Say hello goodbye to my little friend.

Read the title in your best Tony Montana voice for full effect.

Big step last week in the baby planning department. I made an appointment to have my IUD removed in September. Yep, I’m saying hello goodbye to my little [copper] friend.

I never thought I’d have such a love affair with a method of birth control, but as someone who’s had issues with just about every kind of Pill in the past, I can’t say enough good things about the copper (Paragard) IUD. Non-hormonal, lasts up to 10 years, 99.9 percent effective, and immediately reversible (listen to me, I sound like one of those annoying commercials). With other forms of birth control like the Pill, you usually have to wait a couple months for the hormones to leave your system and your cycles to regulate (and for some methods, like the shot, it can take up to two years!). Not to mention the scary side effects that come with hormonal birth control. I’ve known two people personally who ended up with blood clots because of the Pill, one of whom ended up having a full on stroke (actually, multiple strokes). Sorry, but a woman in her late 20s or early 30s who doesn’t even smoke should not have to worry about stroke. Even without the issues I’ve had on the Pill (which were minor in comparison), those two incidents pretty much solidified my resolve to never use the Pill again.

Sure, the thing hurt like a mother going in – and removal won’t be fun either – but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I got a good five-plus years of freedom and peace of mind out of it, and I could have gotten five more if we had wanted to. No monthly runs to the drug store for prescription refills, no pills, no shots, no patches and – best of all – no crazy hormones artificially surging through my body.

IUD, you’ve been good to me these past five years and I’ll miss you, my friend. But the time has come to pull the goalie.

Good game.

Image snagged from flixter.com