No More Birth Control

Last month was my last on the birth control patch! My OB/GYN recommended I stop birth control a few months before TTC to allow time for my cycles to regulate. Our plan is to abstain or use condoms during times I am likely to be fertile, however, we are aware this is risky to do right after birth control, because my cycles may be all out-of-wack. However, won't cry if it doesn’t work and we get pregnant a few months earlier than planned :) Luckily, our finances are ready to go! We are waiting because we have a few vacations coming up.

I started charting my cycles with the help of fertiltyfriend.com, (recommended by my OB/GYN as well as TheNest.com message boards), which means taking my temperature first thing each morning and tracking my cervical fluid and cervix position. The book Taking Charge of Your Fertility is a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about charting. This should give us an idea of when I am fertile, and it will come in very handy once we are actively TTC.

I am curious to see if being off birth control will have any positive affect on my CF. I’ve read that one way the pill works is by thickening the cervical fluid (mucus), and I’ve wondered, if it thickens the mucus in my cervix, why wouldn’t it thicken mucus everywhere else? It probably won’t make a difference, or will be so minute that I won’t notice, but we’ll see….