Ep. 169: Doc took med student off birth control weeks before her wedding...how she handled it successfully (and peacefully!)

Imagine being weeks out from your wedding and your doctor telling you you have to stop your birth control immediately. How terrifying! Not only is your health a concern, but what about the honeymoon?? How will you not get pregnant (if that's not your goal)? This is what happened to Robyn when she was still in medical school and just weeks away from marrying her husband. Full of questions, she transitioned to fertility awareness and shares with us how this deeply (and positively) impacted her life, her marriage, and her view of her fertility! 

NOTE: This episode is appropriate for all audiences. 

Guest Bio:

A native of Houston, TX, Robyn earned her undergraduate degree from Auburn University and then went on to school for physical therapy. Currently, she works as a physical therapist for individuals with spinal cord injuries. Robyn and her husband welcomed their first child--a boy--last year, and they are loving this new phase of life!

Other helpful episodes:

Ep. 14: Navigating your biggest fertility fears 

Ep. 159: Nagging uncertainty about birth control revealed undiagnosed health issues

Ep. 135: Can I trust natural birth control?

Transcript

Caitlin (00:23)
Welcome back to the Woven Well podcast. You know, I acknowledge that family planning can feel like such a private topic. It could be hard to talk about. We don't always want to talk about it with our friends and it can feel sort of isolating figuring out how to navigate it on our own, especially if we're interested in family planning outside of the standard approach of birth control. So how do we find out if it's effective, realistic, worth the effort?

Robyn (00:37)
Okay.

Caitlin (00:52)
That's why we have client

stories here on the podcast. We want you to be able to hear from real women who have worked with Woven to successfully navigate family planning and women's health issues. Today, I want to introduce you to Robyn. Robyn is from Houston, Texas and met her now husband at the Iron Bowl in 2019, which I think is a really fun story. After getting married, she completed physical therapy school all while using the Creighton method to prevent pregnancy.

And now she serves spinal cord injury patients as a physical therapist and just welcomed her first child, a baby boy with her husband in September of last year. Robyn welcome to the show.

Robyn (01:31)
Hi, thanks for having me.

Caitlin (01:33)
I'm really glad that you're here to tell us a little bit about your story, but maybe we could start by learning a little bit about yourself.

Robyn (01:42)
Yeah, so like you mentioned, I'm from Houston. I went to Auburn for undergrad and shortly after I graduated, I met my husband through some mutual friends. We both live in Houston now and I am a physical therapist for patients with neurologic injuries, specifically spinal cord injury. And I've recently gotten into reading and reality TV.

Caitlin (02:07)
I love it.

Those are such a good balance. You gotta have a little bit of both. my goodness, that's great. So what made you first interested in working with Woven? What got you connected with us?

Robyn (02:11)
Yes, you gotta have a little bit of both.

So during PT school, the summer after my first year, I was in a rotation and started having migraines with Auras. I was engaged at the time and after I had my first migraine, I didn't think much of it, but I went home and about three weeks before our wedding, I went to the OB just to get a little checkup and she was like, you're having migraines? And I was like, yeah, is that a problem? And she was like, that is a...

Big no on birth control. And I had been just on the birth control pill for probably two years at that time. And I panicked. I was like, what do I do? Like, I'm about to get married. We are not ready for kids. I'm in the middle of PT school. And one of my friends had posted about Woven. She had been using Woven for a year or so at the time.

And so I joined an introductory session and learned about it and figured that this could be potentially useful for my situation. I had always been kind of curious about getting off of birth control, mostly for moral convictions, but didn't know what my other options would be in getting married. So I tried out woven and it worked really well for us.

Caitlin (03:46)
Yes.

It is really difficult when you're interested in getting off birth control, but that's really the only option that you're typically given. I mean, there's just not a lot of information out there about the alternatives. This is why we have the podcast. We're trying to make it as easy to find as possible because there are alternatives. And I'm so glad that your friend shared something because then it was like, oh,

Robyn (03:58)
Yeah.

Caitlin (04:13)
not only is there an alternative but I actually know somebody who uses this and it's effective for her and that makes a big difference too to have that. Were you excited about trying something new or were you kind of terrified about trying something new because I put myself in your place like three weeks before the wedding trying to like do something brand new throwing out birth control being in PT school that's a lot.

Robyn (04:17)
Yeah.

Yeah, kind of a little bit of both. We knew we did not want to have kids right away. Like I needed to get a job and finish school and make some money. But I've always been open just to what the Lord had for our lives, even if it was going to look a little bit chaotic. So I was like, you know what? I have been kind of feeling called to get out birth control anyway. I feel like this is a big sign that

Caitlin (04:57)
Yeah.

Robyn (05:07)
It's like, I can't be on it, like, health-wise. So, I was definitely terrified, but I was like, we can do this. We're gonna follow the rules, we're gonna be diligent, and we'll make it work, whatever happens for our family.

Caitlin (05:23)
That's right. That's kind of a courageous choice to be facing fear. I mean, really, facing something that's very scary to do, but like, no, we feel strongly about this and we feel like we're being invited by God to do this. And so we can trust him and we're just gonna put one foot in front of the other as we journey there. And that's so good. So how did it go? Did it?

Robyn (05:28)
Yeah.

Caitlin (05:49)
feel chaotic as you were getting started and learning all of that or that time when you were avoiding pregnancy because you did that for a while, what was that experience like? Was it easier than you thought, harder than you thought?

Robyn (05:59)
Yeah.

It was honestly easier than I thought. think initially it took a lot of conversation between my husband and I because he was like, well, what are we doing here? Getting off birth control. But he, I mean, he trusted me and trusted the process and trusted the Lord. And it was cool to be able to have those conversations. We had to be a lot more intentional about what we wanted our life to look like. And

kind of how that would impact our marriage and impact our family. But it really was not like it, it was hard for a few weeks while I was getting the hang of it. But I think the system makes it decently foolproof. And so after probably like a month of getting used to it, I was like, okay, we got the habit and now it's just part of my day. Yeah.

Caitlin (07:01)
Yeah,

that really is the hardest part is just getting started and actually learning and committing to it. But once you've done that, okay, now it's a routine. Now it's just another thing you do like brushing your teeth or or anything else. But you made a really good point about how using a natural system will organically invite your husband to be a part of it.

Robyn (07:06)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Caitlin (07:27)
Whereas when you're on birth control, that's just something you take every day and you and your husband may not even ever talk about it or talk about when you want to have kids. I mean, you may and kind of like the big picture thing, but it's not a topic that naturally comes up. Whereas when you're using a system like the Creighton model system, it is a conversation. Would you mind talking about that a little bit? Like, what was that like?

using this system together as a couple instead of it just be something that you do and you never have to discuss it.

Robyn (08:01)
You know, I honestly on birth control felt like this false sense of sovereignty over my own fertility and like when we would have a family and that made me more anxious than it did like give me peace because I was like, I don't want to make like, feel solely responsible for when we decide to have kids and that should be between me and my husband and the Lord, not just a me decision of, okay, I'm not going to take my birth control anymore.

So really it gave me a lot of peace getting off of birth control rather than, yes it was a little bit terrifying, but I felt like less anxious overall. So it was really cool getting to talk to Brayden, my husband, about like, okay, realistically, like what needs to happen before we change our intention to.

achieving pregnancy versus avoiding pregnancy and how can we be prayerful in this decision and not just rely on me to take my birth control every day or if I forget to take my birth control panic and it's my fault if something happens. So I think it was really, really good for our marriage and good for our dependence on God with what was going to happen in our family.

Caitlin (09:19)
Wow, and that is such a beautiful story. I really appreciate you sharing it. That is the opposite of what most people think. Most people think that when they're on birth control or they have some sort of semi-permanent way of avoiding pregnancy, that that's when they would feel the most peace because they have the most control. But you've just shared that it was actually that pressure of the false sense of control

Robyn (09:27)
Mm-hmm.

Caitlin (09:47)
And by the way, we all have friends who have conceived while being on the pill or, you know, we've read the stories about babies being born holding an IUD, you know, so we we know that these are actually not.

Robyn (09:52)
Yes.

Caitlin (09:59)
100 % effective. There is no 100 % effective method for avoiding pregnancy. But we feel like that's when we have the most peace because we have the most control. But you're saying that it was actually the opposite that when you invited God and invited your husband into that process and you all were actively discerning it together and you're being prayerful about it and open and just acknowledging that

you don't have ultimate control over this, that's when you felt the most peace. But obviously, you still had a voice in the matter. You still could have times when you were avoiding pregnancy and you did so for a good while. So how did you all discern that or maybe even what was it like to discern changing that intention to trying to conceive?

Robyn (10:39)
yeah.

Yeah, honestly, I feel like we both just felt like we decided to change our attention in January of 2024. I think just going into the new year, like we had good stable jobs, we felt like we had had like a really great time of just us and our marriage and we were both kind of ready for, I mean, the next step. And I think...

Honestly, so through Creighton, found out that I had had low progesterone and was able to treat that like preventatively early on, which was great before we had even decided to change our intention. But I didn't know what that would look like when we did want to achieve pregnancy. So honestly, a little bit of fear of what our fertility process would look like. But.

we both just kind of felt ready for the next thing and had been prayerful in it. And so in January, we decided to change our intention to achieving pregnancy. And I know that this is not the case for everyone, but I do think that like being able to figure out what I needed in my cycle and support my progesterone levels was really helpful in that. And we were able to achieve pregnancy when we wanted to achieve pregnancy, which was really a huge blessing.

Caitlin (12:16)
Yeah, you make us such a good point that you really did the work ahead of time to make sure you were as healthy as possible reproductively. So that's one of the benefits I think of using the Creighton system is that when you're charting, it's not only identifying the window of fertility, it's also looking at your overall reproductive health. And so what are areas that look maybe like they could use some support?

Robyn (12:26)
Mm-hmm.

Caitlin (12:43)
some areas of weakness or concern in some way. And so you can get those addressed at the root cause and you can go ahead and improve your quality of life way before you're ready to try to conceive. that also, hopefully when that time does come, it's not, okay, we're starting from the beginning. We don't know if there are any issues whatsoever. We're gonna just kind of jump in and see what happens.

you were knowledgeable about when you all were fertile or infertile, so you could use the specific days to be together, and you had already addressed the women's health issues that had been identified through Creighton charting. you know, in that sort of situation, they've done some studies and it's 76 % of couples who have already done that work and who are using the Creighton system are able to conceive the first cycle of trying. So as

pretty wild. mean, that's a really high percentage. And you're right, it is not everyone's story. But when you fit into that category, it does make you more likely to be in the category of being able to conceive within the first six months. So, well, that was really exciting. That's a big, that's a big deal to switch over. And it seems like to me, there have been a lot of practical changes in your life from switching over

Robyn (13:40)
as well.

Yeah.

Caitlin (14:08)
from birth control to using a natural system here with us at Woven. Would you share a little bit about what that has, any of those practical changes to your life been like?

Robyn (14:20)
Yeah, think, well, initially the most practical thing was that I was able to have a form of family planning and birth control and kind of a say in when we achieved or avoided pregnancy while also like maintaining my health and not being on a pill that could cause more migraines and potentially more issues down the line.

Caitlin (14:43)
migraines, the reason they don't want you to have migraines is because they're concerned about blood clots, aneurysms, strokes, know, these kind of absolutely horrible possibilities that can be caused by birth control. So that's why they have to be on the lookout for that. So yes, I am so glad you were able to get off of that, but it's not just the migraine. It's what the migraine could represent. It's pretty scary.

Robyn (14:45)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I work with people with strokes. So I know like what that looks like. And I had signs similar to a stroke and I was panicking. And so it just gave me a lot more peace about my overall health, not just my fertility. And then also, like I mentioned, the fear aspect.

I think being on birth control, was like, have no clue what's going on with my body. I have no clue if I'm reproductively healthy, if we're going to run into any issues. And through charting and the Creighton method, I was able to learn about my body, address any issues or hormonal imbalances, whatever I needed to so that we could be prepared going into achieving pregnancy.

Caitlin (15:54)
You know, they say that knowledge is powerful, and I totally agree, especially in the women's health space. A lot of times we're encouraged to use family planning methods that don't actually empower us in any way or inform us in any way about our own health, about our own reproductive capacity. And so we're left kind of stuck in the dark.

uncertain about what's going on or how to utilize it, and that's not a great place for women to be. It's just sort of stuck without options and feeling reliant on others to tell us if we're healthy or not and what we should do next and what our options are. But it sounds like to me your use of Creighton really was not only informative but empowering for you in your ability to know what's going on with yourself.

Robyn (16:27)
Yeah.

Caitlin (16:50)
and what your potential was with your spouse for having children. That's great. Well, when you think about the listeners out there and people who may be curious about whether or not they can use a natural system, maybe even they are in medical school like you were when you were learning the Creighton system or

Robyn (16:51)
you

Yeah, absolutely.

Caitlin (17:15)
Maybe they're three weeks out from their wedding and they're finding out that they can no longer use birth control. What advice would you have for those who are listening?

Robyn (17:27)
I think don't let the fear of conception keep you from trying this method. Like you said, there's no 100 % effective birth control. And truthfully, like we are not in control over our family and pregnancy and conception. But don't let fear hold you back from using this method. We were able to avoid pregnancy for, I think we did it for two years, like just.

a month shy of two years. And it was great for our family, it was great for our marriage, and great for our dependence on the Lord. So, don't be afraid.

Caitlin (18:08)
Thank you so much for sharing Robyn. really appreciate it. I know it's encouraging for others to hear how you were able to successfully navigate your own fertility and your health to feel better, but also how that really welcomed the Lord into your marriage into a deeper way. So thanks for being on the show and sharing your story.

Robyn (18:28)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

Caitlin (18:32)
Listeners, our woven community is made up of some pretty incredible people. I love introducing you to them. And we ask honest questions here about our fertility and about our faith. We believe that our bodies were made with beauty and purpose, that we are intimately designed and loved by our creator, and that fertility plays a really meaningful role in our lives. We believe that this matters for all of us, regardless of our marital status or pregnancy intentions.

and would love for you to be a part of that community. You can learn the Creighton system just like Robyn did by attending an upcoming introductory session, so we'll make sure to have the link to that in the show notes below. As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.