I am not a fan of faff. Unfortunately, as a woman, there seems to be plenty of it about, particularly when it comes to putting a well-placed spanner in one’s reproductive works. Yes, there is the contraceptive pill - that symbol of feminism, control, liberation… but for me it is stuck in the 1960s. As someone who finds keeping track of diary, keys, purse and phone quite enough of a palaver, the idea of having to remember rigidly to take a tablet every day would quite frankly turn me into a panicky wreck.

I am not alone. As Dr Jane Dickson (@TheSexDoctorUK), consultant in sexual and reproductive healthcare at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust tells me: “Young women in particular often tend to be quite poor pill takers and so then their contraception is only as effective as [their] remembering to take [the] pill.”

Imagine, then, my joy when I discovered there was an alternative: a simple device that chugs away in the background, is more than 99% effective, lasts for three years and requires no further faff.

Roughly the size and shape of a hair grip, the progestogen implant is tucked under the skin of the upper arm in a swift and (almost) painless procedure where it steadily releases a low dose of a progestogen hormone. Essentially it works by stopping your ovaries from releasing an egg, thins the lining of the womb to stymie implantation of a fertilised egg and thickens cervical mucus to hinder sperm sneaking through, similar to the progestogen-only pill. Should you decided it’s time to start a family, then it is a simple matter to have the implant whipped out, allowing your fertility to rapidly bounce back.

It seems I am in a tiny minority of women to have discovered the implant. According to Office of National Statistics data, the implant was only used by 2% of those women registered as using at least one form of contraception, although it was more popular among younger people.

“The wonderful thing about it is it could be used for anybody so it could be used [by] young women as soon as they start needing contraception and it is actually perfectly safe for us [to use] up to the menopause,” says Dickson. That’s handy because in certain circumstances the oestrogen-containing combined pill might not be suitable for older users.

For me (and I should emphasise I am not a medical doctor), the implant is a truly modern and elegant answer to the age-old conundrum of birth control. But it has also swiftly removed another feminine hoo-ha for me - menstruation. No more feeling grotty, no more having to track my calendar, and no more having to shell out a tenner a month to line the pockets of high street pharmacies who try convince me that having a period is "fun", "special" or an essential part of (deep breathy voice) “being a woman”.

Stuff that.

However I am one of what I would consider the ‘lucky’ 20% for whom periods are a thing of the past. For some the implant causes menstrual mayhem, with bleeding thrown drastically out of kilter.

“The problem for us as doctors fitting [the implant] is that we can’t predict beforehand who is going to be affected,” says Dickson. “What we very much encourage is that if women are affected by the bleeding pattern, they go and seek help from their clinic or GP as soon as it starts to be annoying for them because there are interventions,” she adds. “The really important message is that it can usually be helped.”

Contraception is a very personal business, and the implant won’t suit everyone - some women may experience side effects such as sore breasts, acne or mood changes or there may be other health issues to consider. But as a long-acting alternative to either of the pills on offer, the implant certainly streamlined my life.

@NicolaKSDavis