Scarleteen

I am in the market for birth control as a first-time user for contraceptive purposes! I am a professional dancer, in the USA, in her early 20s, and my period is regular enough. I also have the great fortune of having mild periods.

I am less interested in oral contraceptives (after having to take Accutane, the daily struggle is real). I have been reading up on long-term methods (Paragard, Mirena, Skyla, Implanon), but the more I read, the less I know...I am currently most interested in the arm implant, because it sounds the least intrusive, and the prospect of bleeding less is titillating.

***My greatest concern is this: As a dancer who is constantly rolling around the floor and on other people, holding others, and being grabbed/manhandled; is there a risk that the implant will be damaged? Is the implant easily damaged from physical contact? I asked my gyno, but she didn't really know, and it didn't seem like she had ever considered this question.

Thank you in advance!!

The only complication I can think of would be if the movement or activity cause the implanon to migrate into the muscle or fascia, but this can only occur if it was inserted too deep to begin with. This actually happened to a friend of mine who is a competitive track athlete with very low body fat, which may have been why the physician inserted the implanon too deeply to begin with. You may want to avoid the grabbing and rolling shortly after insertion (there can be pain and tenderness) but if everything went according to plan, you probably won't notice it at all after a short while, and it shouldn't cause discomfort to touch it (a rare side effect is pain at the injection site).

Bodies are squishy. It seems unlikely that someone would grab you so hard that it harmed the implanon and did not also break and/or cut your arm or something. But then again I'm not a doctor.

In case you want even MORE information to aid you in your decision-making... Birth Control Bingo!

Oh, and a second opinion is always a good idea! You might even consider using an online consultation service like this one (my dad, who is a physician is a contributor! ). It's great for more abstract questions like yours: www.healthtap.com

My experience would definitely back up what Amanda said there - the implant isn't brittle: you can poke it, squish it and rock it around once it's in without any damage or discomfort. If you take a look at the patient information, it talks about how your body tends to heal in such a way that it forms a "cocoon" around the implant which, apart from sometimes making removal a bit more tricky (by which I mean, five minutes with local anaesthetic as opposed to thirty seconds with local anaesthetic kind of "tricky"), also means it's not sort of floating free.

Amanda and Keda, thank you so much for responding to my question!

I have gone ahead with the implant and it has been glorious! The nurse practitioner who inserted the implant reassured me that the implant could not be damaged from hitting or stretching my arm. Indeed I was in rehearsals and partnering just a few hours after the appointment and everything has been fine.

I'm glad to hear it's working out well for you!