Natural Family Planning

Cody and I have been using the Natural Family Planning (NFP) method for quite a while now. We take a small spin on the textbook method but for the most part follow this practice in research. 

I was placed on the combination pill when I was 15 years old from 3 years of irregular, incredibly painful, and incredibly heavy periods. (I had zero issues from the pill and loved it) But shortly after I turned 26, I wanted to be hormone free and get to the bottom of my previous issues so I can eventually have children and reduce my risk of possible miscarriage or possible infertility. We waited a while before we tried for kids so I knew when we were ready, we would be READY, no time to waste on possibly having fertility issues like some members in my family. So in October when I was 26, I got off the pill and surprisingly my cycles were pretty normal, they were 33-34 days long but I ovulated on day 21 instead of 14. My flow was normal and my pain was very minimal. I used my Ava fertility bracelet (shown below) and avoided getting pregnant during my fertile window. About 4 months later I got nervous about accidentally getting pregnant as my husband was going back to school to get his masters degree and I didn't want to get pregnant until he was done with school, so I went back on the pill for 3 months and had no issues until at the end of that third month, I started bleeding a little too early for my expected period to arrive on the pill. I panicked a little bit and took a pregnancy test 100% expecting it to be negative but it wasn't. The pill is supposed to be immediately effective after 1 week taking it and I had been taking it for 2 months when I got pregnant on it so who freaking knows. So I immediately stopped taking any more of the pill and went to the doctor. As you know my story, that was early bleeding around my 3rd week in pregnancy which ultimately led to the baby passing unknowingly at 6 weeks 1 day, finding out it was a missed miscarriage at 8 weeks, and ending up in a failed miscarriage even after taking miscarriage inducing pills at 11.5 weeks and ended up as a D&C surgery 13 weeks 6 days. 

2 weeks after my surgery, I got back on the pill for 3 more months as advised by my doctor solely to regulate my cycle (which I totally agreed with and actually did really really help me). Now if I had been actively trying to conceive, my doctor of course would not have advised to go back on the pill but he knew I was not trying to conceive. So after those 3 months, the next October when I was 27, I got back off the pill and used NFP and was off of it for 11 months before we decided to actively conceive the next September, 28 years old, which led us to get pregnant immediately. We simply had productive sex the day after ovulation and the two days following (because we decided to start trying a month earlier on a whim but I thought I missed my fertile window because I was on a trip but decided to try anyways and if not to succeed with a pregnancy, then just for fun).

 Those last almost year of being off the pill, my periods were extremely like clockwork, lasting 28 days, ovulating on day 14, and only lightly to moderately bleeding for 5 days with very little to no pain. What a blessing. Before getting on the pill at 15, I could never have dreamed of having my body naturally function like this. I truly believe the pill really helped me with that for those 11+ years. It isn't for everyone but worked so well for my body. I plan to go on the mini pill in between babies in the future. Then back to the combination pill until menopause. 

Natural Family Planning can work, it just takes a lot of time and self-awareness every month. If you aren't organized or like to think about certain things you don't "have" to, this method may not be for you. I have to say my body on and off the pill are pretty dang similar. I am lucky to not have had bad side effects on the pill and to have a body that is kind to me off of the pill.

NFP can also help you recognize any issues your body is having before you try to conceive. I realized my progesterone levels were pretty low (no PMS, and I spot 3 days before and after my period) which was seen in my pregnancy progesterone levels. After 3-6 months of getting off hormonal birth control if your periods are extremely long, irregular, heavy, painful, or extremely short, there may be more to this. You may have PCOS, endometriosis, low ovarian reserve, or trouble ovulating. The pill can disguise a lot of these issues and it is extremely important to determine this before trying to conceive so you can have an easier and quicker time getting pregnant and of course, fixing these issues with your doctor.

Here is your NFP cheat sheet:

1. Do your research.
2. Get to know your body and cycle. Track it for a few months to get an idea how long your cycle is, what day you ovulate, how long is your period, how long is the follicular phase(first day of period until you ovulate), and how long your luteal phase is (after you ovulate to the day before you start your period).
3. Get off hormonal birth control for 3 months before trying NFP because your cycle may be all over the place and hasn't normalized yet. During this time, use condoms (or other methods of fun) every time productive sex is taken place.
4. Use the Ava bracelet (shown below) as a method to get to know your cycle and in real time track these main parameters. 
5.  Plan with your husband what method of protection you will use during your 5-6 day fertile window (5 days before ovulation, and the day of and a little after ovulation). Do you plan on using a condom, abstinence, or other ways to have fun instead? This is the least fun about NFP. Also along with the ava bracelet, take LH ovulation tests every day during your fertile window to be absolute sure you ovulate when you are thinking and track that in the premom app (listed below).
6. Take note of the days you have productive sex (sex that leads to a baby) just in case you accidentally become pregnant. 
7. Now Enjoy your life hormone free!

*Warning* the chance of pregnancy can be high if this method is not used correctly or willpower is not actively used during your fertile window by both people. Give yourself 3 cycles to get used to this method and new mindset. Do not use this method unless you are ok with an accidental pregnancy and are in a place in life where that would be ok with you.

Apps: Premom, Ava.

The premom app helped me track my cycle but mainly helped me track my LH test strips. During the 6 fertile days indicated by the Ava app and bracelet, I took an LH test strip every night until I received a positive and then I took it every 12 hours until the positive turned negative. The Premom app allowed me to take a picture of the test strip in the app and it measured the line amount to if I had hit my peak fertility or not and when to have sex. 

The Ava bracelet/app is an amazing amazing purchase. It is a bracelet designed to help you get pregnant but works WONDERS to use in reverse. I use this to not get pregnant. When the app suggests to have intercourse due to your present fertile parameters, I don't. Simple. Ava states it isn't used to prevent pregnancy but has worked for me for 15 months/cycles. So for the Ava bracelet, in real time, it measures 7 parameters in your body by just wearing the bracelet for at least 4 hours in your sleep and downloads that data every morning into your app to determine your 6 most fertile days. It also allows you to log sex, mood, LH test strip results, your mood, and your period. The parameters include, resting pulse rate, skin temperature, breathing rate, sleep amount (light and REM), HRV ratio, and your own daily log which included the sex, cervical mucus, mood, or LH test strip results like mentioned above. It takes all of these parameters into account to predict your most fertile window, ovulation day, next period and such, and will change on the fly if your body's parameters change indicating a shift in cycle. This bracelet took only 3 months to learn my body and has been EXACTLY spot on with my LH peak, ovulation day, and period start and length every time. Even with my extremely irregular cycles. This bracelet also works in reverse if trying to prevent pregnancy by obtaining the most fertile days or partaking in other activities (we did this for a year before we conceived (I got off the pill in late October 2020)). I couldn't be more proud of this bracelet and software. Highly recommend so you don't accidentally miss your most fertile window. Without this bracelet and relying on LH strips alone, you could miss the most fertile time to try, the LH positive day and the day before. Picture is in the section below.

Tools: Quantitative LH strips, Ava bracelet. (For my progesterone issues I use (Proov pdg test strips, Proov progesterone oil)).  

These are the strips I used for the monthly LH tests. This brand indicates how strongly you ovulate. I correlate the results in the premom app by snapping the picture of the test strip. I usually start testing on day 10-16 of my cycle (starting about 5 days after the last day of my period (my periods are 5 days long)) every evening until I receive a positive then I test every 12 hours until the positive turns negative.

                                                

The Ava bracelet. This is explained in the apps section above.

These are the test strips I used during the 7-10 days post ovulation. They test for pdg levels (correlating to progesterone) present in the first morning urine and I use the Proov app to read my results after 5 minutes. The app works the same as the Premom by taking a picture of the test strips and providing the result. The goal is to have 3-4 positives out of the 4 days tested. If you have 2 or less positive, you have low progesterone levels and possibly didn't ovulate or ovulate well. This happens for me about every other month. To offset this I supplement with the progesterone drops shown below.

The Proov balancing oil is dropped on the inside of your wrist 2-3 times a day, 5-10 drops each time for the last 12 days of your cycle. This is an over the counter solution to slightly low progesterone levels like me. I did this for the 4 cycles leading up to getting pregnant.  

Progesterone Issues Diet: To fix my progesterone levels naturally without the help of medicine since my issues aren't too severe, I do seed cycling. For the first 14 days of your cycle, you eat 1-2 Tablespoons of ground flax seeds AND pumpkin seeds each day, and for the last 14 days of your cycle you eat1-2 Tablespoons of sesame seeds AND sunflower seeds every day. Experts swear by this method as this natural hormone balancing method evens out the correct hormones (such as estrogen and such) during the certain parts of your cycle to ensure perfect balance. It takes about 3 months to notice a difference so do this for at least 3 months before you try to conceive. I have been seed cycling since July 3rd. See picture below:

I hope that helps! I'm not an expert by any means, this is just what we did to prevent then prepare for pregnancy and it worked for us. Remember to do your own research! Good luck!

Love,

Kayla Raborn

9/5/2021