Why It Seems 20-Somethings Are Now Most Certainly Generation Coil
The Debrief, October 2014
The Pill was utterly groundbreaking. As women, this is virtually drummed into us at birth. It gave women a tiny bit of agency in their sexuality, careers and lives. It meant my grandmother could stop at six kids – the last one was born the year the Pill became available to married women). And it means that for us millennials negotiating boyfriends, careers and the fact that we probably won’t be in a position to have a child for a good decade, reliable safe contraception is seen as a fundamental right, not a privilege.
But last week I ditched the Pill, and joined 45,000 other women in the UK and had an Intrauterine System (IUS) fitted. The appointment took 20 minutes, I had it fitted at my GPs, and although I can’t claim I didn’t feel a thing (24 hours of medium to bad period pains), the whole experience was less stressful and intrusive than a really full-on bikini wax and it means that I’m protected from the risk of unplanned pregnancy for the next five years.
