We've been preventing pregnancy naturally for six months by using
Natural Cycles as our form of birth control!
Natural Cycles via Facebook: photo credit to @tinytwisst
The last time I wrote an update on us using Natural Cycles was around the three month mark. We've been preventing pregnancy naturally with help from Natural Cycles. We are loving it and learning so much from it.
Our goal is to prevent pregnancy while I was taking blood thinners for the last three to six months. Recap: I hurt myself pretty bad this spring, ended up getting a life threatening blood clot in my lungs, immediately ripped off birth control pills, and put on blood thinners. Catch up on what you missed here. It was extremely important that I didn't get pregnant while being on blood thinners. Blood thinners can cause birth defects and other problems. We needed a way to prevent pregnancy that was hormone free, not invasive, or surgical. That's when we found Natural Cycles!
Natural Cycles is easy to use. You simply take your temperature every morning before getting out of bed or cuddling your spouse. Then you chart your daily temperature in the app. Did you know they are the first birth control app to be cleared by the FDA? The app takes your data and pin points when you may ovulate. I say "may" because sometimes your cycles are shorter and sometimes they're longer. There's a chance it could be irregular or the possibility you could skip ovulating. It takes all this into consideration. When you first start out you get a small window of safe days to be intimate without risk of pregnancy. As you continue adding temps into the app and use it consistently over a long period of time, the window of safe days for intimacy becomes longer. It's always smarter to play it safe and use protection still.
I started to see consistency in my periods by the third to fourth month. They were lasting the same amount of time as the last month and ovulating between the same window each month. It allowed my husband and I to be more trusting and talk about when it was safe and when it wasn't. Neither of us felt pressured and we still felt like we could be close to each other.
At three months on blood thinners, my lab results came back normal! The blood clot had disappeared and I had healed. My doctor recommended that I stay on the blood thinners for another three months; totaling 6 months. I wasn't thrilled with this. To be honest, I was kinda annoyed and frustrated. I just wanted to be off of them. I didn't like feeling winded all the time, worried about cutting myself while washing dishes, and just easily exhausted. I just wanted off of them and move on. That didn't happen. The blood clot was so large and so life threatening that it was best to stay on them and make sure I wouldn't develop anymore over the next few months.
Therefore, we continued to stay on Natural Cycles for the remaining three months. I started to think about what I would want long term. I thought maybe I should speak with my OBGYN about all the options, the costs, and routes we could take. Except, I didn't really feel strongly about any of the options and I liked what we were doing. I trusted Natural Cycles and it has been working for us.
At my 6 month appointment, I was finally cleared to come off of blood thinners! It was still highly recommended that I stay off birth control or find a non hormonal birth control. Ultimately, I decided to stay on Natural Cycles and continue tracking my cycles this way to prevent pregnancy!
I'm not sure what our future holds. I'm not sure how I'll feel or will want in the next couple months. Maybe we will decide to tie tubes or try a different form of non hormonal birth control. Overall, I am confident in what I'm using at this time. Thanks to Natural Cycles!
If you would like to know more about Natural Cycles, read these blog posts:
Disclaimer: Natural Cycles is for women 18 years and older
and does not protect you from STI's.
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