Natural Cycles as contraception

[Youre a wizard Harry]

Hi
I have been having problems with the pill and implant and am considering ditching hormonal contraception.
I don’t want to use condoms (at least not long term anyway) and have been looking at the Natural Cycles app. I am hoping to try for a baby as soon as we are able to buy a house (18 months or so), so it would be good to get an understanding of my cycle too.
has anyone had any experience using it and if so what was your experience?
Thanks

 

[XXSJPXX]

Thanks for making this thread, i was going to make one about this too! I have tried the pill, implant, copper coil (made me bleed after sex as it was sitting too low down?) and the patch and all of them gave me horrible side effects that never settled. I was looking at trying the NuvaRing or injection but I have decided that I actually don't want to go on hormonal contraception again and we don't like condoms.

We have talked about having another child and will probably start trying mid-late 2021 but if I was to get pregnant now it wouldn't be a bad thing so I'm happy to give this a go.

 

[Asgyui]

I'm following this with interest as its something i'm keen to start using soon too. What puts me off is that a few years back a lot of influencers were doing ads for them saying how good it was and i always find stuff like that hard to trust. I've been meaning to buy a book I've been recommended by a view people 'taking charge of your fertility' who use tracking due to religious reasons.

 

[Gembo]

I do. I don’t use the natural cycles app, I use Dot and Flo. I’ve been doing it for years now, I started out taking my temperature and tracking all my cycles/symptoms and logging it in the app. I don’t take my temperature anymore as I trust the apps now from using them so long. Years in and I’ve never fallen pregnant, we just use condoms when I’m fertile. Hate using them but it’s a happy sacrifice not to be on the pill or injection anymore. I would always advise to do lots of reading up on it though and always err on the side of caution to begin with, while it has worked for me I also couldn’t say for sure that I might just not be capable of getting pregnant.

 

[LaurieLaurie]

I used it for 8 years and never got pregnant.

 

[Bobbleowl90]

Worked for me for about 18 months then I got pregnant to be fair we were very much not trying but if we get pregnant then we get pregnant.

 

[Youre a wizard Harry]

Thank you everyone for your advice I realised today when researching how little I know about my cycle. Definitely need some more education!

I'm following this with interest as its something i'm keen to start using soon too. What puts me off is that a few years back a lot of influencers were doing ads for them saying how good it was and i always find stuff like that hard to trust. I've been meaning to buy a book I've been recommended by a view people 'taking charge of your fertility' who use tracking due to religious reasons.

Yes I’ve also seen this book mentioned a lot when looking at information about Natural Cycles, I think I’m going to look into it.

 

[Lizzie Mintdrop]

The only contraception I've used in 5 years is withdrawal method but you have to trust your partner to know when to withdraw.

 

[Brianbadonde]

Hey all, I've just started using natural cycles.. I'm 5 days in, so far I'm finding it super easy to use and looking forward in the months on the app it's already predicting more green days as time goes on (this month I only have 5 green days as not enough data for them to give you more and not be at risk) I'm beyond excited to be Learning more about my body and being more in tune with my cycle and symptoms. Can't wait to not have to use condoms or withdrawal on green days!

 

[Sally1993]

I used Natural Cycles and got unintentionally pregnant within months . To be fair, it was my own fault. I used to pee on cheapie ovulation sticks to avoid sex on ovulation. Natural Cycles gives you loads of Red days at the beginning when it is learning your cycle. I thought I knew better as I was using ovulation tests too.
Anyway, my basal temperature rose and rose, and yep, I was pregnant. We’re now the parents of a beautiful little baby.

 

[orange club biscuit]

I used Natural Cycles and got unintentionally pregnant within months . To be fair, it was my own fault. I used to pee on cheapie ovulation sticks to avoid sex on ovulation. Natural Cycles gives you loads of Red days at the beginning when it is learning your cycle. I thought I knew better as I was using ovulation tests too.
Anyway, my basal temperature rose and rose, and yep, I was pregnant. We’re now the parents of a beautiful little baby.

Lol I could have written this myself, I was also just convinced I wasn’t regularly ovulating as I had irregular cycles and a few anovulatory ones too! I am pretty sure I got pregnant from having sex 5 days before ovulation which I know is not impossible but v unlikely. I am now 7 weeks pregnant!

 

[Asgyui]

I'm so unsure on it, there it lots of reviews on it worked well vs i ended up pregnant. Plus there is always unfortunate possibility that women who its worked well for as contraceptive may be because there is other unknown medical reasons why they are not getting pregnant.

 

[Sally1993]

I think it would work and be a great method of contraception if you 100% listen to it when it says it’s a red day.. like I didn’t

 

[Welshgal]

Know a few who tracked naturally and they all ended up pregnant

 

[Olivebread123]

Do you have to use the withdrawal method when using natural cycles? I think I’d feel nervous to have him not withdraw even if the app tells me I’m not fertile at that time, but is that how it works?

 

[Brianbadonde]

Do you have to use the withdrawal method when using natural cycles? I think I’d feel nervous to have him not withdraw even if the app tells me I’m not fertile at that time, but is that how it works?

Technically no, it should be safe enough not too, I’ve gone 3 months now of unprotected sex on green non fertile days and use condoms or withdrawal (not ideal) on red fertile days, the more data you put in the more green days you get as the months pass by. My cycle is pretty regular and have now got the knack of temp checking so I’m trusting it so far, was nervous to start with but I’m trusting myself that plenty of people use it with no accidents.

 

[Causewaygal]

Tried it and then had the nightmare of finding myself pregnant ... wouldn’t recommend it if pregnancy would be a an absolute no for you

 

[Sally1993]

Tried it and then had the nightmare of finding myself pregnant ... wouldn’t recommend it if pregnancy would be a an absolute no for you

I agree with you. I would use Natural Cycles if you are about the age/a bit younger than when you plan to have a family. So if you did fall pregnant, it wouldn’t be a nightmare. That’s what happened to us. We were using NC when we had our ‘happy surprise’ of baby no. 2. I would NEVER use it now, as I 100% DO NOT want any more children. It’s just not 100% safe enough because the chance of user error is so much higher than other contraception methods. We are now trying to get me a coil, and husband a vasectomy in the next few years.

 

[Causewaygal]

I agree with you. I would use Natural Cycles if you are about the age/a bit younger than when you plan to have a family. So if you did fall pregnant, it wouldn’t be a nightmare. That’s what happened to us. We were using NC when we had our ‘happy surprise’ of baby no. 2. I would NEVER use it now, as I 100% DO NOT want any more children. It’s just not 100% safe enough because the chance of user error is so much higher than other contraception methods. We are now trying to get me a coil, and husband a vasectomy in the next few years.

I was 23 but as I categorically never wanted children it was a bit of a nightmare. I learnt a hard lesson from that one.
I’ve been trying to get my husband to have a vasectomy for years but now I’m hurtling towards 50 it seems a bit pointless He also never wanted children thankfully, but he still thinks a vasectomy would somehow lower his ‘manhood’

 

[Rodneytrotter]

I used this method before my last baby and it worked. I didnt use ovulation sticks but I tracked my temperature. Im not planning any more children now so I have a copper coil