Using the Pill to control/change one's menses is very common.

Losing one week out of every four, along with PMS, is not conducive to a happy and productive life as RedRoses has pointed out. Please remember that RedRoses is a nice woman. Can you imagine a not-so-nice woman such as myself stressing out? Frightening thought since my preferred response to heavy pain is "kill something so I feel better".

Being able to move from that to a "3 day, very little blood and no pain, no PMS" cycle was an exorcism! Hallelujah! Fortunately, I was never asexual.

But you might consider that since your body thinks it is pregnant while on the Pill, the problem of low sex drive biologically would make sense.

Have you considered a barrier method like the cervical cap, diaphragm, etc., along with a spermicide? Please read Brandye's article on birth control and have a discussion with your doc.

Wow, using two kinds of hormons seems like not such a good idea to me... I guess taking testosterone could even get you some male-bodily development, as that's what women who want to become men take as well...
Like the doc says: you probably should talk about it to your doctor. However, considering your quote: "my periods less hellacious, and rendering me infertile" I think that there are two goals on your behalf. The suggested cervical cap, diaphragm wont make your periods less heavy. Perhaps a more local form of hormonal contraception, such as IUD would help?

There are more adjustment problems with depo than with any other hormonal system and becoming asexual is one problem. Adding testosterone may increase you sexual desire as well as grow hair on your chest. Not a good mix of hormones. The b/c would not be neutralized but your body would be confused! The hormonal approach that puts the least hormone in the bloodstream, and therefore has, usually, the fewest side effects, is the ring.
You do not mention the iud, a good but oft ignored approach. There are iud's with hormones - stay away from them with your history - and those with no hormones. The modern ones are non-metallic and do not imped medical imagin such as MRI.

Talk to your doctor but you will take a while to flush the effects of depo out of your system. Some women have messed up cycles for a year.

To be honest, I am quite puzzled to why you use birth control to control your menses if you know that your sex drive tends to take over more. I'm not judging, it's just a question because I don't understand why women want to alter their cycles.

Even if menstruation is painful for some, there are just things I'd never want to mess around with. But then again and once again...who am I to judge?

There are give and takes to this and I guess one thing I would be worried about is that you would be manipulating your hormones. I always believed that a person should trust their bodies homeostasis first before adding anything else to the mix.

What you may want to do is ask your doctor to see if this is possible. In the long run, this could do a lot more damage to your body overall but I'd advise you to seek out any information that you can on this topic.

[quote]To be honest, I am quite puzzled to why you use birth control to control your menses if you know that your sex drive tends to take over more. (...) Even if menstruation is painful for some, there are just things I'd never want to mess around with.[/quote]

Dear Goddess. It is not uncommon and not that strange that women try to change their menses. Some of us do suffer more then others, sometimes leading to actually being ill every month. Our society is not based on this inconvenience. It interferes with our school, work, holidays, etc. And any type of stress may cause our cycle to be not as regular as it would have been... leading to more frustration(!)

Personal example; I was 11 when I had my first menstruation and really a happy kid (nothing women about me at all by then, but in a woman's body already! ;)). I had a short cycle (21-24 days), strong and long bleeds (up to 7 days) leading to anaemia, heavy cramps, nausea, etc. All of which I really couldn't handle at the time. After a year of being ill every month, my doctor prescribed the pill. And at the time I didn't even think about anything; it was ok cause the doc said so. Still, I think this was a good decision at the time. Only thing that troubles me is that I took it for 10 years without any medical check-up or evaluation what-so-ever... Actually; I did bleed despite of pill-usage and often got ill (of which I am told later was probably because my own hormonal cycle was trying to break through ;)). Yet: I had gotten so accustomed to taking that pill, that I didn't even think about how things would be without it...

Nowadays, I couldn't be more happy I stopped using it! I have short strong bleeds and hardly any cramps (in which sex/masturbating helps! :o). I feel 'free', more like 'myself' again and in deep touch with my body. In 2 months after I stopped, I got into a relationship and started discovering my sexual being as well (of which I had no interest before). Inconvenient considering birthcontrol, but I really felt like a beautiful beast was awaking inside me. Although there are more factors to consider, I do think quiting the pill contributed to this awakening :)

What about the copper-t IUD? It might work. However, I have heard that it can make one have more heavy periods.

There are copper coated iud's, hormone impregnated iud's, metallic idu's, plastic, iud's. Each woman needs to discuss with her doctor what is appropriate. Each woman also adapts her own way. Some have spotting for a few months; some, heavy periods for a few months; some cramping. Most adapt well within two to three months. The IUD is the most commonly used non-surgical contraceptive in the world. Simply being the most popular in China creates 100 million users.

The first documents use of IUD's in human females was about a thousand years ago on the island of Formosa, now Taiwan, by the ethnic Formosans, who are not , ethnically, Han Chinese. Mid-wives from the villages all had the skill to insert pebbles from a magical stream into women's uterus. A full millenium later, that stream was shown to have a high copper content and that is why copper was use on IUDs fifty years ago.

[QUOTE=Brandye;256595]There are copper coated iud's, hormone impregnated iud's, metallic idu's, plastic, iud's. Each woman needs to discuss with her doctor what is appropriate. Each woman also adapts her own way. Some have spotting for a few months; some, heavy periods for a few months; some cramping. Most adapt well within two to three months. The IUD is the most commonly used non-surgical contraceptive in the world. Simply being the most popular in China creates 100 million users.

The first documents use of IUD's in human females was about a thousand years ago on the island of Formosa, now Taiwan, by the ethnic Formosans, who are not , ethnically, Han Chinese. Mid-wives from the villages all had the skill to insert pebbles from a magical stream into women's uterus. A full millenium later, that stream was shown to have a high copper content and that is why copper was use on IUDs fifty years ago.[/QUOTE]

I used the Mirena IUD at one point. It caused me to have cramping and so I had it removed.

Oh yeah, I am now considering getting a new IUD. I think that since I take prescription Naproxen every day now that the cramping would not bother me as bad. I have to take prescription Naproxen now for arthritis pain.

Naproxen is effective with arthritis but will do little for cramping.