Rhythm method and withdrawl - did it fail you?

[USFIVE]

This has worked with us for nine years, avoiding ovulation week, withdrawing always and knicker spotting, i can ususally tell when I'm ovualting.

But even with doing all the above, have you fallen pregnant?

I'm a little worried as last period started stringy brown, one day heavy period, next day so light, next day nothing, next day light and then finished. Two days later i now have dry white discharge in pants and I am so moody that i cant stand to hear myself moan! i was sure i just had a funny period until i had a sudden memory that i had similar discharge during pregnancies so now back to wondering if i am. But the chance I am is so small as I use the above.

I'd be interested to hear what you think and if you fell pregnant this way?

Er, can I ask the obvious question?

With so many reliable alternatives, why do people use the rhythm and withdrawal method? Withdrawal method surely can't be much fun?

Genuine question, am genuinely interested.

30 wks preggers here after hubby pulled out in jul! 3rd child in 4 years. Hubby doesnt want to use condoms & i'm not good at remembering the pill!

Not just me then pickle?

Pregnant within 3 months of using the withdrawal method.
A big shock!

Rhinestone A few reasons. I'm rubbish at remembering to take pills, and dislike using any medication that isn't immediately reversible. So if we are definite about not wanting to conceive we use condoms, if an accident wouldn't be a problem we use withdrawal. The other thing is that I like to know if contraception hasn't worked so I can take the MAP if necessary, this has happened 3 times ever (using condoms). Know too many people who have become pregnant on the pill and other supposedly more reliable forms of contraception.

I can't take the pill/have a coil for health/medical reasons, and neither of us like using condoms. After dc3, that will be it for us and I will be booking dh in for the snip.

Rhinestone - I was taken off the combined pill due to blood pressure issues, and then found that the single pill did NOT agree with me (chest pains and a complete loss of libido!). At the time they said they wouldn't give me the implant or the injection either due to bp, which only left the uterine implant thingy. I was 27 and in a serious relationship so wasn't keen on that, as I thought we might be ttc within a few years. We used condoms a bit but then got into the habit of the withdrawal method and it worked and didn't bother us much. What did help, I think, was that we had managed to get pg in my early 20s completely by accident even when I was on the pill and then had a miscarriage (first thing we actually knew about the pg) and DP was so scared of getting pg and going through that again that he was extra careful for years.

Oh, and you'd be surprised how fun it can be if you go about it the right way...

rhinestone the pill workable for me by turning me into such a crazy, hormonal beatch that nobody would want to sleep with me. I don't trust condoms because I got pregnant with them once too. If all goes well with this pregnancy then we will going down the vasecectomy/two big bricks approach.

atruth, I will be forever grateful to gin and cheap foreign beer for giving me my lovely DS too!

Rhinestone the pill seriously messed my cycle up for 9 years, it was hell. I had fortnightly periods for a long time and if I didn't have that it was breakthrough bleeding instead. Lots of other problems from it too.
Whenw e decided to ttc ds I said to dp that I was not going on the pill again and he agreed. After having ds I didn't want anything hormonal at all in case I reacted the same and I didn't want anything in me so the coil was out too.
Dp can't use condoms so that really didn't leave much option tbh.

Hello again
I do not like the pill as gave my mother a mini stroke and my friends friend lost her sight in one eye from a stroke caused by her pill. I've been told by a gp to avoid it if i can, its not good for you. Mini pill is different but I am not disciplined enough, get my childrens names mixed up on a daily basis so will not remember to take the same time everyday. We don't like condoms.. who does? We're lucky to have sex these days that the last thing we want to do is kill the moment. But I will say we had some fantastic sex recently which started this thread and me thinking if I was pregnant. But tonight I have had two large glasses of vino which I know I could never do when pregnant and was always an early sign for me but watched born every minute episode 2 on 4ondemand tonight and so i've been bawling it none stop.... it made me feel so broody!
I am banning myself from watching that. I am now 9 days past ovulation, broody and drunk. Dp better waaaaatch out! I'm a comin!!!! ;)... did i mention i feel slightly pissed? what a light weight!

Rhinestone, no I didn't find much fun tbh. It was a temporary thing then er decided to ttc anyway.

Does no-one use a cap anymore?

Yikes - a cap!!!

That has got to be 10 times even more of a passion killer than a condom ;)

These days if we are energetic enough to make love I could imagine popping into the bathroom and putting a cap in totally ruining the moment for me. I can imagine how you put it in but how do you get it out? You must have to root around... I'm feeling faint. This is coming from someone who can not or has never used a tampon. You'd never think I've had three kids!

:o

I used one for years. Never got pregnant till I stopped using it.

There is an old joke my parents used to tell when we were teenagers to make us cringe when we were at the sex-education stage: "What do you call people who use the withdrawal method? Parents!"

Medical people of all kinds will tell you it's totally unreliable, but obvs from the above it does work for some people really well and we used it for a few years until we were TTC without getting pregnant. It seems it falls down when you have a 'random' cycle where you ovulate early or late (which you can't predict) or lose track (which happens). Some people say that temperature charting makes it much more reliable, but it wasn't accurate for me (we started using charting TTC rather than to avoid conception - I realised once I stopped taking my temp and used the ovulation sticks that it was indicating I was ovulating much later than I actually was...).

To be honest, we had quite a hard time conceiving so I think that had more to do with the rhythm method 'working' for us for a few years than anything else...

Just took my temp and its 37.3, the only time its there is when I am pregnant or maybe i'm just hot from cooking or ovulating.