(Cross posted)

Hey girls! So I posted a while ago asking if anybody had experience with the sponge as contraception. Didn’t get much response and mostly just a lot of questions about what it was.

I went ahead and bought some and my SO and I used one last night. I thought I’d post about the experience if anyone else is considering the sponge.

First, what it is:

The sponge is a kind of rubbery disk type thing with a divot that your cervix fits into. It’s filled with spermicide and blocks the cervix.

It’s not the most effective form of contraption. It’s 88% effective for women who have never given birth and 72% effective for women who have given birth. So, if you definitely can not have a baby, I’d suggest using it with a condom or picking a different form of contraception.

You can wear it for up to 30 hours and can have as much sex as you want during the first 24 hours. You have to leave it in for at least 6 hours after the last intercourse.

It’s available over the counter and you don’t need a prescription or to have it fitted.

Here’s what it looks like and how it fits:

My experience:

My SO and I switched to the sponge because we are taking a break from TTC and hate condoms. We would welcome a baby, but want to take some steps to avoid pregnancy at this point. Basically we discussed the risk and determined a 12% chance of pregnancy is acceptable to us in our current situation. We’re moving soon and have some international travel coming up this year which is why we decided to take a little break.

The sponge is nice because you can wear it all day and don’t have to stop in the middle of sex to put it in. I put it in after I got home from work and didn’t notice it at all during the evening. I found it pretty easy to insert.

I’ve read that the spermicide makes things taste bad down there so we didn’t have oral (which is usually how we get started). The sponge can also dry you out a little, so we used water based lube.

He couldn’t tell it was there, the texture of it is very similar to the texture of the inside of the vagina. It also kind of cushions your cervix, which I liked because he’s pretty big and once in while he’ll hit my cervix and that can be a little painful.

A lot of reviews say it’s difficult to remove. It did take me a bit to get a grip on the string to pull it out, but it didn’t take more than 5 minutes to get it out. I do think it helped that I have very short fingernails. I would be afraid of pulling it apart if I had longer nails.

Since we’re just getting used to it we made sure to use it the first time we’ll after my fertile window just in case I mess up inserting it.

I’ve also read a lot of reviews that say some people might have allergic reactions to the spermicide (just itching etc) so be aware that that is possible.

Anyway, we really liked it. We got to have that more intimate feeling we’d been missing with condoms. Of course, the real test is going to be me not being pregnant at the end of this cycle! (Which again, we would be okay with. The timing would not be ideal, but it wouldn’t be crazy terrible). I’ll be sure to let you all know if it worked!

UPDATE:

I did not get pregnant! So that’s the most important update.

I did notice one additional negative to the sponge and that’s that a couple days after I used it my discharge smelled a little medicinal. No discomfort at all, just a strange smell.

Additionally, the second time I went to put one in I tore it so I had to use a different one. Not a huge deal since I noticed right away, but these things are not cheap so wasting one was unfortunate.