The GUM clinic and the best period I've ever had

It's only as I started writing this post that I remember how I ended up at the GUM clinic the second time. I decided I was going to make an appointment and I decided that when I had a free day next I was going to head off, have myself a shopping trip and stop by at the GUM clinic to make an appointment. As it was, my mum, deciding she wanted in on a shopping trip, as well as my sisters. Therefore, I spent a good while once we'd arrived trying to ditch them so I could head off to the clinic. It took some work (especially since I often go shopping with my sister so she couldn't understand why I didn't want her coming with me), but eventually got there and got my appointment for the following week. Written on a yellow card, telling me I had an appointment with "Dr Bush"!

It's a strange thing sitting in a waiting room to a GUM clinic. Although it was actually an NHS walk-in centre, so not everyone there was there for sexual reasons, but it's weird looking around at couples sitting there and just thinking.

I'd originally asked my boyfriend to come with me to the appointment, but in the end I decided that I'd rather go on my own. I felt like having to tell stuff to a doctor would feel worse for me with him listening in too, rather than it feeling like he'd be there supporting me. So, I went alone.

Eventually, I was called in to see the doctor. It felt kind of scary at first, since throughout my life I'd rarely ever talked about sex, especially about sex and its relation to me, but the doctor was unbelievably nice.

I explained my situation to the doctor - I have an unbelievably strong gag reflex which renders me pretty much incapable of taking pills, and I didn't believe that I'd really be able to remember to take a pill every day in any case. I'd done some reading online and the contraceptive injection sounded like it might work for me. The doctor asked me if I'd read about the implant, and I hadn't.

As this was my first visit to the clinic, the doctor started by asking me some medical questions about me and my family which might affect my suitability for certain methods - things like if there was any family history of high blood pressure, heart problems, etc etc.

She also asked questions about my sexual habits and my monthly cycle. Let it be known now that up until this point in my life, I had NEVER missed a period. Not once. Except now, I had. I'd only had one period since I'd been with my boyfriend, and we'd been together three months now. She asked if I thought I could be pregnant, but it was practically impossible since my boyfriend hadn't even taken his pants off in front of me yet, let alone had sex. To be sure, she sent me off to the bathroom with a plastic cup from the water cooler (lol!) to pee into so she could do a pregnancy test to be sure.

She did the dip test, then left it to develop. She asked me a few more questions - if I had a partner, if I'd had sex before, if he'd had sex before and so on. I was a virgin but I knew he'd had sex before, so she recommended I get him to have an STD check to be safe.

She brought out a number of leaflets, the first of which was a general leaflet giving an outline of all the different methods available. She drew over them a bit, crossing out the ones which weren't good options, putting question marks over the pill ones since I said I didnt want them but they were options, and putting stars over the injection and the implant, which seemed like my two best options.

She went into detail about the injection and the implant, telling me how they worked, how they're administered, the side effects and so on, and gave me two more leaflets, which went into some detail on them.

By now, the test had come out negative. It was a weight off my mind since I had been a little paranoid, even though I knew that it was so insanely unlikely I was pregnant it wasn't worth thinking about.

From what I've heard afterwards, I think the doctor would have been happy to give me what I wanted there and then, but she wasn't willing to do it given my last missed period. She told me to go away, wait for my next period to come and then phone up to make another appointment as soon as I started bleeding! I was annoyed in a way - as I said, I'd NEVER missed a period before, but I'd missed one now, the only time in my life it really mattered. There was a plus to it though - I could go away and think about what I wanted. I'd gone in pretty sure that I wanted the injection, but the implant was sounding good to me now too.

I went home and read the leaflets from cover to cover, and decided that I wanted the implant. Good, except I had to wait around for my period. I hate periods, but I've never anticipated one as highly as I was anticipating my next one. The worst thing was I didn't even know when my next one might be. I didn't know whether I'd just missed one and my next one would be along when it was due, or if my menstrual cycle had just decided to go on holiday. Maybe my insides were in shock from that fact that sex was not only on my mind, but had a presence on my body as well.

I told my boyfriend about what the doctor had said, recommending him for an STD test. He said he'd never had sex without a condom so he should be alright, but he was brilliant and went for a test anyway. It seems a small thing but I really appreciated that he'd do it for me, even knowing that there was a 99% chance he was clean.

I tried not to think about my missing period, but it was annoying. I hadn't really been ready for sex before, but as time went on and my period still didn't show up, I was starting to get impatient. I was getting closer to the point where I was ready for sex, and not being able to have the implant was beginning to become a barrier.

Then it happened one glorious Saturday. I was at work, it was lunchtime, and as usual the first thing I do is go to the toilet. As I got up, I was pretty sure I saw a little pink on the tissue I'd used to wipe. I was certain, but I tried not to get excited. A tiny bit of incredibly diluted blood does not constitute a period. It could be a false alarm, and I'd be getting my hopes up for nothing.

I tried to forget it, but I felt excited. Was this the period I'd been waiting for for so long now? I went and got my lunch, hung around and did the stuff I do on my lunch break, and just before I was due back, I went back to the toilet again. I am telling you, I've never been so thrilled at the sight and feel of blood in my pants. Really, it was all I could do to work up a smile on my period sometimes. I had a big grin on my face. I was on my period! Woohoo!

I texted my boyfriend. I was so incredibly pleased, like this was one of the best things that had ever happened to me. I told him I was feeling crap because my cramps and stuff had all suddenly returned, but I was on my period and it was a glorious day!

I'd been told to phone up the clinic as soon as I got my period to make an appointment, as it's best to start the methods I was looking at while I was on my period. However, the clinic wasn't open Sundays and it was already shut by the time I got my period Saturday afternoon, so it had to wait til Monday. I remember it well. I was at college, and I had to go outside even though it was January and really cold, just to get some privacy so I could phone the clinic. There were a few lads playing football, but they were a bit away and I didn't think they'd bother me. I got my appointment for Thursday.

I texted my boyfriend and told him I had an appointment to get my implant, so he got his ass in gear and made an appointment at the local hospital to get a full STD test.

Thursday came around and I went to my appointment, but I'll save the next section for another time. You've had enough of reading by now and what happened when I got my implant may be a good, self-contained post for other people thinking about the implant. Until next time, I'll just say I love my implant and I really recommend it.