General
Transplant and Birth Control
August 7, 2023
in General
As transplant patients, we are told if we want to avoid pregnancy and regulate our hormones then the only way we can obtain that is through forms of birth control.
However, I am against putting birth control in my body and I've spoken to many other women who feel the same. Ive also spoken to women who feel its been what is best for them. Both are valid.
Curious to hear your experiences and opinions regarding this topic!
1 - 3 of 3 Replies
Transplant Patient
I love that we're talking about this! Due to personal circumstances in my own life, I'm not able to have biological children anyway and never had to worry about this. I do know from speaking to others at my centre some kind of birth control was required prior to transplantation and throughout the first year. I believe it was a similar vein of thought to having necessary vaccinations prior to being listed. I know women who either got pregnant and went into rejection, or it required them to stop being active on the transplant list, or caused harm to the parent/baby. I have never seen an issue with this, knowing how many other precautions we take going into transplantation, and obviously pregnancy is a very vigorous thing for a body to go through and as a transplant team the goal is for you to have the best chance at surviving and thriving.
I know people who have had successful pregnancies post transplant, and I think every individual case is different and needs to be discussed with your team. I know having a transplant in general can affect hormones, and I'm curious what the introduction of hormones via birth control would do, or if there are certain types of birth control that would be better suited than others. Curious to hear from the community, and a great topic of conversation for sure!
I was on the NuvaRing for many, many years. After my transplant I developed a very small blood clot in the splenic vein of my pancreas. I caught it very early and was able to treat it without any issue however, I was told I needed to find a hormone free birth control, and the only option for that is a ParaGuard IUD. Or, since I am married and only have one partner, my husband could choose to become sterile. I could too, but my OB would prefer I wait a while since I had just had major surgery. The other option was condoms and spermicide used together. TMI, but the "drippy" feeling after spermicide use grosses me out so I really didn't want to have to go that route. Since my periods became much heavier after my transplant I opted to have an IUD placed. I was nervous. Like, so nervous. I had only ever heard horror stories about IUD placement. So far, knock on wood, I have not had any issues and I think the reason I only heard horror stories was because of that old saying "misery loves company". Meaning, I don't think that many people are wiling to share their success stories on IUD. I was told, and am still told, that pregnancy is possible, just requires planning after transplant. I am not interested in becoming pregnant again, so it is not something I have explored.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Full transparency, my partner and I have also talked about him getting a vasectomy. Im also having to let go of a lot of societal norms, expectations,etc to have children of my own and become a mother. I am constantly seeing the realm of conscious birth work being talked about and at one point had a huge desire to be a birth and postpartum doula. But things have shifted and I no longer resonate with it. Its not for me and thats okay. But I haven't had my first menstrual cycle since transplant yet. It ended 2 years ago due to ESRD/ Dialysis. Which is a huge reason why I do not want to put BC in my body. The other reasons being there are things that do not align with my lifestyle and if theres some things I can control and have autonomy over, I will 100% do my best managing that. Its a tricky thing to navigate and I really appreciate you sharing your journey with us.