I do hear what you are saying about preferring not to use condoms. It can be a bit of a pain to deal with those and you are meant to use spermacide with them as well and then you have to take them out of the pack and put them on and hold them in place etc etc (to use it properly to prevent slippage and breakage). Much nicer to not have to worry about all that.
I haven't engaged in the safest sex practices in my life... Remember waiting in terror for tests to come back, though. In hindsight I wish I had a little more self control and took better care of my body. That being said, I'm in a committed relationship now. Went on the pill recently partly to help with hormones (reduce testosterone) but also was happy to go on the pill so I don't have to worry about getting pregnant.
I'm a little phobic of getting pregnant. Worry that sometimes people do get pregnant even though they are using the pill properly. I think that a combination of methods would make things much safer. Condoms are probably the safest thing to use as one of the methods. But I do hear you that it isn't the same.
I do wonder if future generations will have a change in attitudes about condoms. Not sure about this... In NZ (fairly liberal with respect to sexuality - legal age is 16) there are massive ad campaigns 'there'll be no hubba hubba if you don't got the rubber' which are marketed to teens (late in the evening). The idea... Is to market condoms in such a way that they become associated with sexual activity in a positive way. To make them sexy, I guess. So you can get flavoured ones and ones with textures and so on and so forth. And to have ads that promote condom usage as a loving thing to do (where they are marketed as an 'invisible barrier' that is unobtrusive). To try and make it a positive part of the experience rather than an annoyance... That marketing campaign was a little late for me, however.
check this out (don't know if it or its variants are available in the US).
http://www.anagen.net/diane.htm
DIANE, ESTELLE (GENERIC)
Do you have any of the following:
1) acne/dermatitus/cysts/skin inflammation especially around jaw/mouth/nose?
2) oily skin and / or hair?
3) hair loss (on head)?
4) excess hair growth (abdomen, face, around breasts)?
5) ovarian cysts (you said you did already)
6) overweight and having SIGNIFICANT DIFFICULTY losing weight?
This particular pill is something that is prescribed for precisely those symptoms (and as a bonus side-effect it acts as a very effective contraceptive pill).
Have you had your androgen (hormone) levels checked? Those symptoms arise because either:
1) Your ovaries are producing too much androgen (e.g., testosterone)
2) Your body is particularly sensitive to androgen (so that even if your androgens are within normal range your body is responding as thought they are through the roof)
The pill works by lowering testosterone levels. Lowered testosterone means that the sebaceous glands (pores) aren't as oily anymore and don't have hair when they shouldn't and do have hair when they should. The contraception prevents an egg being released (the ovarian cysts are when the egg doesn't make it out of the ovaries into the fallopian tubes - it gets stuck in the ovaries and it starts to retain fluid which turns it into a cyst). The more cysts and scaring from cysts that you have in your ovaries the harder it is for eggs to get past them into the fallopian tubes. So... It really is important that you take a pill to prevent the egg being released in order to prevent more scarring. That way when (if) you decide to have kids the egg will have more change of making it into the fallopian tube such that you can fall pregnant.
Have you heard of PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)? Sounds like that is what you have... Except I can't figure why you would develop more of them while you were on the pill... I have a mild version of it... Don't have irregular menstrual cycles (so probably not much in the way of ovarian cysts) and my androgen production is normal, but I have the acne and access hair.
Might be worth asking about Estelle...