Natural Cycles: Birth Control

Natural cycles has been life changing for me! You get what you put into it but it’s easy enough to use and monitor your temp! It’s so much better for your body than birth control. I highly recommend!

I have been using Natural Cycles to prevent pregnancy for a year a half now. My husband and I love it. I have learned so much about my body through logging information. Getting to know my cycle and getting in tune with my hormones has been huge as well. It truly is reliable when used as recommended. I have recommended it to so many friends and countless women’s lives are getting simpler because of NC! 10/10 recommend.

I’m using Natural Cycles to prevent pregnancy for this time being. But I started using Natural Cycles after my doctor recommended it. I have had a long history of using birth control. And found that I was not having any sort of period or connection to my cycle. Natural Cycles has allowed me to daily and look into each symptom daily and to evaluate where I am hormone-wise. I can’t afford to go to a naturopath. But I feel like checking in with myself daily on my symptoms and what’s going on is important. I do wish that this app had some more research regarding thermometers taking time. It is quite inconvenient when the dog is throwing up in the middle of the night to get up and take care of the situation. But the app recommends that you take your temperature before standing up. So it doesn’t seem realistic for a lot of people. Especially if you’re getting up in the middle of the night to take care of your baby. I’d have to imagine that your temperature would be off all the time and the app would not help you.

I’ve been using this app for almost 2 years, as a disclosure. (And am very type A about measuring/checking the app) - I also have irregular periods. More on that later! I had been on *the pill* previously, and coming off of it, was still not ready to try for a baby but wanted to start prepping for trying so used the “prevent pregnancy” option for a more months. My cycle was not very regular, but thought it might take a few months anyway since I had just stopped taking the pill. Loved: when I first started on the app, it sent so many positive messages “great job cycler!” “Your temp measuring is great!”, etc. I loved how personal it felt, and it sent messages like that every few days when I first started my subscription. Also loved and still love the visual design of the app. It’s fun to look at and learn more about your cycle from the app. I’ve learned so much from this app! It is very informative on the female body / how cycles work. Don’t love: Almost 2 years in, those positive messages are basically gone, other than when my cycle ends and it has the “review of your cycle” or when it gives the reminders to do a breast exam, etc. We switched to “plan pregnancy” about 4 months into using the app. (Manually checking temps every morning with their thermometer) .. my cycle is sooo irregular, so it has been very frustrating when the app says “possible ovulation day”, we do the deed, and then bumps it back again to the next day when your temp doesn’t rise, etc. When it does this for a solid 2 weeks (or more!!!) and you’re trying to hit the right day, let’s just say it is not quite so fun to be trying for a baby. We hit a year of TTC with no luck and my cycles are still very irregular. (Let me say tho, even with having irregular cycles, we were hitting the ovulation days .. so should have gotten pregnant) At this point we are almost to a year and a half of TTC. I took a break from measuring after we hit a year because it was starting to just stress me out (and we all know that’s not the way to get pregnant - stress) I used the app only to log when I got my periods and that’s about it. Decided to invest in an Apple Watch so I wouldn’t have to measure manually every day, so have been using the app with an Apple Watch for about a month now (love how less stressful it is!) and it’s nice to have my temperature being tracked again. My cycles are still very irregular. Starting to think about fertility options. At this point in the game, (a faithful user of t

With Natural Cycles and my Oura ring making temp checks automatic, I feel free from hormonal birth control for the first time in my life. Hard to overstate how incredible that feels (I’ve been on/birth control for like 17/18 years!) Have learned so much about my cycle and monthly patterns, too. So grateful this app exists!

Natural cycles has changed my life. I am able to fully understand my cycle, health, and emotional fluctuations. I’ve never felt better and recommend natural cycles to every female uterus having friends I come into contact with!

What I didn’t realize about natural cycles is that even when taking temperature every morning with complete accuracy, it will still give you 12 or 13 red days every month. With only 5 days a month that it is possible to get pregnant I was surprised to be getting over 10 red days every month. The app is user friendly but I wish they were more straightforward with how cautious they are giving green days.

The app seems to create this negative connotation for those trying to conceive - Red days and “USE PROTECTION”. I wish there was an option to switch the language if one wasn’t trying to prevent pregnancy. With that said, I am thankful for the insights this app provides in conjunction with my oura ring.

I used this app with the oura ring and was even more careful than the app told me to be. I ended up getting pregnant after 8 months of use

This app is great for period tracking and understanding your cycle and body better but should not be marketed as "birth control" even if used with 100% accuracy. If you don't mind getting pregnant then this is a great app. If getting pregnant would be devastating for you then I would not recommend this app based on my user experience after 5 months. I've had the app tell me it was a Green Day, only to alert me after the fact that it changed, this is a huge problem for me as somehow who wants to avoid pregnancy.