Jan 10

“…Diaphragms Haven’t Been Around For Years. They Were Discontinued…”

“Hahaha….diaphragms haven’t been around for years. They were discontinued. Here’s a prescription for a low dose pill.” -OB to woman after the woman discussed a previous history of problems with hormonal birth control.

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There are 51 comments to this post.

Kat had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 6:39 pm (Quote)

When all else fails, just flat out lie. Awesome.

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Susan Peterson Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 7:58 pm Susan Peterson(Quote)

Or perhaps he really is that ignorant?

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Laura had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 6:44 pm (Quote)

He is misinformed. I got a silicon one just last year.

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Ashley Bean Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 8:27 pm Ashley Bean(Quote)

How?? I’ve been trying to find a doc here to fit me for one forever. I finally found a doc to fit me and my MW also says she can fit me, but trying to find a supplier to get one from is a problem in the US. Both of them said that it could take a while to get one and that my insurance probably won’t cover it. Are you in the US?

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Jespren Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 8:28 am Jespren(Quote)

I got one here in the U.S about a year ago, the local pharmarcy was able to order it in about 2 weeks and, even without insurance, it only cost about $30.

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Laura Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 11:39 am Laura(Quote)

Yep. I went in and got fitted at a long OG/GYN with a nurse practitioner. They sent to script to Walgreens and I picked it up two days later. However, I tried a few years ago, and it took 6 months, and by the time it had arrived, I was pregnant. Surprise! The nurse who called to tell me it was in was very apologetic.

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Ashley Bean Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 11:47 am Ashley Bean(Quote)

Thanks. When I go for my 6 week post partum visit, I’ll be sure to have the midwife fit me for one. I’d much rather have a diaphram as an additional back up. We use NFP and pull out any way already, but one more precaution is better since I have 2 kids back to back already. We want a few years between these 2 and the next 2 back to back. lol

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Ashley Bean Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 11:54 am Ashley Bean(Quote)

Sorry, I tapped the submit button on accident. I was going to add that it sucks you were pregnant again by the time your first diaphram got here. I’m sure you still love the child, but the whole point in birth control is to be able to plan and space out our pregnancies. lol. I will be sure to tell my MW to use Walgreens so I can pick it up in a few days vs a few months because if I have to wait that long I’ll probably be welcoming #3 too. hahaha.
Thanks again ladies =] Its nice to know that I can get one, dispite what I’ve been told.

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Sarah had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 7:08 pm (Quote)

Yep, and diaphragms are the only non-hormonal form of BC, right?

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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 7:56 pm Knitted in the Womb(Quote)

Of course. Because condoms are SO last year, and the Rythym Method is guaranteed to result in pregnancy (Dr. hasn’t bothered to update himself to learn that Natural Family Planning or Fertility Awareness Methods are actually quite reliable), and spermicides or IUD’s…come on, really…you don’t want those….

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The Deranged Housewife Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 10:56 am The Deranged Housewife(Quote)

Don’t you use spermicide with the diaphragm? Or is that optional for additional protection?

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slee had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 7:14 pm (Quote)

Ugh. Total fail. I think that’s just to get more visits. You know, obstetric ones.

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Amy had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 7:15 pm (Quote)

I was told that no one uses them anymore, and I was concerned that a doctor with little experience fitting them would give me the wrong size or something and I’d end up with a baby. Why doesn’t anyone like diaphragms anymore??

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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 7:59 pm Knitted in the Womb(Quote)

Probably because they have a typical use failure rate of 13% (vs. 9% for the Pill…but Dr’s seem to think the Pill is much more reliable), and require proper fitting.

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Susan Peterson Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 8:13 pm Susan Peterson(Quote)

Use failure rate means mostly that they don’t work when people don’t use them. My mother used one her entire married life except the month she conceived me and the month she conceived my sister. Since she conceived in the first cycle she tried both times, I think she was pretty fertile! I was also quite fertile, yet never became pregnant while using a diaphragm, and that was when I was in my most fertile late teen years. (Later I gave up on contraception.) Perhaps some are not fitted well, and some women who have had multiple babies can’t use them, but for those who can be well fitted with one, they work if they are always used. But how many people are going to admit they didn’t want to get out of bed to go put in the diaphragm?
For those women with many babies whose musculature won’t hold up a diaphragm, a cervical cap works well if you can find someone who can fit them.
I think these are the safest forms of contraception for women (except for methods of fertility awareness which are not strictly speaking contraception) and it is really irresponsible and lazy of doctors to be pushing hormonal contraception on everyone.

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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 8:15 am Knitted in the Womb(Quote)

Oh, I agree with you to be sure…I’m just saying, that is why the OB’s don’t prescribe them. They don’t want to be bothered to explain to women that to get the best fitting they need to schedule an appointment around their ovulation. They don’t want to deal with the women who are mad at them because they got pregnant 6 months after being prescribed a diaphram. They see birth control pills as being “easier.”

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Jespren Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 8:38 am Jespren(Quote)

It’s great that your mom never had a failure, but because your cervix can change during the month, even a properly fitted diaphram isn’t as reliable in lab setting (perfect usage) as hormonal bc. But given all the issues with hormonal bc I think the slightly lower effectiveness is well worth the tradeoff.
I expect they common anymore because they aren’t money makers. A diaphram, which should last at least a year, is far cheaper than the pill and makes less money for the doc and the pharmacutial company, they’ve no reason to push them anymore. Diaphram has about a 6% ‘perfect use’ failure rate. Depending upon the type hormonal has a perfect use failure rate between 2% and .02%.

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Heather Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 10:12 am Heather(Quote)

Well, my mom developed toxic shock syndrome because she left one in for days because she forgot about it.. don’t they want you to use spermicide with them anyway?

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Jade S. had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 7:16 pm (Quote)

Funny- I just got one in Oct. Go figure… but, I used a time travel machine to get it! lol

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Kristin Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 8:19 pm Kristin(Quote)

Time travel you say?
Do you know The Doctor by chance?

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Dawn R Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 9:18 pm Dawn R(Quote)

If any “doctor” asks me to step into his Tardis and undress, I’m running the other way! Have you seen the fates of his companions? Not for me. LOL

(not a geek, just married to one)

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xanthina Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 3:56 am xanthina(Quote)

I’d say so far Amy’s turned out fine… but that would not be fully correct.

I’d still go with him though, lol.

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Darsy Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 8:08 am Darsy(Quote)

Me too, in a heartbeat. Two heartbeats, even.

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Heather Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:38 pm Heather(Quote)

♥♥

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Becca Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 11:29 am Becca(Quote)

I’d definitely go with him if he’s in David Tennant form. yum yum

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Kristin Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 9:08 pm Kristin(Quote)

Doctor number Nine for me.
I do love a man in black.

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xanthina Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 7:21 pm xanthina(Quote)

9th is my favorite as well.

Funny, but a touch of a dark side.
Leather trench coat.
Wonderful smile.
And I LOVE his accent ^_^

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Jade S. Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:40 pm Jade S.(Quote)

I went straight to the source & hunted down Charles Goodyear… then hopped on over to Germany to find C. Haase for the proper fitting.

In all seriousness, I just went to the local OB after telling my family doc I wanted one & was fitted by a female OB there. It’s silicone as I’m very allergic to latex. Just buy some spermicide to go with & you’re golden.

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April McGallion had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 7:22 pm (Quote)

I also cannot use hormonal birth control. My former OB had a blank look when I told her this and prescribed a low dose hormonal ring (which I had already tried and hated). There are lots of non-hormonal methods out there! We’re using FAM now.

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Kristin had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 8:22 pm (Quote)

Is the OB uncomfortable with using them or something?

Because I know they exist. We sell the spermicide for them at my pharmacy.

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Lisa had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 8:48 pm (Quote)

Perhaps he confused the diaphragm with the sponge? That’s the only thing I can think of. Either way, he should know better.

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Jena Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 9:50 pm Jena(Quote)

That was my first thought too–either he’s suffering a brain fart and thinking “sponge” instead of “diaphragm”, or he/she’s lying for who knows what reason.

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Tracy Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 1:09 am Tracy(Quote)

The sponge is even back out. You can get them at any major drugstore.

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abba12 had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 8:54 pm (Quote)

Erm… ok

Cause there’s no other non hormonal contraceptions? I’m not sure where the failure rates stated above come from (last failure rate I heard of for the pill was 1%, and surely we’d know if women on the pill got pregnant once every 11 times they had sex, unless you’re talking about the pre-abortive success, and not the miscarriages caused by an unsuitable uterus due to the pill) But condoms have a failure rate of somewhere between 3% and 5%. Add some spermicide to the mix and you’re pretty well off.

Or if you don’t want condoms, there are still options, though I’d never expect a doctor to recomend natural family planning.

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Skyfire Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 10:02 pm Skyfire(Quote)

They always list two failure rates: A clinical one that comes from testing, and another that comes from real-world use data. The clinical (perfect use) failure rate for combination PCP is around 0.3%, but it rises to about 2-8% when you account for missed pills, etc.

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abba12 Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 12:22 am abba12(Quote)

Thanks for clearing that up for me

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Details Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 5:19 am Details(Quote)

You should also know the definition of failure rate involves using the method for a year and either getting pregnant or not getting pregnant.

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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 8:20 am Knitted in the Womb(Quote)

I got the number above from the Planned Parenthood website, and, as “Details” pointed out, it is the annual failure rate, not the monthly failure rate.

And yes, there are doctors who recommend natural family planning. Mostly they are Catholic, but NFP actually has a success rates similar to the Pill in MOTIVATED couples. Since a lot of couples who use NFP are more open to pregnancy that people who use hormonal birth control and thus can get a bit lax with it, the “typical use” pregnancy rate in couples using NFP trends up slightly over 20%.

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Robyn Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 9:44 am Robyn(Quote)

I wouldn’t say he “recommended” it, but the OB I saw with my son didn’t have any real issues with it. Then again, he was also an infertility doctor as well and, from what I understand, the first line is to have the woman chart her cycles.

When I was considering birth control options after my son was born, I asked him about FAM. He said it works well if you’re really didicated, but that the majority of women aren’t that decidated. When I finally decided to go with FAM for birth control and had my next appointment, he asked about my birth control options, I told him, he wrote it down and didn’t didn’t say anything more about it.

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jenni Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 1:12 pm jenni(Quote)

It suddenly dawns on me- there is one OB, a very sweet, soft-spoken one- at our office, who is catholic and won’t prescribe birth control, and i should see him for my annual visits to avoid the “i’ll call your prescription for a low-dose pill in anyway” discussion with the other ones! genius me!

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rachel had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 9:27 pm (Quote)

Paragard is another non hormonal bc option. Not that I have any issue with diaphragms but come on doc. If you really believed that, you seriously couldn’t come up with a better alternative?!

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DurangosMama had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 9:46 pm (Quote)

This is mine (can’t “pink my link” on mobile)

I’ve had irregular periods all my life and every OBGYN I’d seen (2 in high school and 1 in college) would immediately prescribe me birth control to regulate my periods. I’d tried regular dose, low dose, monophasic, triphasic, The Ring, never agreed to the Patch and I’m sure I’m missing one (I don’t have kids so no one would agree to an IUD…which I now know I wouldn’t use anyway) . Often I’d just have a super light period the ENTIRE month, on one I could not orgasm for the life of me, The Ring was supposed to be ok to keep in during sex…yeah right. And on it went.

A few years went by (this was about a year and a half ago) and I was on another pill. I came across FAM and TCOYF and realized my irregular periods are not a problem. They are just “normal” for me. I started charting just for fun really and a couple months in…the day after I had sex w my bf of 8 years…I noticed my temp increased (a la ovulation). I took Plan B (which I also now know I will never take again) and thought all was well until…my temp went up again (a la conception). I was pregnant.

Long story short (well, it’s not exactly short as it is) I miscarried at 11 weeks. Honestly, I *knew* something was up and wasn’t really surprised when I miscarried.

That’s when I found this douchewaffle who said, among other things “there’s no way you could have known you ovulated,” “FAM isn’t effective at all,” “clearly you just didn’t take the pills like you should have,” and this doozey.

Luckily, thanks to this site and practice with a string of other awful OBGYNs and a crappy midwife during my brief pregnancy, I was prepared with a come back.

I said something to the effect of, “well, that’s interesting since the Ortho brand just came out with a new diaphragm. I’m assuming you wouldn’t be interested in learning about anything you don’t get paid for prescribing though” and walked out without the prescription.

I went to another GYN (retired from OB) who is Catholic (not that it matters) but he was very familiar with FAM and fitted me for a diaphragm. My insurance did not pay for it though. I even called to see what non-hormonal birth control they would pay for…only a tubal. So corrupt.

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DurangosMama had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 9:52 pm (Quote)

I am in CA. The pharmacy didn’t have any diaphragms in stock and had to order it.

Also, apparently there are no non-oxynol 9 free spermicides available in the US so I have to order from Canada.

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Stelvis Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 1:53 am Stelvis(Quote)

OMG! I’m allergic to nonoxyl-9 but would love to be able to use a diaphragm! Where and how do you order the stuff from Canada?

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Laura Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 11:45 am Laura(Quote)

I would love to know too! I have ugly reactions to Nonoxynol9 and would love to try something else.

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Wendy Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 3:16 pm Wendy(Quote)

Yes!!! Tell me, too! I used to use an alternative–oxy-something–that got pulled from the market in the States. The diaphragm is my favorite method, and it pisses me off to no end to see this choice gradually being taken away from women.

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Cat Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 10:39 am Cat(Quote)

http://ladytobaby.com/show.php?item=257

ContraGel

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HeatherB had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 10:12 pm (Quote)

Does it bother anyone else that doctors always expect WOMEN to be on birth control, and never ask MEN what they’re doing? Oh, condoms are FAR to uncomfortable to force on a man though, right? Better to have a perpetually PMSing woman. /rant

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Judith had this to say, Jan 10, 2012 @ 10:36 pm (Quote)

we got rid of them when we got rid of rubber and silicone? lol

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Dianne had this to say, Jan 11, 2012 @ 12:07 am (Quote)

Huh. The pill. I had a 100% failure rate.

And they made my boobs 2 cups sizes bigger. Or as the provider (who was a flat-chested woman, if that matters) said when I complained about the boob inflation “Oh, is that an issue for you?”

Oh, no, I want to pop out of my clothes, I only mentioned it as a lark!!

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