I don't know what I want to blurt out first.... okay, I'll go with this...

I've just had sex without contraception for the first time in my life! Ever! Eeeeep! I won't be ovulating yet but it doesn't hurt to practice...!

The other thing I want to shout out it this: I'm going to pee on a stick in September (maybe, we'll see how it goes!). I just saw the POAS September thread and thought "OMG, I might get to do that!"

I've been off BCP, officially, for one week and, well, my body is all over the place. It doesn't help that, the previous weekend, we went to a 3 day music festival and I forgot to take my pills with me (genuine accident, I promise). I missed Friday, Saturday and Sunday's pills and had a fairly standard withdrawal bleed. I suggested to DH, on the Monday, that I should not go back on the pill but he took 5 days to decide (well, the truth is I took 5 days to be clear about what I was trying to say!) so I took my pill again Monday - Friday. Then, last weekend we agreed to TTC and I took my last pill Friday night.

Well.....! The Horror!!!

My withdrawal bleeds are light, painless and predictable. No PMS, no mood swings, nothing! They have been for the 13 years I've been on BCP and the 4 years, prior to that, when I was on the mini pill (prescribed to help me with heavy, painful periods!).

But this time, those first few days off BCP, I felt like I was dying! I had cramping, nausea, sore boobs (so sore I had to take my bra off - while driving!) and two significant dizzy spells over the course of a few days. I was moody, kept bursting into tears - I started to wonder if I'd gotten pregnant, randomly, before coming off the pill.... Then, the bleeding started... and when I say it started I mean it gushed forth like a damn had been broken - heavy, bright red, full of little clots (Sorry, I warned you TMI). The bleeding lasted 4 days and, despite taking iron supplements, the inside of my lower eyelids were really pale (indicating low iron levels).

I'd forgotten periods could be like that!! Mine were like that every month when I was a teenager! My mum's have been like that her whole life.

I'm taking this as a positive sign that my cycles will return to normal very quickly (although I don't doubt that my body is just screaming at me for messing it about so much - on the pill, off the pill, on, off....). I like to think that this means that it hasn't forgotten what to do!

My mum got pregnant with me the only time she ever had unprotected sex; My dad was working away for a few months and she came off the pill "for a break". He came back for the weekend and I popped out 9 months later - she can even tell me what was on the TV when I was conceived - it was Girl on a Motorcycle if anyone's interested?! I'm just hoping that, just as the nightmarish periods are hereditary, the super-fertility is, too. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for letting me share, bees! It really was TMI (!!) but I need to tell someone and I don't want to tell hubby such revolting tales about my, erm, you know where - in case it puts him off BDing (lol).