[name]Do[/name] you suggest I wait to get off my prescribed medication before even taking Folic Acid or it does not matter? I am on Lexapro and my own doctor has even told me that I would need to be weened off of it before trying to get pregnant. The folic acid brand I heard was great is Standard Process, have you heard of that brand? Or do you suggest another brand?
@[name]Scarlett[/name] - I was on Lexapro, too. I stopped end of [name]December[/name]. In [name]December[/name], I went from 20mg down to 10mg for a month and then stopped. I had some side effects (headaches, irritability and the “electric shocks” that some people get). I had some very down days (i.e. crying for no reason) on and off for about two months. For a while, I thought I might have to take another medication during pregnancy because I didn’t see how I’d last a year off my medication. But since end of February I’ve been feeling really good and have been doing great without medication. My husband and I had been planning on TTC in [name]April[/name] this year for a while, so I made sure I stopped taking Lexapro well before then.
Have you considered trying NFP (natural family planning)? There’s an amazing book called: Taking Charge of Your Fertility.
It’s great for knowing when you most likley will get pregnant, to when you least likely will. Totally natural. A lot of people use it as their main form of birth control, BUT it’s also use to know when you’re going to ovulate and make getting pregnant easier. My cousin even bought some fancy thermometer thing for like $300 and she’s been married oh 4 or 5 years now, no baby yet!
I like it because I feel more in charge of my body, like I know when I’m going to ovulate or when my “bad week” is coming, but it’s not my only form of birth control, I’m too paranoid to go off of condoms…
I’d only try this if I’d be happy to have a baby at any time! Mistakes are very common with this type of birth control.
Actually it’s not that common… if you’re doing it right and have a fairly regular cycle. If you have been trained properly or even have someone helping you chart, there’s only a 2% chance of fail (meaning 98% effective, which is better than a condoms 97%). They even have a highly accurate thermometer that does all the work for you, but like I said, it costs around $300. BUT I would still pair it up with another form of birth control just to be on the safe side (since there is no “100%” birth control besides abstinence), but that’s just me.
Some articles: (you’ll notice many will say “if used correctly.” Tons of people misuse it, just taking a temperature at the wrong time can mess it up! So I HIGHLY recommend taking a class on it, which is what we did.)
There’s tons of articles about NFP and how effective it is, if you want more articles/info just google it 