Tw: weight, pregnancy, mental health Has anyone gone off birth control completely and only uses condoms or ovulation tracking? How did you feel doing so? I don’t think I’m 100% ready to track ovulation without condoms as I know the risk to conceive is high, but maybe in the future when we’re more ready I will. My husband and I aren’t totally prepared for a baby but most likely will be in the next 2 ish years.. I (personally) just feel so defeated with birth control anymore and want to explore hormone free methods. I don’t want this to be taken out of context - I am 100% pro birth control and think it has done loads for the general public, but personally I am SO over taking it. I have major problems controlling my appetite and binge eating which I’m assuming the estrogen isn’t helping. I have major mood swings going from depressed to manic by the day. I’ve been on some form of hormonal birth control since I’ve been 15 and I’m 25 now and I’m genuinely curious to see how I’d do without it. I don’t think I could handle the copper iud because I had the kyleena for years but it’s was so excruciating to get it inserted I don’t think I could do it again. I’m just venting I guess or looking for advice. My husband said he’d be fine wearing condoms but to be honest I hate them. They feel terrible to me and sometimes burn and throw off my PH. I wish there were other non hormonal methods that worked more than 99% of the time 😭😭

If you're in the US you could look into Phexxi gel

If you are going to try and track your ovulation but don’t want to get pregnant you should be using condoms religiously until you can definitely know when you’re ovulating and before you are supposed to ovulate, but that being said it’s not 100% accurate and cycles can vary from time to time making it even harder to track. I do understand the fear of iud insertion but I do believe if you find the right doctor and the right pain management option/ anxiety option that it would be alright