DISCLAIMER: This post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding you or your baby’s health. Please read my Medical Disclaimer for more info
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Natural Family Planning (also known as the fertility awareness method) involves being very aware of your cycle and symptoms to know when you’re ovulating.
On your fertile days, you can either completely abstain from sex or be very careful by using condoms if you’d like. Natural Family Planning involves a lot of awareness of your body, tracking your cycle, learning how to check for ovulation, and knowing your fertile window.
When you use NFP consistently and correctly, it can be up to 99% effective! (Source)
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My Experience with Hormonal Birth Control
Before I share my birth control story, please don’t take this as if I’m trying to scare you away from it, I’m only sharing my individual story with you!
Before trying hormonal birth control I was always afraid to because I’ve always been sensitive to hormones and any medications. Plus, I was already very in tune with my body so I knew I would notice any changes in myself.
But after about a year as a postpartum mama, I finally tried hormonal birth control and I only stayed on it for about a month or so. In that month my symptoms included:
- 15-20 lb weight gain
- A major increase in my depression
These two symptoms were huge for me and piggy-backed right on each other. I couldn’t continue birth control any longer and it took me months to feel and look like myself again which was extremely difficult on me.
After that, I kind of felt like I knew it wouldn’t work for me and I at least finally tried it because I wanted to be as safe as possible with not getting pregnant again yet.
After this, I have only used NFP and I can’t ever imagine needing to do anything else to prevent pregnancy. I always feel like myself, I can manage my depression off of hormonal birth control, and my hormones remain balanced.
Note: I also did consider using non-hormonal birth control such as the copper IUD after my hormonal BC experience so I first read and listened to other women’s experiences and I heard multiple say they still felt different and had side effects and I couldn’t go through the pain of it knowing I’m sensitive to anything in my body.
Ways to Use Natural Family Planning
Did you know a woman can only get pregnant for 6 days of her cycle? Aside from your 1 day of ovulation, we add 5 days to this because we know that sperm can live inside the uterus for up to 5 days!
The 3 different fertility signs and symptoms you can monitor:
- The length and timing of your menstrual cycle
- Changes to your cervical mucus
- Daily readings of your basal body temperature
Remember, if you have an irregular cycle, this might be a difficult method. And I would recommend looking into why it may be irregular and what you may be able to do about it if you haven’t already! But if you have a regular cycle, it can become natural to become very in tune and aware of your body to feel confident when you’re ovulating.
How I Use Natural Family Planning
I only measure the length of my cycle and remain in tune with my body by paying attention to my symptoms.
Symptoms I experience when I’m near ovulation or am ovulating include:
- Increased cervical mucus
- The mucus is stretchy or like “egg-whites”
- Mittleschmerz which are light ovulation cramps on one side of the lower abdomen. (It’s so cool knowing which ovary is releasing eggs each month!)
- Increased sex drive
To measure the length and timing of your menstrual cycle I recommend downloading a period tracking app that works for you! They’re all pretty similar and will tell you when you’re in different phases of your cycle.
How to Read Your Basal Body Temperature
Monitoring BBT is used as a method for NFP because there’s a small rise in body temperature right after ovulation. (Tip: Ear or forehead thermometers are not accurate enough for this).
This method involves taking your temperature at the same time every morning before you get out of bed.
I highly recommend using something like the Natural Cycles thermometer and the app so that it can help you read what your temperature changes are telling you about your body! Making it easy to read if you’re fertile or not each day.
Cautions:
NFP is not 100% accurate nor is any type of birth control! It’s always a possibility for it to fail but for my relationship so far, it has worked great.
Other indications that NFP might night be a good choice for you right now include if:
- You’re postpartum and dont have your period back or a regular cycle again yet.
- You have irregular periods
- You have a short or long-term condition affecting your fertility signs such as an STI or pelvic inflammatory disease
- You’re taking a medication that disrupts production of cervical mucus
- You’re a heavy drinker
If you’ve recently stopped taking hormonal birth control or recently has a miscarriage or abortion, it’s recommended to be extra cautious until your hormones and cycle regulate again to use NFP.
Postpartum Hormones
Keep in mind that during big hormonal changes in your life such as when you’re a postpartum mama, you’ll have to be extra cautious because right before your period returns you will ovulate before that period and it will be possible to get pregnant then.
However, before you ovulate and then get your period, you may have ovulation symptoms like the ones I listed above under “How I Use Natural Family Planning”. Just because you may not have a regular cycle or your menstrual cycle hasn’t returned yet doesn’t mean you won’t have ovulation symptoms when it does return!
Also, I want to note that I don’t recommend taking anything that is supposed to help balance or regulate your hormones when you’re postpartum because your hormones aren’t meant to be what they were before you were pregnant yet.
After you give birth, your estrogen drops low and remains low for as long as you’re breastfeeding. And progesterone has an even steeper drop in levels after the birth of your placenta and will return to normal once you begin ovulating again (aka, get your period back).
Therefore, if you’re breastfeeding, your hormones are going to be different than normal to maintain your supply and breastfeeding relationship.
The steep drop in your progesterone after birth may not be pleasant but you can help your feelings by nurturing your sleep, stress levels, and health to allow your body to do what it needs to when it needs to. If you’re a healthy woman I believe it’s best to trust your body and continue to take care of yourself and your body will do exactly what it needs to when it needs to.
Benefits of Using Natural Family Planning
- It doesnt cause any side effects
- Most women can use NFP
- Once you’ve learned the methods there should be no further need for input from a professional
- NFP can also be used to help you become pregnant
- It doesnt involve any chemicals
- It can help you recognize normal and abnormal veginal secretions
- You become aware and in tune with your body and how you feel all of the time which is beenficial for even more than only your fertility
- It involves your partner in the process, which can help increase feelings or closeness and trust
Disadvantages:
- NFP doesnt protect you from STIs such as chlamydia or HIV
- You’ll need to avoid sex or use a contraception such as condoms during your fertile windows (6 consecutive days per month)
- It will not work well without continued commitment and practice
- It can take several menstrual cycles before you become confident in identifying your fertile windows
- Stress, illness, travel, lifestyle, and hormonal treatments can disrupt your fertility signs
- If you use the emergency contraceptive pill, you’ll need to wait for 2 complete cycles before relying on NFP again
Sources:
Natural Family Planning: Fertility Awareness
DISCLAIMER: This post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding you or your baby’s health. Please read my Medical Disclaimer for more info
DISCLAIMER: This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may get a commission if you decide to purchase something through my links at no cost to you. Please read my Disclaimer for more info.
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