THIS SO MUCH. I didn't have any sort of negative behavioral history to refer to so it got attributed to "emotional issues caused by my mother" (I was raised, at the latter end, by my father, and yes, I do have emotional issues caused by my mother. But not in this context). Everything is about him, all the time,…

On the one hand, it's a great start. But it also provides those who work for the government better protections than the vast number of people who don't. Mandate this for EVERYONE.

I think I must have been one of the lucky ones. In my teens, cystic acne all over the t-zone, back, and occasionally my rear end, to boot. After college, combo skin, but a decent complexion and just the occasional pimple (with a head! After years getting them without it was a bit of a novelty). And now dry skin in…

I didn't have reason to expect that I would; my mother never outgrew it. Imagine my surprise!

My doctor never discussed alternatives with me. I was on tetracycline for about six years before my cystic acne somehow lost its will to live and went away. We were uninsured and the $5 a month it cost had appeal. It was the mid-90's, and antibiotic resistance wasn't much of a concern :-/

And haven't extensively remodeled your vagina via multiple traumatic large-baby births. *sigh* Same is also true for tampons, unfortunately.

So what's it going to take to make a vagina canoe part of the tradition, too?

When I was home from University for Christmas, my father made a huuuuuge deal about opening just one present on Christmas Eve. He was so excited, couldn't wait, etc. So I was pretty optimistic, especially since things were tight for me in the dorm and I didn't have a lot of luxuries. He took a long, thin envelope…

Tried that one first. A heavy 12-day period every month for two years convinced me to switch to Mirena after having another (planned) baby.

Project blog here! http://pioneergirlproject.org/ Have been following obsessively for some time.

This is of mild concern to me- my husband and I currently have two littles, one income, and a very modest budget. We have a tiny house and couldn't afford to upgrade to accommodate an aging parent, and we do without so many things ourselves (A/C except on the very hottest days, cable television, smartphones,…

Collectively, how many people do these organizations employ? I don't suppose it's possible to know how many women.

Also, totally bring it up now! They can insert it immediately after childbirth but they have to know you want it. Narrow window!

I had ParaGard for 2 years; the most annoying side effect was the fact that it can definitely increase the heaviness and length of your periods. Otherwise, it's supposed to be reasonably side-effect free. I know that within six months most women go back to their regular flow, but I didn't :-/ It was still worth it.

You're not tied to the maximum effective timeframe, though- I had mine in after the birth of my first, removed it two years later to conceive my second. It comes out anytime, and reasonably quickly!

There are smaller IUDs meant for just this! Unfortunately, you'd have to cross the pond to get them. If IUDs were more popular here, pharmaceutical companies would probably make more of a push to get them rolled out.

That's really interesting because that was not the information I got from my gynecologist at all- she was very gung-ho about both types of IUDs because you're good to go fertility-wise immediately after removal. Turns out she was right- I was on Paragard after the birth of my first, and became pregnant again four…

Speaking for myself, I didn't consider Depo because hormonal birth control has made me very sick in the past. Since Mirena works locally on the uterus and very little (if any) hormone makes it into the bloodstream, it makes it a much more viable, effective method for people like me.

Lentils are trendy? I eat them because they're an inexpensive protein and have for years. But then, I've got a broad palate. Seriously, if it's a food and not a food product I've generally got no problems with it. Nothing wrong with poor people food.

By the same token, seriously get on board with making hookworms available to treat autoimmune conditions.