sarah 54:03

we did not get the birth video until seventh grade.

Rachael 54:05

I think that was high school

Sarah 54:07

that was well.

Brandi 54:08

Oh sorry, yes, we didn't have any of that, really

Sarah 54:11

that was the next time we took health class.

Sarah 54:13

We went from fifth grade to seventh grade. Well, I guess it's only one year, just kidding. Fifth grade is seventh grade with, like, the health class. And then, yeah, you had to take it as like an elective in high school if you wanted to.

Sarah 54:23

But those were,

Brandi 54:24

it was an elective in high school?

Sarah 54:25

Yes,

Brandi 54:26

shut the fuck up.

Sarah 54:27

I had oh that. That should be a whole another topic. My advanced health class in high school was a life-changing class that should be in every single school.

Brandi 54:35

Well, yeah, that's what motivated you to come in, Like you wanted to go and educate. That was that whole high school spiel

Sarah 54:40

I love that so much.

Sarah 54:42

We'll have to do something that goes really in-depth into that whole class too. But the Flow app was definitely good. I've used that for years actually. Not necessarily for like pregnancy tracking or like you know. It was more for making sure the date is coming. Yeah, you know, to seeing if I was one day late or, you know, four days late, if I needed to pop over to Walgreens and buy a pregnancy test because we didn't know, or

Rachael 55:06

right.

Sarah 55:06

Um, so I never really used the rest of the features on there. I more just use it even just for the dates to anticipate. You know I'm going use the rest of the features on there. I more just use it even just for the dates to anticipate. You know I'm going on a trip this weekend. Do I need to bring stuff with or not? Yeah

Rachael 55:17

Well, the Flow app is now covered by like FSA and HSA.

Brandi 55:21

Oh nice, I didn't know that.

Rachael 55:24

So you can pay for that now,

Sarah 55:27

ooh Nice.

Rachael 55:33

If you have a FSA or HSA, you should definitely look into that, but overall I think it's like 40 bucks a year something like that to pay for the app to get all the features of it.

Brandi 55:37

That's less than a cup of coffee a month

Rachael 55:38

you don't have to have the advanced features, um, but I pay for the whole thing just so I can do it. And what's nice is that you can track, like your moods, your discharge, you know your symptoms, all that kind of stuff. So, but I think overall I don't know, just as women. I hope that maybe this conversation inspires you to just talk about it.

Sarah 56:02

Yeah,

Brandi 56:03

ask your friends their experiences.

Rachael 56:07

Yeah, even before this conversation tonight, we really haven't talked that deep into our womanhood.

Rachael 56:11

And you know we we're always joking because Kozy and I are always on the same cycle for sure, so we always kind of start and end at the same time together. So, um, but talk about it with people. Educate yourself

Brandi 56:24

yeah, that's why

Rachael 56:24

there are negative side effects to birth control, as we've we've stated some of them already, but just look into the types of birth control that you're considering.

Brandi 56:34

Ask your doctor questions. Yes, that's what they're there for. Yes, like they don't know what you don't know.

Rachael 56:41

Right, so don't settle for not getting answers?

Brandi 56:45

There's no dumb question about this stuff.

Sarah 56:48

So let us know your take on today's topic. Let us know in the comments text us, send us a DM what are your experiences, um, with womanhood. You know one thing we also didn't talk about that maybe you can let us know and if you're interested, we can do another episode on it. But what are we using for our periods nowadays?

Brandi 57:06

I was actually just thinking about that.

Sarah 57:08

So much too, so let us know if you want to hear that, or

Brandi 57:12

or we may just do it regardless.

Sarah 57:14

Yeah, maybe, maybe,

Brandi 57:15

because that's another conversation.

Brandi 57:19

I feel like women don't have enough of.

Rachael 57:20

I feel like we do talk extensively about Diva Cups and other ones like that,

Closing Thoughts

Sarah 57:21

and things have changed so much since, like we were younger too, and really getting into all this help any of the younger generations, or even our generation or the older generations, to learn something new about it?

Brandi 57:32

Absolutely. There's all kinds of stuff out there, yeah.

Sarah 57:35

So let us know. The link to text us will be in the description of this episode, but you can comment, you can DM us on all social medias and let us know your experience or what other topics that you want to hear. We'd love to hear from you,

Rachael 57:49

and we're dropping blogs a couple of times a month as well. So, again, we'll release episodes on the 1st and the 15th of every month and our blogs will drop kind of in between those. So make sure you check out our blog, see what's going on on the website. So until next time,

Sarah 58:06

stay bold,

Brandi 58:07

stay empowered. Girl Gang Out