Hi all, I have been on birth control for 8 years now. And I had a Pap Smear recently and it was incredibly painful and I bled a lot. Turns out, I have severe cervical erosions which is being caused by my birth control use. I was told to stop it and I am going to use condoms as I cannot endure using an IUD due to the pain of the Pap Smear. I am so nervous about using condoms and I wanted to know if anyone else has had these experiences.

This is also known as cervical ectropion.

Well I guess the question is why are you nervous of condoms? I’ve used them forever, they work just as well as birth control so you don’t need to worry if you are protected at all

^ it makes sense to be nervous about them since they tend to rip of some sort. Not saying it happens all the time but theres that risk. I personally don’t really trust condoms as much as the pill.

@GhostFaceLov yeah, that’s my issue. I’ve been on the pill for so long and it’s reliable as I never missed a pill. Condoms rip and due to the excess estrogen I can’t handle any hormonal methods.

You or your partner can check after sex for any tears in the condom. If there was a break, you may have to take an emergency contraceptive but given your condition I would ask your doctor if that is ok first!

@bananass Is it possible you could get the depo shot or some other form of birth control such as non hormonal?

@Bananass is it just the estrogen that's a problem, like could you use a progesterone-only method? (Mini pill, implant, patch)

The doctor hasn’t recommended any other form of birth control as of yet. I’m hoping others are a possibility. I guess I’d have to wait and see. They want to see if the cervical erosions heal in a few months. I should be seeing a gynaecologist soon too, but I guess if I’m worried about condoms I can also stop having sex for a bit. I will ask about non-hormonal options when I see him.

@GhostFaceLov in my experience rips are pretty rare. It’s happened maybe 3 or 5 times in about 19 years of me having sex. Weirdly me personally, I trust condoms more than I trusted my birth control when I was on it. Having the physical barrier of something makes me feel like the chances are so much more lower. I was a perfect users on the pill and it worked perfectly fine as well but it messed my hormones up soooo badly. And the depo shot was the worst thing I could do to my body. I gained 30 pounds, I had never been able to lose in about 13 or so years. I personally feel like it really messed up my periods as well. They are so pain now, my cramps are unbearable. I take a very strong pain killer for them since I can’t get out of bed most days. I guess I’ve just had HORRIBLE experiences with birth control. I trust and love condoms much more. Plus I’m so much more older, that pregnancy wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to me right now. So I get it, people just have to chose what’s best for them 😊