sunmountain said:
Can someone summarize this protocol?
Is it --
3 drops per day on tongue from day 8 until menses
PLUS
3 drops in cervix a few hours prior to intercourse?
Thank you
I'm not sure about the rest, but it was more like 100 - 200 mg/day, ie at least 10 drops 3x/day. (3 drops would be about 10mg, nowhere near enough).
I found the thread confusing as to whether it involved daily dosing in mouth or at cervix days 5 or 8 till menstruation, especially given discussion of suppositories. If the daily dose was oral, then it seems cervical application a few hours before intercourse would improve effectiveness.
I use close to 100mg/day (in mouth), so far not for contraceptive purposes, and it does not stop menstruation. I assumed this meant that my body does not believe it is pregnant when it starts menstruating. Since the mechanism of action is persuading the body to behave as if it were pregnant, I also assume that what I am doing would not prevent pregnancy (given the opportunity). Does that seem right?
Since I have not been tracking my cycle properly for a while, and I sometimes accidentally skip a dose, it is possible that my body initiates menstruation after I accidentally lower the dose or go a bit longer between doses. In this case maybe it would be effective if I was more reliable in my application (and supplemented with cervical application on relevant days). Ie if I supplemented daily at a level high enough to reliably stop menstration (unless I took a deliberate break for 5 days). Does that seem likely?
I guess learing to read all the signs of the cycle as as in NFP methods would make it easier to tell what's going on, but I haven't got a round to that, and I think it relies on observing for a least a couple of unmodified cycles while learning.
I would not trust my current scheme for pregnancy prophylaxis.
honeybee said:
Word of caution for diaphragm users-anything oil based can and will break down the diaphragm material leading to a less effective/compromised barrier protection. :!:
Does anyone know of a way around this? Would condoms break down quickly enough from the oil to be a problem, or does it only apply to diaphragms because they get used over a much longer time frame? A diaphragm would otherwise seem like a good delivery method for getting progest-e onto cervix.
Would the natural diaphragm made from half a lemon counteract the effects of progesterone? I don't know what the mechanism of action is for lemon, or whether it is hard on the local tissues.