Withdrawal or pull out method vs Combined pill

I came off the combined pill around 4 years ago after trying many different pills and never quite feeling myself/having terrible clots in my periods on breaks. I'd been told by drs it was the only way to have safe sex from pregnancy and felt i had no choice. The good old fashioned pull out method has been my best friend ever since! Once i spoke to a very wise nurse who told me that i could try the natural cycle way or rely on pull out cleverly. Now i want to say that this isn't for everyone. I have been in a healthy long term relationship with someone i trust and with whom we communicate during all aspects of sex. Because of this we have been able to have all kinds of sex (including penetrative) without any pregnancy scares. My partner is a cis man and i a cis women, and the secret is FULL COMMUNICATION. If he is close to cuming he stops (NEVER ACTUALLY RELY ON PULLING OUT AS YOU CUM NO NO). It's about calming things down on his end when he thinks he'll climax. that means pulling out and moving to oral etc for a while before going again. Normlly this means i get a whole lotta love while he calms down so BONUS!! POSITIVES - I often cum first as it means i always get to cum as he can keep going and we are not relying on one way to have sex. I feel myself! We are more experimental and go on for longer. Its about trust so things feel more intimate, it has led to better communication and much better forplay. This means i cum more often. Knowing my own cycle and getting to know how my body and hormones work. Having sex slowly and sensually, with my pleasure and his both being taken into account due to the fact you can't just have full penetrative sex without thinking. NEGATIVES- he obvs can't cum in me. he doesnt personally feel sad about that. When finally he can't be in me anymore he has to cum using other ways to finish. It means it can be a bit stop and start (personally i think this is fun). You do have to be more careful. THIS IS DEFINITELY FOR PEOPLE WHO KNOW THEIR SEXUAL PARTNER WELL. ITS ABOUT TRUST. You can't just bang it out like in the movies haha! I do pregnancy tetss every 3 months just in case pre cum has snuck in (it's very unlikely this gets you pregnant especially if your partner is aware of this. but worth thinking about) Overall, Chefs Kiss - but i do sometimes miss he cumming inside me ! BUT WON'T GO BACK

Only used it on occasion and normally alongside another form of contraception. I don't really recommend it as it feel risky

The withdrawal method is really not for everyone. But me and my partner prefer to not use male condoms and I use my Flo app to track my ovulation and period which helps me gauge when is the best time to use this method. As I’m not trying to fall pregnant again right now, and I don’t really want to use any hormonal contraceptives, this method has definitely worked for me but can only work if your willing to take control with family planning.

I was reluctantly put on the Yasmin pill by my GP as I wasn’t coping with previous contraception pills. I didn’t have a good experience with Yasmin. I was spotting very often and got regular nausea and headaches, so in total, was on it for about 2 months before I decided to come off of it

I become badly depressed and anxious while taking this. I lost all motivation to do anything - I knew it was a severe bad side effect. I suffered bad foot edema, I was in pain even just lying down , walking was painful on my feet.

I took Zoely for 2 months and a half, it was one of the worst experiences of my life. In the first month I had such a bad nausea that I couldn’t eat much anymore so I lost 7kg in around 1 month and a half and got me very bad pimples. What’s worse is the effect on my mental health. I’ve always been a positive person even if in my family there are cases of depression, with this I started to have it, having always negative thoughts, I could never see the positive in anything, and I spiraled in a very bad anxiety, making me think that everything was going for the worse so I was crying so often for very stupid things. I was also very irritable for nothing while usually I’m a very calm person. I wanted to get to three months to see if the symptoms could get better but when my boyfriend broke up with me because he could no longer stand my attitude I decided to quit it immediately and I wish I did it much sooner. It took me around 1 month and a half to feel a bit normal again, I would never recommend Zoely to anyone, taking it was one of the worst decisions of my life.

I tried Yasmin due to the positive reviews and experiences of friends. Unfortunately, it just goes to show how individual birth control can be, as I didn't get on well with it, unlike my friends. I went on it hoping it would clear my skin up, but sadly my skin got a lot worse- really nasty cystic acne on and around my chin/mouth. I also had extremely sore boobs the whole time- the point where I couldn't even lift my arms above my head and i had to wear a sports bra 24/7 due to the pain. It also made my IBS intolerable and it was just generally unpleasant experience. I wanted to share my experience as I'd heard such positive things about it, but it just wasn't for me. I'm now on the Evra Patch and I absolutely love it.

I've tried 12 birth control pills previously and learned that I'm very sensitive to progesterone. I took Gedarel for 2-3 months or so and it wasn't for me. It made me bleed so heavily the whole 2-3 months time that I had endometrial lining expel out of me, at the time it was quite scary as I didn't know what it was! I have also been on Cerelle the mini pill that also has Desogestrel in and I also had extremely heavy bleeding on that, so I think I'm just unlucky with progesterone. I'm now on the Evra patch and i love it

Having previously tried 12 birth control pills, this was one of the better ones I've tried. I'm very sensitive to progesterone. I was on this pill for about 5 months and I noticed no change to my mood, my skin was significantly clearer and I skipped periods every 3 months which was great as mine are very heavy and painful. i definitely gained weight which is very common for me and birth control but it was also lifestyle changes too. Unfortunately this pill made my IBS so intolerable that I had to stop taking it. I would have continued on it otherwise so it was very annoying. I'm now on the Evra patch and loving it- very similar side effects but no IBS!

What they don’t tell you and should, is that if you have had a pregnancy effected by Hyperemesis Gravidarum, is that you may not be able to tolerate estrogen. It doesn’t apply to everyone, but sadly, it did apply to me and I had to come off them very quickly, because for me, it was exactly like being pregnant again, I was throwing up around the clock.

Had thrush about 4/5 times when only on it for 4/5 months, along with the thrush swollen labia and very dry, also developed acne when I’ve never had it before, but used duac to sort that out still breakout now and again which has never happened to me before. I will be changing pill again, only good thing was that by breast grew

I took the combined pill (first Rigevidon and later Gedarel) for more than 2 years. The first few months after taking Rigevidon I had nausea and tender breasts but this settled after about 2-3 months. I developed migraines that would coincide with the break week (pill-free days). I tried switching to skipping break weeks and taking the pill for several months in a row (until I got several days of breakthrough bleeding, usually every three months), but I still got migraines randomly throughout the months and also almost every time I did eventually take a break-week. I switched to Gedarel but this did not change anything about the migraines. I had to take break weeks more often with Gedarel since I would get breakthrough bleeding more quickly (every two months). Overall I liked being able to skip periods and I think my skin/acne and hair growth maybe improved slightly. However, because of the migraines I eventually switched to a progesterone only pill.

i started taking this pill a year ago, i haven’t gotten pregnant so i believe it does it’s job, i don’t have any actually bad side effects as i’ve had with other pills, i would recommend