This year in April, I decided to start birth control. Yep, a college-aged girl who made a well-educated, well-researched decision to better her health.

If you know me, you know that my periods are nothing to mess around with. Heavy flow, severe cramps, and most noticeably PMDD, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is characterized by extreme mood shifts that can disrupt your daily life. I’m talking crying because my hair straightener cord wouldn’t stop hitting the cabinet below it or screaming at my sister for breathing too loudly. Add that on top of a depressive disorder, I was an absolute mess.

Every month.

For years.

So I decided enough was enough. I was done with the taxing week of cramps, mood swings, and downright insanity. I did my research, I talked to my friends, I talked to my mom, and I finally decided on the implant. It was a perfect match! I’m too inattentive and forgetful to take a pill every day and I have a pretty low pain tolerance so the IUD wasn’t a friendly option. With the implant, I got the best of both worlds.

For the most part, I love it. I don’t have cramps anymore. I don’t have severe mood swings. I do, however, have surprise periods that show up unannounced two to four times a month. It’s a bit irritating but in this case, the benefits far outweigh the costs. By the way, I got it for free at Planned Parenthood and they were sweet, sweet angels (shout-out to my nurse Lindsey, who distracted me by laughing at the abstract uterus paintings on the ceiling).

And even after making this well-informed decision about my personal, private health, I still had people trying to talk me out of my choice. In one particular instance, a male coworker told me straight to my face that I made the wrong decision. What was his reasoning, you ask?

Previous girlfriends. He then proceeded to explain how a copper IUD was the best form for women seeking birth control and I left the conversation thinking, “Did he literally just try to 'mansplain' my own birth control to me?”

He did. And many other people tried to prove to me their beliefs about birth control as well. It started to get me really angry. How could so many people, who don’t know me well, try to explain what was the best thing for my personal health? They don’t know about the nights of tears and the days of agony that couldn’t even be solved by four or five ibuprofen pills.

If a girl in your life tells you she’s starting a certain birth control or switching to another, trust that she’s done her research. The majority of people on birth control don’t just "will-nilly" ingest pills or stick hormonal implants in their arms. They do their research to find what best form of birth control works with their lives and their health and their needs.

So stop complaining about my choice, because I’m definitely not listening anymore.