New Year’s resolutions are tricky. On the one hand, there is something nicely symbolic about starting a new calendar year by setting intentions to make the coming year a better one. At the same…

In case you didn’t hear the news, there’s a new type of hormonal birth control available. You’re probably aware of the ring—a flexible ring that you insert into your vagina that releases hormones. You leave it in for three weeks (21 days), then take it out and leave it out for a week (7 days). That’s usually when you get a period-like withdrawal bleed.

This week, we celebrated Thanks, Birth Control Day, our favorite holiday of the year. And people showed up in droves to talk about why they love their birth control and what it’s made possible in their lives. Here are some of our favorite reasons you said you love your BC:

Sometimes forces outside our control seem to be conspiring to make our genitalia shrivel up and fall off like little strips of dried mango. We’re living through just such a time right now, but there is, for the first time in so long, a light at the end of the tunnel. So what can you do to prepare for when your fun bits might be ready to rejoin the land of the living?