To think natural family planning can work

[Chocolatefrog27]

I know a lot of people get really irate about this topic but....wondered if people have had long lasting success with natural family planning. Ie only dtd at non fertile times of the month.

I did have very regular cycles and it was always very obvious to me when i was ovulating so I have used this method with success in the past. Albeit briefly.

Now I'm on the pill but it's making me fat and hormonal! I'm thinking of coming off it. Dp and I don't dtd that much - maybe only a few times a month. If we did get caught it wouldn't be the end of the world but I wouldn't say we are actively planning for it either. Have discussed this with dp and he feels that it would suit us.

So my question is once my cycle is back to normal would this be a 'good enough' method based on our circumstances and has anyone else used it with success before?

It worked for us. We never used condoms or any method of contraception, other then pull out early days and after a while I got to know my cycle we would sometimes not pull out when I was least fertile. However, by that time it was also the case if we got pregnant it would be fine as we both had secure jobs, money saved, living in a two bedroom etc so we were able to have a baby if I did get pregnant. It worked well enough I started to wonder if one of us had fertility problems! Until one day we decided to dtd and not pull out on a fertile day to see what happens. Haha. And the good news is when you know your cycle it makes getting pregnant much easier. And that’s how baby 1 happened. Same thing for baby 2. Baby 3 took a few months of trying; but it also wasn’t easy to dtd as kids sleep w us most nice etc. But anyway; it can work if you know your cycle well and your partner can actually pull out. I wouldn’t do it though unless you would be happy to get pregnantand keep baby if it happened.

It doesn't 'work'. You either get pregnant or you don't. It's nigh on impossible to say if it works - people who are actively trying can get take months to get pregnant with no apparent problems.

My friend has undergone IVF because her husband's sperm would almost impossibly conceive naturally - now pregnant naturally, even though they weren't specifically trying, in fact they were about to do IVF for a second child.