Fertility awareness methods (FAM) vs Female condom

I started using Natural Cycles a few years back. I was never on any birth control as a teenager as my mum didn't want my young body being put on hormones. However, once I settled down with my current long-term partner, I wanted to have the peace of mind that I wasn't going to fall pregnant. The first few years of using Natural Cycles were great and empowering, understanding the changes in my body and knowing when I had ovulated was great. What I had failed to understand was it predicted with its algorithm your date of next month's ovulation based on your previous month. Well. I managed to fall pregnant not once, but twice in the space of 8 months. The first time around, I thought it was my fault and I had not taken my temps properly (even though I never had an issue in the past). I had a surgical abortion as I was 3 months pregnant before I actually found out. I was willing to try again and really get to grips with it even though the clinic was very strongly advising me to go on some form of HBC. In the past 6 months, my body has recovered from the abortion and got back into its usual swing of periods and I saw I was ovulating again. This time around I invested in an Oura ring to pair with my NC app to be certain of my temps being taken. All was well, I stuck to my green and red days religiously. I use the pull-out method on red days (if we do have sex). And I trust our pull-out method completely because we definitely know he does not ejaculate inside of me or we tend to stick to oral sex rather than penetrative. I noticed my temperatures lately had been higher than usual and my ovulation was confirmed a bit earlier than usual. I didn't think much of it as I had stuck to our red days and green days as shown. When I went on calendar view, I saw that my fertile window just gone was a lot shorter than 6 days and I had unprotected sex (on a green day) that was 2 days before I ovulated. I did a test and indeed am pregnant yet again. I contacted NC straight away and got them to go through my data, which they did and have taken full responsibility for the muck up with their algorithm. I advise you to check your fertile windows and note any other observations (cervical mucus), because the algorithm cannot be trusted. And from what I now know, ovulation may change throughout different cycles (stress, sleep etc). I will no longer be using them ever again which is sad as I did so enjoy using it.

Amazing

First few months lots of ‘red’ days (no unprotected sex days). Coming off the pill was a personal choice and brought back lots of issues i.e needing prescription pain medication. However, my sex drive and mental health have significantly improved and impacted on my relationship. I’ve used natural cycles for 2 years religiously and no problems or pregnancy.

Same as the male condom, has no side effects and will protect from STIs and pregnancy! The only thing its a little fiddly to get on and if you don't react well to latex then not ideal!

These condoms prevent me from getting UTIs, I can't have sex without them! I think it's because the part of the condom that sticks out covers my urethra and prevents bacteria from spreading. They're a little hard to use at first, and some brands are better than others, but I highly recommend them to everyone.

Tried it a couple times with different partners. Mixed reactions. I practiced inserting prior to anything, so it was easy, especially after a couple of tries. Sex felt no different for me and one of the partners. One didn't like the appearance and the other the feel. One thing I love is that it doesn't have that nasty latex smell! You can also use any lube. Overall, I think it is a great option for many people, but (like everything) you should try it a few times for yourself. Also great if you run into situations where the guy is resisting wearing a condom himself.

Used it once - it came off inside me within 5 minutes and I didn't realise so ended up having completely unprotected sex and having to get a STI test.