I do not take hormonal birth control. Instead, I try to practise "fertility awareness" to reduce the likelihood of pregnancy, since my boyfriend and I are not trying to conceive at the moment; however I haven't done a very good job of it this month, and I could really use the advice of women who understand their fertility better than the shockingly ill-informed pharmacists I've spoken to over the past 24 hours.
My boyfriend and I had an accident yesterday evening, which was on day 18 of my 29-30 day cycle. I consider myself quite well-attuned to the signs of my ovulation, however it's been trickier this month to pinpoint precisely since I've had no pelvic pain (I usually get a twinge when I ovulate). My cervical mucus yesterday and today was not egg-whitey in consistency; it was just "normal", i.e. sticky/creamy (and not much of it). My breasts are extremely sore today, though - I am not sure if that is more likely to indicate that ovulation is done and dusted and the fertile window is over, or if it means ovulation happened very recently? I was (anecdotally) aware of my body temperature feeling warmer yesterday, which again might indicate that I've already ovulated this cycle - I don't measure BBT (but will start). Finally, I took a digital ovulation test yesterday and it showed low fertility, but since I haven't been testing throughout this cycle I don't know if that's just a baseline reading. I will take another test shortly (I have run out of sticks). Essentially, I am 99% sure that ovulation has happened this cycle - I just don't know if it happened close enough to intercourse for the risk of pregnancy to be high.
As far as I see it:
- I don't want to take Levonelle since it only works by delaying ovulation - which is pointless in my case. I've taken it before and it just makes me feel awful.
- I might take EllaOne, since I've read some literature that indicates that it helps to prevent implantation - this might be useful in my case
- However I might not take EllaOne, since plenty of women take it and get pregnant anyway if they've had sex around ovulation day
- EllaOne is also likely to make me feel physically wretched, so I'm not inclined to take it unless I think there's a decent chance it could prevent a pregnancy.
- If I get pregnant I would likely terminate it. I did this about nine years ago in my teens and I don't want to go through that again either.
- I might try high doses of Vitamin C or wild carrot seed tincture to prevent implantation? Although I appreciate people may see this as dangerous hokum!
If you have any useful advice to offer, I would be very grateful