The 130 percent - in their own words: Recent Episodes
Sam Stroozas
The birth control implant was introduced in the 80s and has since evolved into a dependable method. Yet some users experience horrible side effects that other users never encounter. All medicine comes with risks but in the understudied field of women's health, not all risks are worth it. I spoke with eight birth control implant users about their journey with the birth control implant and the age-old question, is this the best we get? Merck, the owner of Nexplanon refrained to comment. This podcast is part of a larger written project about the implant. Edited and produced by Sam Stroozas.
21-year-old Alyssa Tomchek still uses the implant as her birth control method, but not without going through a usual event in the process. Her first implant got stuck in her arm so before it was set to expire, her doctor put in a second one, a direct violation of the FDA recommendations for dosage.
Shannon Owens was 29-years-old when she asked her doctor for a hysterectomy for her severe vaginal hemorrhaging. He told her no and that she, a gay woman, would change her mind about having children. She never did. 15 years later, Shannon has had eight implants to cope with her condition, with the last two migrating.
23-year-old Kayleigh Marshall was finishing her last year of college when she developed Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension. Her future plans derailed and she had to get brain surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic - she attributes this all to her implant.
In her sophomore year of college Hannah Blanchard had something happen to her no college student expects, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. While on the implant she couldn't eat without getting sick and later learned she had gained over 100 pounds while on the implant, without changing her diet.
33-year-old Frankie Hann couldn't find anyone to take her implant out, they refused - there wasn't anything medically wrong with it so doctors saw no reason for removal. She wanted it out, but that wasn't enough. Frankie struggled for two and a half years finding a doctor to believe her.
Ashlin Bailey was 15-years-old when she got the birth control implant and until she was 17-years-old, she bled non-stop. She missed out on high school experiences because she couldn't ever leave her house and now she is learning to rebuild her life post-implant.
Andrea Ray is a 41-year-old mother from Mississippi. She got the implant after she was done having kids in her early 30s, but when she turned 35 she had to make a major life decision and get a hysterectomy. She was bleeding non-stop for five months after getting her implant out, so much so that her uterus had filled to the size of a six-month pregnant person but it wasn't a fetus she was carrying, it was blood.
Alisha Bennett is a 32-year-old mother from Georgia. She decided to get the birth control implant after having her last child. For the most part, it worked, until she developed Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, a rare brain condition that has been tied to the implant.
Blood clots, brain conditions, cancer, migration, and more - eight women share their stories about using the birth control implant. Listen to all eight episodes of The 130 percent starting August 23. Edited and produced by Sam Stroozas.