Reddit mentions of Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control and Pregnancy Achievement

Don't read the other replies. Most women, on Reddit or elsewhere, have only heard of the rhythm method, which is ineffective. Fertility Awareness Method, on the other hand, is very reliable. It does take a lot of learning at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's very easy and doesn't require much time at al, and contrary to the popular belief is highly effective. And it's so much more than just a way of avoiding pregnancy; not only does it make you more in tune with your body, it can tell you so much about your reproductive health in general, and some practical benefits - for example, you will know exactly when your period is going to come, even if it's irregular (and, no, you don't need a regular cycle to make use of FAM, that's another myth, due to confusion with the rhythm method). No more pregnancy scares. It can even serve as a pregnancy test, or indicate a miscarriage, as well as some common fertility issues.

If you want to try it, read Toni Weschler's "Taking Charge Of Your Fertility", it will explain everything you'll ever need to know about FAM (and about your menstrual cycle and fertility too.) It's extremely comprehensive. After you read it, you'll become more educated on your reproductive health than ~99% of women. It gets a bit dense at times, delves quite deeply into the biology of it all, but it's still easy enough to follow.

This is referred to as FAM, the fertility awareness method. Daily temperature readings at the same time, when graphed, indicate a spike in temperature during ovulation, which is followed by consistent high temps. Pregnancy does not occur unless an egg is made available through ovulation, which is generally a 1-3 day window. The rest of the month is home free, though one should be careful leading up to predicted ovulation times. There's a great book on this called Taking Charge of Your Fertility, it's basically the Bible of FAM.

Read a book called "Taking Charge of your Fertility" it will tell you more than you wanted to know about your body's cycles and how they work for and against you. I had the similar problem w/ the pill, talked to my dr and he switched me to a better pill for me.

I went off for a while, and I'll tell you that it was amazing except my terribly painful cramps and long period came back. Read the above book though, I learned a lot.

When we got married, my wife was directed to this book: Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

It takes some effort, but the payoff is that you don't have to use a condom every time.

I think you handled the situation quite well!

Condoms are a pretty reliable method. They're not as effective as hormonal contraception, but if you use spermicide and plan b as backup you should be fine!

A lot of people will push you to consider starting the pill. The pill is a good birth control choice, but it does have side effects. It is not a magical pill where nothing bad can happen -- of course you know this, but I wanted to talk about some of those side effects. The pill can cause you to have serious emotional mood swings, make you depressed, throw off your sex drive to the point you don't even desire sex (which may continue, even after you stopped the pill), give you an increased chance of stroke, flare up acne, cause weight gain, cause hair loss -- basically it really has the potential to mess with your health.

Not all women have bad side effects, but most women do have a few of these as a result.

You really need to consider if the side effects are worth that extra couple percentages of effectiveness.

Of course there is the copper IUD -- which uses no hormones, but is not the most fun thing to have inserted.

If you are worried about getting pregnant, but want to continue with condom usage, I would recommend ensuring you always have new condoms on hand. Keep them in a dry, neutral temperature at all times. Possibly have a plan b on hand, in case of emergencies.

I would also suggest that you read Taking Charge of Your Fertility so that you can better understand your cycle, and work to avoid having sex on your most fertile days.

Lastly, you should have a discussion with your boyfriend about what you would do if you did have an unexpected pregnancy. It's important to have that on the table before the issue arises. If you are both comfortable with termination, it's not the worst idea ever to have some money saved for that just in case. The procedure is often expensive ($500-800+) and you really don't want finances to be the ultimate deciding factor forcing you into a situation.

I hope this helps.