One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you bleed...

I never expected to get pregnant easily. I didn't come into this world until five years after my parents were married, and I know that wasn't intentional. I didn't start to menstruate until after my fourteenth birthday. I can count on one hand the number of times I've gotten my period without some sort of hormonal supplementation. All in all, it's not a good formula for "gets knocked up on the first try."

Hmmm...maybe some details would be helpful?

When I was ten or elevent years old, probably due to some physical developmental concerns (I was never entirely clear on what those were), I had a series of wrist x-rays done. The bone growth reflected a lag time in my physical development of about eighteen to twenty-four months, and I was told to expect all the usual changes to show up later in me than in other kids. Of course that had little effect on me, and shortly after I turned twelve the "Why didn't I get my period yet?" whining was nearly non-stop...until my mom told me that menstruating would me that my pubertal development was done, and did I really want my breasts to be that small? (OK, so she wasn't 100% accurate, but it got me to shush on the matter.) My mother said she got her period "a little late" - some time around twelve and a half, I think - and factoring in my alleged developmental lag, age fourteen would be right on target to follow her genetic lead. Conveniently enough, I saw that first reddish-brown stain about three months past my fourteenth birthday. Like clockwork, my next period showed up just about a month later. Ha! I thought. None of this early cycle irregularity for me!

Ha, indeed.

After that second showing, my period disappeared. Granted, those next few months were very stressful (more on that another time), but total amenorrhea was not the most normal thing, either. Finally, nine months after my first period, I paid a visit to my mother's gynecologist. She prescribed a course of Provera (progesterone supplements) - take a pill a day for five days, and a few days later you should start bleeding; come back and tell me what happens. It worked, I went back, and she gave me more pills and told me to do the same every couple of months, giving my body enough time to maybe start menstruating on its own between courses of medication.

I did that for about a year before my next visit, at which point she put me on birth control pills for six months in the hope it would jump-start my reproductive system. That was a load of fun - being the prudish little virgin at a sleepaway pre-college summer program, and trying (not) to explain the birth control pills in my underwear drawer. While the pills gave me regular cycles (duh) and bigger breasts (perk!) the "jump-start" didn't work, and the gyn prescribed the Provera again. She advised me to take it as I like, leaving up to three months between induced bleedings. And unlike Ornery's doctor, mine was kind enough to tell me that this was indicative of reduced fertility: "You'll probably never have children without medical intervention."

Well, that's a nice thing to tell a sixteen-year-old, isn't it? In retrospect, I appreciate being armed with that information from early on, but it was kind of a bitter pill to swallow at the time. Also, in retrospect, my gyn must have had a lot of trust in me, because who tells a teenager that she can have sex without the risk of pregnancy?

I used the Provera for the next several years. I think I menstruated on my own once or twice in there, but I never bothered to write it down. Over time, the induced bleeds became heavier and my "menstrual" cramps got worse, and so eventually I asked my gyn to put me back on birth control pills. Result: lighter periods and yet bigger breasts. I stayed on combination hormonal contraceptives, in one form or another, from then until a little over a year ago, when Ezra and I started trying to have a baby.