Fertility awareness methods (FAM) vs Combined pill

Literally no side effects, no fake hormones affecting my body or mental health. Use symptothermal - 11 months in and find temping and checking cervical mucus easy and not at all laborious. We use condoms during fertile window (for me that’s usually about 9 days) and unprotected the rest of the time. No scares and I feel confident and secure with this method. I’ll never go back to hormonal birth control!

Natural cycles seemed promising when I first came across it in 2017 and read the reviews. I got the NC app along with the most expensive (hence hopefully most accurate) thermometer I could find to enter my readings. My partner and I decided to try it in place of condoms. I entered my thermometer and period readings religiously and only ever had unprotected sex on the ‘green: not fertile’ days when it says it’s safe to have sex. The next month I was pregnant. We were devastated. To add insult to injury, Natural cycles deleted my reviews about their product, offered ZERO help or acknowledgment of my situation and rather suspiciously my iTunes review of their app (tried from 2 separate accounts) was never published, despite my trying several times. Which is odd as I hadn’t said anything untoward, I’d simply stated my experience of using it and getting pregnant.

After feeling like I’d tried every hormonal contraception and not getting on with anything, Natural Cycles was such a breath of fresh air. I was nervous at first as it feels like there is more risk of pregnancy, but after taking the time to research I felt confident in this method. You have to be strict with yourself and use protection/ abstain on red days but it’s worth it. I feel so much more like myself without using hormones and I have also learnt a lot about my body. Highly recommend if you’re willing to spend some time getting used to the app, learning to take your temp correctly and being responsible throughout your cycle.

I didn’t experience any major side effects on this pill. My mood was better when compared to other pills

This pill was pretty seamless for me. It did not affect my moods or skin. My periods were very light, lasted a few days with little to no cramps. My libido suffered significantly and this symptom worsened as time went on which is the reason I switched to a non-hormonal method. Other than this, it was a great option for me.

I have endometriosis and adenomyosis and was put on microgynon by my gynaecologist. I was happy at first because my severe and constant pain disappeared (and only reappeared during my period, and even then it was only 10% of the pain I used to experience. However, the negative side effects unfortunately didn’t make the lack of pain worth it. My mental health (which was already quite terrible as I suffer from OCD and anxiety) crumbled. I was depressed and had CONSTANT mood swings. I was irritable, always in a bad mood and snapping at my husband. I also felt like a zombie, unable to focus on anything and feeling so disconnected and dissociated. I also put on water weight. I’m a small woman who runs a lot, so it was definitely linked to the pill. After doing some research, I asked my doctor to switch me to Eloine, and so far it’s been AMAZING. My mood has stabilised and I honestly feel the happiest and most connected to the world I have in a long time. I think Eloine has balanced out my endometriosis-induced hormonal imbalances and I feel amazing. For context, I’ve tried 4 types of combined pill: microgynon (androgenic), cimiszt (less androgenic), millinette and femodene (also less androgenic). I’ve also tried the mini pill cerazette and I was on the implant for 1 year. All of these made my mental health crumble and I spent 8 years of my life (18-25) battling with deciding between having bad mental health or having endo pain. Don’t try microgynon!!!!! And do research into the different types of combined pill. I never researched and just took what the dr gave me. The Lowdown really helped me research!

Overall had a very negative experience, especially with my mental health. I had severe anxiety. It works for lots of women, but not for everyone.

So far I don't have a bad word to say about this pill! This is the second combined pill I've tried after being on Microgynon 30 for about 6 months a couple of years ago. The experience I had on Microgynon was very negative and scared me out of trying any other combined pills until I read up about Drovelis. I'm in a long term relationship and only on the pill for contraception reasons, so slightly improved skin is just considered a bonus for me! It's nice to have found a pill that actually positively affects my mood rather than negatively impacts it like Microgynon did for me. I also lost my sex drive completely on Microgynon, but have been pleasantly surprised that I haven't had the same experience with Drovelis. I would even say it's improved my orgasm experience and feel like I get more aroused than I used to before being on pill - which I didn't expect at all! The only negative I've found with Drovelis is the occasional spotting when taking the active pills. This happened around month 3-4 of taking it but it seems to be happening less now. The spotting isn't heavy enough to use a pad or a liner but isn't ideal (hence the 4 stars). I feel like this is a great pill to try if the older generations don't work for you :)

I’ve got prescribed drovelis because I have irregular periods and my acne got extremely worse during the last 3 months. I’m now at the end of my second dose of drovelis and unfortunately my skin hasn’t recovered or got better yet. Actually I think it is quite worse and painful. Although the pill didn’t change my lifestyle and my period are regular now. I hope someone who had really bad acne to come forward with their experience because I’m starting to lose hope.

I've been taking Lucette for 14 months after being contraceptive free for 3 years. I haven't noticed major differences at all, however I do feel a slight mental dullness/brain fog as you usually do with the pill which is annoying but that's just part of the side effects. Overall I'm happy with it and wouldn't change to another pill! It's also helped my acne prone skin a lot

I have endometriosis and I'm mid-gynae referral so we're in the position of trying the pill to reduce my endo symptoms. I tried Millinette and it was awful (really anxious and bad headaches) so we switched to Zoely. It's not prescribed much near me so we had a real struggle getting hold of it. After I started taking it the first thing I noticed was there were no headaches and my mood/anxiety felt fine so that was really good. The downside was being unable to get through 2 packs without spotting, the intention was to take 2 or 3 packs back-to-back to keep my periods at bay, but my body just decided it was going to bleed when it wanted, so I ended up having to break halfway through every second pack. My periods on this were actually MORE painful, and I found that I had sharp cramps most days but just for a minute or so. I've persevered but had to stop because it's completely out of stock on the NHS. So now I'm switching to Lucette and I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Very minimal side effects so far (3 months)

Very helpful for my acne and confidence, but my mood noticeably changed to feeling numb quite often. I’ve felt very physically and mentally tired over the last 13 months, but can’t remember a time before then. Great at stopping my periods for 4 months, before I breakthrough bleed and take a break. When I do bleed, it is extremely heavy, but it is less painful.