I don't believe in hormonal birth control 💊 but here's what I do instead:

I never have been and I never will be on hormonal birth control. I've been in the same relationship for seven years. I've done a previous video on the reasons why I choose not to take hormonal birth control and how we are not told the full picture as women and it makes me really mad. But today we're going to talk about what I've done for the past seven years as a form of birth control. I use the method called fertility awareness method. Before you swipe off this if you've heard it and you're like, oh, that doesn't work. It is 95 to 99% effective on perfect use, which is the same as say the pill. And I promise it's worth sticking around and listening to how it actually works. So, every single month, your body releases an egg. That's ovulation. That egg can only be fertilized for about 24 hours. But sperm can survive inside you for up to five days. So you're really only fertile and able to get pregnant to five to six days of your cycle. And fertility awareness method is about figuring out exactly when that window is. So you know when to avoid intercourse if you don't want a baby or to have intercourse if you do want a baby. But it's not just about looking at a calendar. Personally, just I've been using the app called Natural Cycles for seven years. Basically, what I do is I take my body temperature every single morning, my basal body temperature. That's the first temperature, the first thing when you wake up before you've even sat up in bed. Also, I wear a little band now that they didn't have when I was younger. My sister's got it. You just wear it to bed and it automatically tracks your temperature. And then it, um, it resets. It sets it a little bit higher. It's not instant, the temperature takes kinda gradually rises and then holds steady until your period starts. So that's the first thing that I do with Natural Cycles. I take my basal body temperature every morning and I pop it in my app. And then it basically each day that you track your temperature, it gives you red days or green days. So your red days is when it recommends you wearing protection or withstanding from intercourse. And then your green days are when you can have intercourse and aren't fertile in that time of your month. The second thing that I do, and that I am very, very consistent with now, not to say I'm not consistent with taking my temperature, I was very, very consistent for the first five years of my relationship and now that I am older and in a steady relationship, I said it. But something that I am really consistent with is checking my cervical mucus. This for me has been so powerful, not only for a method of knowing when I'm fertile and when I'm not, but just really understanding my body. Your cervical mucus warns you before you're about to ovulate. As you get closer to ovulation, your cervical mucus changes. And there's lots of charts out there that you can look at to know what your cervical mucus means. So basically, a flag being fertile here. And I think that is so amazing. Once again, that is your body communicating with you. Like when I think about that, I'm just like, how powerful is our body and amazing is our body that can just give us signs like that. And now that I'm used to it, I just check it daily and it just becomes just a thing. And another thing that you can do, a third thing that I used to do consistently when I was younger, is you can do an LH strip test. Basically, an ovulation tracker kit or test. It's a little stick that you pee on. These test for a certain hormone in your pee which surges a day or two before ovulation. It's a nice comforting thing to do. So doing all of these things together is a powerful way, really one, understand your body and to have a form of birth control, contraception without messing with your hormones. That you still get that communication with your body, but you're being proactive about getting pregnant. It does take discipline and it takes time and you've got to be honest with yourself. But I cannot tell you how grateful I am, especially for my mom for not encouraging me to go on birth control, but encouraging me to understand my body and informing me in other ways of controlling getting pregnant that isn't just suppressing your hormones and stopping your body from doing something that is biologically designed to do. This is also a reminder that I am not a doctor. I've just made choices for my personal body and it's up to you to do your own research and decide what is best for you. So doing all of these things together is a powerful way, really one, understand your body and to have a form of birth control, contraception without messing with your hormones. That you still get that communication with your body, but you're being proactive about getting pregnant. It does take discipline and it takes time and you've got to be honest with yourself. But I cannot tell you how grateful I am, especially for my mom for not encouraging me to go on birth control, but encouraging me to understand my body and informing me in other ways of controlling getting pregnant that isn't just suppressing your hormones and stopping your body from doing something that is biologically designed to do. This is also a reminder that I am not a doctor. I've just made choices for my personal body and it's up to you to do your own research and decide what is best for you.