I had planned to make a big deal about going off the pill, take a picture of the empty pack before symbolically throwing it in the trash. I should also know better than to try to plan something for show. What really happened was halfway through the off week I just decided I was done. I didn’t go off the pill so much as I didn’t start again and the nearly full pack sits in my desk drawer because I hate to throw out good pills just in case.
I was originally going to write that we weren’t officially trying (no candles), just having totally unprotected sex with the awareness that I might be fertile. (That was the absolute most naked I have ever felt in my life.) Soon after we made it official, candles and all.
I also started basal temperature tracking using a web site my doctor recommended. It’s been kind of fascinating watching my body do science… and equally frustrating when it’s not following expectations. I still don’t have anything resembling an actual cycle since going off the pill four months ago.
My first chart looked like a rocky stock market, with a major crash on the day of my colonoscopy. One morning I put in my temperature and got excited as the chart adjusted, adding crosshairs marking my ovulation date. The next day’s temperature, it took it away. Never mind, no ovulation. Cycle length: 36 days.
Cycle 2: 41 days. FertilityFriend never marked ovulation for me but I think I see a definite, sustained temperature rise after day 31, and sudden drop the morning my period started. (Science!)
Cycle 3: 44 days and counting. No ovulation detected but around when I was expecting (hoping) for it, my thermometer went through the wash accidentally. It tricked me by living a couple days before giving me only a horrible electronic death groan a couple mornings later. I lost a few days of charting while waiting for a replacement from Amazon.
Negative pregnancy test on Saturday. I’m going to try again in a week if I don’t find out “naturally” by then, but I’m afraid my body’s just being messed up.