The coil FTW!
It lasts for 5 years, doesn't make you put on weight, makes your periods lighter, shorter and less painful. In short, it's the perfect contraception.

Or it would be, if having the damn thing put in wasn't one of the single most excruciating experiences of my entire life. Eep. I've got a fairly high pain threshold, but this left me (to borrow a phrase from Legless and Stusut79) "shaking like a freshly-raped dog". They insert a speculum, crank your cervix open, smear some ineffectual anaesthetic gel on it, and then leave it cranked open for 5 whole minutes, until they decide to fit the damn coil. This 5 minutes stretches on for centuries, whilst you're left staring at the ceiling.

Then they insert the coil. It has to be pushed against the most sensitive parts of your cervix a few times, for good effect (the nurses obviously think that if it's not a painful procedure, it won't be any effective as contraception). Then they pull the speculum out in one violent movement, ignore your screams of pain and suggest that a glass of water might make up for the internal torture that you've just undergone, then thrust you out summarily into the street, telling you that unless you're in lots of pain and think it's got infected, come back in 5 years to get it replaced.

However, the benefits of it really do outweigh the pain.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Sat 19 Apr 2008, 18:19, Reply)