Currently using The Pill, Norplant or DeproProvera
These hormonal contraceptives alter the consistency of cervical mucus. It is impossible to learn the Ovulation Method while using them. Once off the Pill, Norplant, or DeproProvera, help can be given to understand the return of the fertile pattern.
After discontinuing the use of Hormonal Contraceptives: the Birth Control Pill, Norplant, or DeproProvera:
Fertility usually returns in a few cycles. A normal ovulatory cycle may take place on the first cycle, so be attentive to any fertile sign during the cycle. If you were irregular before taking hormonal contraceptives, your body may take longer to return to normal ovulatory cycles. Good nutrition and supplementary vitamins may speed up the return to normal cycles. However, hormonal contraceptives can continue to affect a woman's mucus secretion and ovulation for months after she has stopped taking it. In some women, exposure to hormonal contraceptives as short as one month HAS led to apparently anovulatory phases of as long as eight months. At these times you might experience patches of mucus, or bleeding or spotting.
The couple must continue to follow the Early Days Rule: Sexual relations are open to the couple only in the evenings of every other day. However, when there is a change in her basic infertile pattern, the couple must AVOID SEXUAL RELATIONS DURING THE DAYS OF CHANGE PLUS THREE FULL DAYS. Such a change can be: A change in sensation; the appearance of mucus; a wet or slippery feeling; a change in the amount of discharge or in its color, consistency or feeling; bleeding or spotting.
SEXUAL RELATIONS MAY BE RESUMED IN THE EVENING OF THE FOURTH DAY AFTER HER BASIC INFERTILE PATTERN HAS RETURNED. THE COUPLE CAN THEN CONTINUE APPLYING THE EARLY DAY RULES.
Other reactions to hormonal contraceptives
Other reactions to hormonal contraceptives include a continuous mucus secretion, perhaps caused by a vaginal infection, and bleeding between cycles. Prof. James B. Brown of Australia reported in 1978 that he found low levels of urinary estrogen in women suffering from amenorrhea of various causes. Such low levels of estrogen indicate a lack of ovarian function. Users of hormonal contraceptives expect to have signs of suppressed ovulation, but many former users of hormonal contraceptives are surprised, and dismayed, to discover that the signs of suppressed ovulation may continue for weeks or months after hormonal contraceptives has been discontinued. In some women with anovulatory cycles, estrogen levels may rise or remain high, without a rise in progesterone. However, bleeding may occur because of the decrease in estrogen (Brown, 1978). Thus, the normal increases and decreases in estrogen and progesterone are disturbed both while the woman is taking hormonal contraceptives and after she has stopped taking hormonal contraceptives. As Dr. Evelyn Billings reports in her book "The Billings Method", page 86, "Within a few days of discontinuing hormonal contraceptives, you will bleed as you normally do after each cycle of hormonal contraceptives (withdrawal bleed). This is due to the sudden removal of hormonal contraceptives's synthetic hormones. The lining of the
uterus grows in response to the synthetic hormones and is usually shed when these are discontinued."
Removal of the IUD
After removal of the IUD, women can expect an average of a one to three month interval before returning to normal cycles, unless there is a severe infection. Thus, the IUD, like the Pill, may disrupt cyclicity after its removal, but its effects seem less severe in this respect than those of the Pill.
Although it is not known exactly how the IUD acts, it is known that it works in the postovulatory phase of the cycle and that its activity centers on disturbing the implantation of a fertilized ovum. Thus, the IUD seems to act as an abortifacient. In many women the luteal phase, (the days from ovulation to the next menstruation),of the cycle is shortened after the insertion of an IUD. An IUD alters the lining of the uterus and the underlying layer of muscle.
When you remove the IUD, cycles can be irregular and sometimes there is a constant discharge which may trigger stress on the woman. As a result of this, mucus may last longer, bleeding may last longer, and occasionally infections may need treatments. Nevertheless, by the 3rd or 4th cycle the woman will usually feel confident of her own observations.
The couple must continue to follow the Early Days Rule: Sexual relations are open to the couple only in the evenings of every other day. However, when there is a change in her basic infertile pattern, the couple must AVOID SEXUAL RELATIONS DURING THE DAYS OF CHANGE PLUS THREE FULL DAYS. Such a change can be: A change in sensation; the appearance of mucus; a wet or slippery feeling; a change in the amount of discharge or in its color, consistency or feeling; bleeding or spotting.
SEXUAL RELATIONS MAY BE RESUMED IN THE EVENING OF THE FOURTH DAY AFTER HER BASIC INFERTILE PATTERN HAS RETURNED. THE COUPLE CAN THEN CONTINUE APPLYING THE EARLY DAY RULES.
