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Originally Posted by abaya
I agree that it's not a competition, and I never said that the man should do 100% of the birth control duty. However, what if there were no birth control pill for men, and the only method was getting the shot in the balls? And what if your partner could not tolerate hormonal birth control, nor did she want an IUD? If current birth control depended on women only doing things that they were comfortable with, we'd have a much more serious population crisis on our hands.
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This isn't an either/or situation. Ending up in a situation where "the only method was getting shot in the balls" is so unlikely as to be not worth considering; there are a large variety of available methods out there precisely because everyone's needs or preferences are different.
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Originally Posted by abaya
As for the IUD, whether or not they look like torture devices, they are one of the most effective methods available. Have you seen a cervical opening personally? It's the size of a straw hole. It doesn't stretch like the vaginal opening. It dilates when a woman is going into labor, but not when she's having an IUD inserted, especially if she hasn't had any kids yet. So yes, it is like stuffing a small cactus up a fleshy straw filled with nerves, and there is no room for expansion during that time.
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Once again, I am not in favour of IUDs and would never ask any woman I'm with to get one. If she decided of her own volition that she wanted one, that might be something we'd discuss, but I frankly think they're a bit barbaric and rather unnecessary when there are equally effective and less invasive methods to achieve the same end. I have no intention of arguing about how painful it is; I'm aware that it is very much so. My point was simply that a comparison between a woman's cervix and a man's urethra isn't really accurate and from where I'm sitting seems to be more about shock value than anything else.
I would never expect someone I care about to go through a painful or otherwise unpleasant procedure unless it was necessary. I should similarly hope that she would never expect me to do so either.
Condoms suck. When properly used, however, they are highly effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies as well as being the only available method to prevent disease transmission. This makes them the method of choice for casual encounters. Hormonal birth control for women is effective as long as the woman is responsible about it, and may or may not have unwanted side effects. Some women do react poorly to birth control pills, while others have little or no side effects at all. Thus, hormonal birth control is the preferred method for some other situations, including many long-term monogamous relationships. I can analyse each other method in turn, but you're a smart girl and I don't think you need me to.
Birth control at it's core, like most things, comes down to a cost/benefit decision. Each method has it's own benefits in preventing pregnancy or disease, which balances against it's cost in terms of discomfort, stress or other undesirable effects. What method is best for any given couple, then, will depend largely on that couple's own priorities and how the equation balances out for each one. I sort of thought this was common knowledge, at least around these parts. What I take issue with is the implication that I am somehow inferior to other men based on my own preferences. I doubt you'd let me get away with accusing one of our ladies of not being a 'real woman' because she didn't want to use an IUD or the pill; why should it be appropriate in the other direction? Frankly, the very idea offends me.
Back to the original topic, I would want much more information before I tried something like the pill described. Messing with a dude's testosterone levels can have serious consequences, and I'd want to be at least reasonably certain that by taking this pill I'm not going to end up with testicular cancer or something else. I only have two testicles and I plan on using them some day, so it's in my best interest to make sure I take care of them.