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Hello and welcome to the Inside Health podcast. I'm James Galaher, and I've been chatting taboo

medical subjects with science journalist Nicola Davis. We're going to talk about something that

not many people actually talk about. Yes, we're going to talk about contraception and its

impacts on menstruation periods, which is something which, yeah, I really do think it's

something which isn't talked about very much. It's something I think a lot of people who use

contraception kind of find out almost by accident, really. I certainly did. And yet, it really is

quite a kind of quite a significant impact on people's lives. Now, we'll give or take the same age, and I don't know what your sex ed classes were like at school, but mine were basically, here's how not to get pregnant or how not to cause a pregnancy, and that was the extent of the discussion around contraception. Well, yes, I mean, it was all a bit of a nightmare, wasn't it? It was all about condoms and a pill. I remember sort of abiding memory as a teacher kind of booming around the class, boys, don't put a condom on your back pocket. You know, your bum will warm it up and it will disintegrate. So that, it was just those two forms of contraception were talked about. And then there was no discussion about how it might affect your periods or,

you know, what might suit you. There was just no discussion about that at all. So when did you

start to realise that contraception could also have an impact on your periods that might be beneficial?

Well, do you know, it wasn't until I was at university and I did my postgraduate studies and I was working in the lab and I had a fantastic friend in the lab from Australia and we were sort of having a girly chat about something or other and she said, oh I have to go and get my implant replaced and I said, what's that? And she goes, oh, you know, contraceptive implant. She goes, you know, I haven't had periods for ages. And I remember my jaw kind of nearly hit.

I had no idea that this device existed.

I had no idea that there was contraception that could stop your periods.

And at that moment, I thought, I need to actually go and find out what there really is out there.

And how big a deal for you is having fewer or lighter periods?

Now, of course, it's a very, very personal choice and it will differ very much between individuals,

and I really want to stress that. So for me, the contraceptive implant completely stops my periods.

...