I am officially off of birth control. But it's not because I'm joining the growing number of women who are liberating themselves from the hormonal contraceptive and throwing it out one pack or NuvaRing at a time. It's really just because I ran out and don't have the desire to keep up with it.
I don't think I experienced a ton of side effects that were unbearable, but I do like the idea of being free of it and whatever side effects, no matter how insignificant, it brought along with it. Still, given a few current situations, I don't know that I can say right now is the best time to add kids into the mix.
So, after doing a ton of research, I found that tracking ovulation is the key. Because as I learned (really late in life), ovulation is the key to all things conception. But if you're not quite sure how to track it, or need a fool-proof method, these ovulation apps will keep up with your cycle and ovulation time frames even when you can't.
I have to point out there's really no contraceptive that's 100% guaranteed, but at least these apps can serve as a way to lower your chances of conceiving without going crazy:
1.Flo
This is an app that I can personally attest to. I've used it for a little more than a year, so it has had plenty of time to get to know my body just as well as I do. The app sync dates of when I'll start my period and of course when I'm ovulating. We pretty much go together now.
I felt comfortable depending on this app as an ovulation tracker after I realized it had my period dates down to a T. I also love that it doesn't just tell me the day I'm most likely ovulating but also lets me know the chances of getting pregnant on three different levels: there's the low chance (because I don't think any app can tell you that there's no chance of you conceiving), a chance, and a high chance. So I feel very comfortable getting it in when it tells me I have a low chance of getting pregnant. So far, so good.
For more info, click here.
2.Clue
Clue has already been recognized as the number one free period and ovulation tracker by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists journal.
It gets pretty specific and encourages you to not only journal your period cycles, but also journal symptoms of PMS, when you have sex, when you're in pain, and other factors like your cervical fluid and mood. It also color codes pretty much everything so it's easy to tell when your cycle is going to start, when you'll most likely ovulate, and the days you're the most fertile. It's pretty hard to beat that – especially for the free free.
3.Natural Cycles
The Natural Cycles app is one of the best out there. It's the only birth control app in the entire world that doesn't use chemicals but rather analytics to help you plan for your pregnancy, or plan when not to have sex.
It's also 99.9% accurate, which is as close as you'll get. Because it's so accurate and unique, it does cost $6.90 a month (but the first month is free). It also requires a special thermometer that has two decimals (not the typical one used to monitor fevers).
It seems a little tedious to sign up, but I would think it's worth it considering the heavy tracking it does.
4.Life Period Tracker
I mean, this is pretty self-explanatory. The Life Period Tracker app has the ability to monitor everything in your life, at least the things concerning your period and ovulation.
But if you want to take things a step further, this app also tracks your health, fitness, and of course sexual activity. Just like with the other apps, the more you input your information, the more accurate and easier it will be for it to let you know when you're ovulating so you can respond accordingly. Plus, it's customizable. There's nothing wrong with a cute and customized app.
Sidebar: I actually was intrigued by this one so I plan on using this along with the Flo app. I think it's a great idea to use multiple apps for a better probability of reaching your goal (pregnancy or nah).
5.Ovia
The Ovia Health app takes things a step further than using your cycle to track your ovulation. It also monitors and evaluates your eating habits to create an algorithm to let you know when you're ovulating. This is an amazing app for women who are trying and those who aren't. It touts its ability to get women pregnant three times faster than compared to its competitors in the market. This is likely because it has the most data set that has ever been composed. While this app is free, for an extra .99 cents you can use customized themes and content that relates to you specifically.
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak