Thanks so much for this comment, it's really helpful. I think the problem with anecdotal stuff about contraception side effects is that people are more likely to grumble if they have a bad experience than mention if things are fine, so I have heard almost entirely negative stories about exogenous progesterone.
True about effectiveness; POPs may be harder to take "correctly" than combined as you have to be within three hours of your usual time, which doesn't give you much margin if your routine is disrupted. I think I'm paranoid enough, and have a regular enough routine (I don't even have a lie-in at weekends since I'm so often either doing shul stuff or working Sundays), that I probably will take all my pills properly.
Blood pressure: she clearly wanted me to fail the benchmark so she could validate her theory that fat women shouldn't have combined pills. It could be that the cuff was too tight; I don't think my arms are exceptionally huge, but I suppose if I'm obese overall then they might be that much bigger than the average circumference for arms.
*nods* - though I'm just another anecdote here - I think it's useful to be aware that people have different experiences with different pills so you know to look out for side effects. You're not going to know how they work for you till you try them.
Cerazette unlike the other POPs has a twelve hour not a three hour window (or at least this is what I was told when I was offered a choice of POPs - it's more expensive than the other POPs the NHS uses. I'm not sure why I was asked or why the NHS continues to routinely use the other ones, given that a three hour window is hard to deal with for many people).
And yes, definitely, I've had people be surprised my blood pressure is normal or otherwise try to redefine normal as not including my reading, because of what I certainly perceive as them expecting me to have high blood pressure because of my weight.
This site gives info on blood pressure cuffs vs. arm sizes (it's a site about pregnancy for fat women, but is the best info on blood pressure cuffs I've found). I think it's reasonably applicable to the UK, as I think blood pressure cuffs are relatively standardised, but I've not checked this out beyond finding out enough to know that I need a large cuff to get an accurate reading.
True about effectiveness; POPs may be harder to take "correctly" than combined as you have to be within three hours of your usual time, which doesn't give you much margin if your routine is disrupted. I think I'm paranoid enough, and have a regular enough routine (I don't even have a lie-in at weekends since I'm so often either doing shul stuff or working Sundays), that I probably will take all my pills properly.
Blood pressure: she clearly wanted me to fail the benchmark so she could validate her theory that fat women shouldn't have combined pills. It could be that the cuff was too tight; I don't think my arms are exceptionally huge, but I suppose if I'm obese overall then they might be that much bigger than the average circumference for arms.
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Cerazette unlike the other POPs has a twelve hour not a three hour window (or at least this is what I was told when I was offered a choice of POPs - it's more expensive than the other POPs the NHS uses. I'm not sure why I was asked or why the NHS continues to routinely use the other ones, given that a three hour window is hard to deal with for many people).
And yes, definitely, I've had people be surprised my blood pressure is normal or otherwise try to redefine normal as not including my reading, because of what I certainly perceive as them expecting me to have high blood pressure because of my weight.
This site gives info on blood pressure cuffs vs. arm sizes (it's a site about pregnancy for fat women, but is the best info on blood pressure cuffs I've found). I think it's reasonably applicable to the UK, as I think blood pressure cuffs are relatively standardised, but I've not checked this out beyond finding out enough to know that I need a large cuff to get an accurate reading.
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