If you are using hormonal pills or other methods of hormonal contraception and you want to quit them in favour of natural methods of fertility recognition, you can take the following action plan:
- You should take all the pills until the end of the series / package.
- After taking hormonal pills you can start a daily measurement of basal body temperature and observation of the cervix mucus.
- The course of your first cycle after stopping contraceptives may be unusual, i.e. you can observe only a less fertile sort of mucus or shortened higher temperatures phase.
- At the beginning you should not set the relative preovulatory infertility phase and it is recommended to abstain from intercourse to the postovulatory infertility phase.
- To determine the infertile days in the following cycles, at the beginning of the cycle (during the preovulatory phase) use the same rules as for beginners.
- Determine the postovulatory infertility phase from the evening of the fourth higher temperature after the peak of mucus.
- If you plan to conceive a child, you should wait for six months due to some woman’s body disorders caused by taking artificial hormones.
You can follow the similar procedure if you have an IUD:
- Visit a doctor to remove a device.
- Start your daily temperature and mucus observations as soon as possible.
- The features of the cervix mucus might be unusual, but the course of the menstrual cycle usually normalizes soon.
- If the IUD also contains hormones, you should proceed like after quitting hormonal contraceptive pills.
Please note that after quitting hormonal contraceptives any intercourse should not be taken until the beginning of natural postovulatory infertility. This time should be used for detailed observations of your body and paying special attention to changes of the cervix mucus. If during this period an intercourse is taken, the observation of mucus could be distorted by flowing sperm and could be misinterpreted.
In order to determine the fertile and infertile days follow the rules appropriate for beginners. However, remember that you should not take into account the length of your menstrual cycle while taking hormonal pills or having the IUD containing hormones.
