*This article is an account of 1 person’s experience and is not intended to provide medical advice. Please consult a professional and do your research before starting or stopping any medical treatment.
Starting Hormonal Birth Control
I started taking hormonal birth control when I was 21.
I felt late to the game relative to many of my friends who had started in high school or early college. Many of them started using it due to painful cramps, acne, wanting birth control, or never getting their period naturally.
Since it seemed like everyone was on it and I was in the middle of my college years, I thought it would be a good idea to start taking it for birth control.
After talking to my OB, we decided that Nuvaring was best for me.
I loved it. I would leave this small ring filled with hormones in me for 3 weeks, take it out for 1 week, and then put a new one in. Low maintenance.
My periods were very regular and I had peace of mind that I was using birth control.
It was a habit that I adopted that I didn’t really think too much about.
Exploring the Other Options
Fast forward, I’m 25 years old and I’ve been on the ring for 4 years.
In this 4 year time, I started to really be interested in finding what worked for my mental and physical wellness for the stage of life I was in.
I started to become curious and aware of the options that were out there, including for birth control.
1 option I learned about was the fertility awareness method (FAM).
It is a non-hormonal, natural approach where you use different body indicators to track where you are in your cycle for the purpose of birth control or trying to conceive. Body indicators include waking body temperature, cervical mucus, cervix position, along with a few other things.
It is not to be mistaken for some apps that guess when you ovulate solely based on when you get your period.
With FAM, you use your body indicators to know exactly when you ovulate.
I learned that this is important to know because a few days before ovulation and a few days after ovulation is considered your “fertile window” and is when you would practice birth control (either with a physical barrier or something else). All other days of your cycle, there is a very low to no chance that you will get pregnant.
This was the most shocking thing I learned throughout this experience. I thought every single day of your cycle you could get pregnant, but it is only in your fertile window.
I was also shocked that I didn’t know about FAM before as it was never presented to me as an option for birth control in any health class growing up.
I asked some friends if they had heard of it and some who went to catholic high school said they had been taught it. It sounded like it was an option that was presented to them so they would stay away from the use of hormonal birth control and align with the catholic beliefs.
I was intrigued by FAM as I was continuously looking for ways to be more in tune with my body. I felt like my body was just running like a machine and didn’t really know what was going on with it.
After a lot of research, reading books, and talking with a fertility awareness specialist, I decided to stop taking hormonal birth control and start using FAM.
Don’t get me wrong, I was so nervous to do this. I read everything I could and talked to whoever I could talk to about it.
But I knew this was a step I wanted to take for myself.
Stopping Hormonal Birth Control
I was so nervous to get off hormonal birth control so I decided not to do it alone.
I ended up joining a group led by fertility awareness educator Nina Boyce to support women as they went off birth control.
We would review each other’s temperature charts, how to distinguish cervical mucus, share other body indicators people were using, and how we were feeling as we got off of the hormones.
And wow did I need someone to talk to.
Getting off birth control was HARD. All caps needed.
My body freaked out when I got off.
I would go through a rollercoaster of ups and downs as I went throughout my cycle. I would feel the worst when I was transitioning from getting off my period to my estrogen rising up.
My body did not like that it was trying to do my cycle naturally.
The first 3 months were really rough. Mostly anxiety and freak outs about what I was doing with my life.
I leaned a lot on Nina’s support group, my therapist, and close loved ones.
I questioned whether I wanted to continue to be off it.
The people I talked to that had gotten off hormonal birth control had gone through similar feelings. It made me feel like maybe I wasn’t crazy.
I learned that it can take awhile, depending on your body, to get the hormonal birth control completely out of your system.
Since I already had made it through the first 3 months, I decided to keep going.
And I’m so glad I did.
What Happened When I Stayed Off
1 of my FAM charts on the Read Your Body app. Everyone’s is going to look different.
As I got into months 4, 5, and 6, my body started to adjust to being off it and started to feel a lot better.
Even though I had experienced anxiety in months 1-3 of being off hormonal birth control, now my anxiety was significantly down compared to what it was when I was on hormonal birth control. Noticeably different.
Anxiety was something I struggled with over the years and I can’t help but think that maybe the hormonal birth control was heightening it. I hope there are some professionals that look into this possible correlation in the future.
Another big thing I noticed getting off hormonal birth control is that my intuition became stronger than ever. That might sound “woo-woo” to people, but our inner knowing guides us throughout a lot of our life.
For the past few years, I really didn’t trust myself to make decisions. I overanalyzed everything and didn’t think I was capable of making the best choices.
Getting off hormonal birth control, I started having a clearer head and was less foggy. There is no other way to explain it than that. When you can trust yourself, that can make you feel like you can do anything.
A few other observations I made were my libido was higher, I was very in tune with my body, and FAM was reinforcing me to take care of myself.
I learned that our bodies and cycles are sensitive to any change in sleep, alcohol use, sickness, travel, etc. Any time I wouldn’t sleep well or drink a lot the night before, I wouldn’t just not feel great, I could see the effects on my FAM chart.
FAM reinforced the importance of having a routine and taking care of myself, as it would show in the data if I wasn’t.
You Get to Choose & You Can Change Your Mind
I’ve been off hormonal birth control for 10 months now.
Throughout this whole experience, I felt empowered to know I had options.
I don’t think I would have used FAM while I was in college as it wouldn’t have fit well with the lifestyle I was living at the time.
Now, I feel FAM is the right option for me as it caters to the more routine and healthy lifestyle I have right now.
Who knows, maybe my lifestyle will change and I’ll decide to go back on hormonal birth control.
What feels the most empowering is to know that there are options and we can pick the method that fits us for this season of life, even if that is different from what we’ve done before or what everyone else is doing around us.
FAM resources I recommend:
Book: Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler
Instagram: nourishedwithnina and themaddiemiles
Podcasts: Healing Hormones and Peace.Love.Hormones.
App: Read Your Body
