Contraception is a tricky thing to figure out, at least in my experience. There's so many options to choose from, there's pills and rings and patches. There are little t-shaped things that get placed all up inside of you. There are shots and rubber sleeves that roll onto your man friend's junk. With so many options how do you find the one that is right for you?

Now, I love my birth control. I am lucky enough to have access to birth control, and I am extremely thankful for that, but let me tell you, birth control is a fucking bitch.

I've been using birth control since I was 14 years old. I was taking this acne medicine with crazy side-effects and as a requirement, I needed to be on birth control. Now looking back on it, taking this medicine was probably risky business and doesn't really line up with my current values, but values don't really matter to a 14 year old girl trying to feel beautiful. So 14 year old me wanted this medicine and got on birth control.

My mother took me to her gynecologist, and he put me on 'the pill'. At first, I loved the pill. The pill was great. I would take it every morning before I went to school. I started taking it and my face started clearing up and my sever acne was slowly starting to disappear, I was living the teenage dream. Or at least I was, until I started gaining weight. I felt like I couldn't win. In my 14 year old mind, I was destined to be either ugly or fat. But I stuck with my birth control while I continued to take my medicine and my skin improved and my weight gain stopped, and I was happy with the pill once again.

I stayed happily on the pill for almost 5 years, but nothing lasts forever. By the end of my freshman year in college, I hated my birth control. My sleeping schedule was all off, I didn't wake up at the same time every morning to take my pill, and I never seemed to make it to the little green sugar pills at the end of the month. I decided to say goodbye to the pill and say hello to something else.

I went to my gynecologist that summer and explained to him how I needed to get off the pill, but I didn't know my other options. First he suggested the patch, but I didn't want a sticker on my butt that would fall off all the time. So he suggested that little cartage that goes in your arm, but the thought of being able to feel that freaked me out. He suggested getting a shot every three months and a number of other things. We finally decided on Nuva Ring.

I thought for sure I was going to love this. I would put it in after each period and leave it in for three weeks. I could even leave it in for four weeks if I wanted to. I had control over my time of the month and I didn't have to remember to take a pill every day, what could go wrong?

The problem with Nuva Ring is that you have to insert it. It's a birth control that just kind of chills inside of you, which is cool, I guess. But that's all it does is chill inside of you, so my body, being a good body and trying to defend me, freaked the fuck out. My body thought that this foreign object was bad, so it tried to get rid of it. So my body used the only thing it could think of to try to get rid of it: a yeast infection. Yes, you read that right, my body would give me a yeast infection. Every month my body was afraid of this foreign object and I lived with a constant yeast infection. After about a year of battling my own body I decided that I would never be able to love my Nuva Ring, and it was time to move on.

I did my research. I utilized my college's Women's Resource Center and checked out the pros and cons of all the different types of contraceptives. I decided that it was time for me to get an IUD.

So I went back to my gynecologist, and told him that I needed to get off of this Nuva Ring. He gave me the same list of options, but never once mentioned an IUD. When I told him what I wanted he told me he couldn't do that for me. He told me that if I had already had one or two kids, he'd consider it. Did he not understand that the whole point of an IUD was so that I wouldn't have kids? He told me that it was a 'mini abortion'. I should have never trusted an old rich white man with my pussy. So I left that gynecologist and found one who had not only a vagina, but one with views similar to mine.

No one ever prepared me for what it was like to get an IUD. I got my IUD on a Friday afternoon. I made my boyfriend at the time take me to my appointment, which was probably the best decision I made, since there was no way I could have driven myself home. My doctor took me back to the office, placed my heels in the stirrups and began the procedure. I don't know if you know this, but to insert an IUD they need to dilate your cervix. How painful could that really be? Let me tell you, it was like someone was repeated stabbing my uterus with a dull knife. She finished the insertion, but not before my complexion turned a pale green color and had to be brought a juice box so I didn't pass out.

My boyfriend drove me home and for the next day and half I laid on the couch in a ball, popping Advil at the sign of any cramping, and crying. I got my IUD in on a Friday, I lived through two days of hell, but by Monday, I was fine.

Now I have learned to love my IUD. Sure, it might give me heavier periods once in a while, and my cramps may be more painful, and my cravings more intense, but I wouldn't trade it for any other kind of birth control.

In my mind, it is a small price to pay for 10 years of confidence in knowing that I will not be pregnant. A child is not in my 10 year plan, and certainly not in my 5 year plan. I am happy knowing that my plan A is much better than any type of Plan B.