Getty Images/Essure.com
Vivian Manning-Schaffel: Have you
heard of Essure? Neither had I. But as a mom who's done
birthin' babies, I found former "Bachelorette" Trista
Sutter's personal
experience with Essure to be especially
enlightening.
After the recent birth of their second child,
Blakesley Grace, Trista and Ryan Sutter had to ask
themselves if they were finished having kids. "Max was fine, but Blakesley was the
icing on the cake. Now our family is set. I had really bad
pregnancies (she suffered complications like preeclampsia and
gestational diabetes), and after talking about it extensively, we
decided to look into more permanent methods of
birth control," Sutter tells me.
Essure, approved by the FDA six years ago, is a relatively
easy, outpatient, permanent birth control procedure
in which small, flexible micro-inserts are placed into a
woman's fallopian tubes through the cervix without incisions.
Within three months, the body and the micro-inserts form a natural
barrier that prevents sperm from reaching the egg. After three
months, a doctor performs a test to confirm that the micro-inserts
are properly placed, and that the fallopian tubes are fully
blocked. During the three-month period while the natural barrier
forms, you've got to use
back-up birth control. If all goes well with the test,
you're free to get your frisk on.
Sutter says she went with Essure because it seemed the easiest and
least time-consuming option. "As opposed to other procedures
where you have to go under the knife, I was drawn to the fact that
you can have it done in a doctor's office, and there's almost no down
time."
What? Less down time? Keep talking. For any mom, no down time is
HUGE.
"It IS huge!" Sutter agrees. "I don't want to
have to worry anymore, and I don't want to have to take birth control for the rest of my life. I just want
to be worry-free. I did it July 28th, and can't wait to have my
test in October. And my insurance covered it," she adds.
Covered by insurance? Hot damn! But is it effective?
"The Essure procedure is 99.8 percent effective, based on four
years of follow-up, and has been FDA approved and in use since
2002," explains OB/GYN Dr. Cindy M. Basinski, of Evansville
Obstetrics and Gynecology. "The Essure procedure is an
extremely simple procedure that I perform in my office in about 10
minutes, and most patients return to normal activities very
quickly."
This sounds too good to be true. Tell me true, Trista. Did it
hurt?
"Just like menstrual cramps," dishes Sutter. "But
it's so worth it. I just wanted to focus my attention on the
two kids I'm blessed to have and this way, I don't have to
worry if I miss a pill. I mean, hello mommy
brain! I really care about women's health and
wanted to get the word out. I feel like the more women that know
about it, they'll make this option their choice because
it's so easy compared to the others."
Can you hear that? Why, it's the sound of baby daddies across
our fair nation heaving a collective sigh of relief.
Read more: MomLogic.com -- Trista Sutter's Permanent Birth Control Solution
Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Babble, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications and lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She authors two pop culture blogs: The Mad Mom and A Hag Supreme, and is on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com.
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