near misses and I didnt bring one, did you bring one?
(It is also the most effectiveemergency contraceptionif inserted up to five days after unprotected sex.)
But as an independent contractor, I can’t gethealth insurancethrough an employer.
Courtesy of Taylor Kay Phillips
I had money in a health savings account, but paying $1,100 would deplete the entire thing.
Luckily, Felipe stepped up to the plate.
Initially, accepting his offer seemed like a no-brainer.
We are in a committed, monogamous relationship, and we would not like it to result inkids.
My body’s capacity to make babies concerns us both.
Then I started having other, stranger, reservations.
My feminist brain started thinking about the implications of Felipe having partial ownership over something inside my body.
He, ever so adoringly, laughed at this concern.
“It would never even occur to me to think about having that thought, he said.
The rest would go to the savings account wed started for our apartmentanother investment in our future together.
The day of the insertion, Felipe took off of work to go with me.
The insertion felt like very painful cramps, and I was a little loopy and exhausted afterward.
One week later, he sent me the first Venmo payment without my having to remind him.
The reality is that when a woman gets an IUD, it usually comes with pros and cons.
There are plenty of biological inequalities in relationships between heterosexual people.
No one can do anything about those, but we do have control over thefinancialimbalances.
That’s not to say it’s always a simple conversation.
There are implications involved.
The ParaGard IUD lasts for 10 years; many relationships dont.
If the relationship ends, should the male partner get a partial refund?
These are tough, valid questions to be discussed, not dismissed.
(Our decisions were no and hell no, respectively.)
These conversations can solidify where you each stand.
Maybe you’ll discover, like us, that you see avoiding pregnancy as a shared responsibility.
In my relationship, Im the only one who gets periods.
Im the only one who getscramps.
Im the only one who can get pregnant and go into labor.
My boyfriend cannot change any of this.
But he can assure me that, when it really comes down to it, Im not alone.
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