Natural Birth Control

*Note: There are two important requirements for having natural birth control be effective:

You are in a long-term, monogamous relationship with a disease-free partner.

You are not an alcoholic/drug-addict/etc and are fully aware of yourself when you have sex.

If you are the type of person who sleeps around with multiple partners or drinks a lot and therefore is not fully aware when having sex, natural birth control is not a good option for you.

My method of natural birth control is: diaphragm+spermicide+condom+fertility-tracking.

The success rate is even higher than the birth control pill! To match the same level of effectiveness of diaphragm+spermicide+condom, you would have to use the pill and a condom at the same time.

Diaphragm:
A diaphragm is a non-toxic, easy-to-insert piece of silicone. This is what women used before the Pill was invented and pushed so hard to consumers. The Pill, IUD, and other hormonal, unnatural methods have been pushed so hard to women by the medical industry that most of the companies that used to manufacture diaphragms have gone out of business, making it much harder for women to obtain one. The way it works in the United States is you must go to your doctor for a "fitting" where they find the right size of diaphragm for you. Then they give you a prescription. If you don't have a prescription, then your health insurance will not cover the cost. CooperSurgical is currently the only company in the USA that still manufactures diaphragms and you will have to provide their website to your doctor because your doctor unfortunately will not know about them. When I went to my doctor, they called all of the pharmacies etc and could not find anyone who still sold diaphragms. So I had to go online and find out that the one company still currently selling them is CooperSurgical. AND you cannot order from CooperSurgical yourself. Your doctor has to order it for you since it requires a prescription.
CooperSurgical's website
Save yourself the hassle. Let your doctor know about them when you go in for your "fitting" appointment.
The only other way to get your hands on a diaphragm is to order a "one-size-fits-all" brand from Caya. Caya's website
Because you are in the United States, once again you will have to get a prescription for a diaphragm from your doctor. Then your doctor or your local pharmacy will have to order the Caya for you.
The only way to avoid spending money to go see the doctor and get a prescription is to go on ebay and buy the Caya diaphragm from a seller in Europe. Europeans can buy diaphragms off-the-shelf, no prescription required. The US medical industry is determined to force the Pill and other hormonal methods on women (because they can make more money this way), that's why they've made it so hard for American women to purchase a simple piece of silicone.

The diaphragm itself is very soft and flexible and easy to insert. Once it's in, you won't feel it and it will never be in the way of sex. It's as easy as using a menstrual cup. At least they DO let women purchase menstrual cups over the counter without a prescription. It's so stupid they don't let diaphragms be purchased in the same way.

Spermicide:
The diaphragm must be used with spermicide to be effective. All spermicides sold in the USA are over-the-counter, but they contain a harsh chemical called nonoxynol-9. This chemical has been banned in Europe. So I recommend purchasing a brand that does not contain this chemical. I use Contragel, which must be purchased online (ebay,amazon,etc) since it has to be shipped from Europe. The good news is, the tube will probably last you a year, which is how long it takes to expire anyway, so its perfect.
If you use fertility-tracking so that you don't have to use your diaphragm during times you KNOW you aren't fertile, then your spermicide will definitely last a full year before you have to buy more.
If you purchase the Caya diaphragm, then you automatically get a free tube of Contragel included.

Lube:
I use a natural brand (Aloe Cadabra) that is 95% plain aloe vera. As a tight virgin, I definitely needed lube, but I wanted to make sure to get something that wouldn't be harsh on my insides. There are other natural brands available too. This is just the one I chose. I was actually able to find it at the local CVS pharmacy. So you may or may not have to order it online.

Condoms:
Find a high-quality brand so that you don't have to worry about leaks or breakage. Also find a brand that is non-lubricated. If the condom is pre-lubricated, (like 99% of the brands you find in your local drug store), there isn't much point in using a natural lube like Aloe Cadabra. My boyfriend uses Trojan non-lubricated condoms.

There are some other natural options such as: cervical cap, female condom, etc. But these methods don't have as high of a success rate so I don't really recommend them.

Fertility Tracking

In addition, to using diaphragm+spermicide+condom, fertility tracking can help you decide when you actually need to use protection at all. Because a woman is actually only fertile 25% of the time.
The rest of the time it's completely impossible for her to get pregnant. If you are super-paranoid and don't want to trust fertility-tracking, then it's totally OK to use diaphragm+spermicide+condom every time you have sex.
If you want to be really cheap, then frankly fertility tracking is the only thing you need to use to prevent pregnancy. AKA you have unprotected sex when you KNOW you aren't fertile. And then you completely avoid sex when you know you are possibly fertile.

I recommend buying and reading this book: Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 20th Anniversary Edition
This is the most popular guide for learning how to effectively track your fertile cycle to either prevent pregnancy OR get pregnant. If you're trying to prevent pregnancy, then you avoid having sex during your fertile window or you use protection: diaphragm+spermicide+condom. If you're trying to get pregnant, you know the best time to have sex is during your fertile window.

The book provides a free downloable app for your smartphone, which is what I use to track my daily temperature and other signs of fertility.

The basic rules the book teaches:

RULES of fertility awareness:
1. Once you start your period, the first 5 days are safe. DO NOT consider the 6th day safe even if you are still bleeding.
2. Any days after this, you must be dry and have no cervical fluid to be considered "safe".
3. Once the eggwhite vaginal secretions have gone away, you are safe the 3rd day of high temperatures.

Your Peak Day is last day you have fertile cervical fluid. There should be an abrupt and dramatic drying of fluid after Peak Day.
The Peak Day is usually two days before you see a temperature jump. This is why the third day of high temperatures (AFTER the Peak Day) is considered safe (if your cervical fluid has gone dry too).

When you are at peak fertility, your body temperature will be in the 98°F degree range, your cervical fluid will be very clear and wet, and your cervix position will be very high and soft.
When you are not fertile at all, your body temperature will be lower in the 97°F degree range, your cervical fluid will either be totally dry or be very clumpy and cloudy, and your cervix position will be very low and hard.
When all three signs match (daily body temperature, cervical fluid type, cervix position) you know you cannot be fertile.

Please purchase the book and read it thoroughly. It will make sense when it's explained in detail to you.
Then you can track a few of your cycles using their phone app and become confident in the signals your body is sending you about where you are in your cycle.
Once again, if you're ultra-ultra-paranoid and just don't trust it, then use protection every time you have sex. But for myself and thousands of other women, it works and there have been no accidents.

Isn't fertility tracking, condoms, diaphragms a lot more work than just taking the Pill or using something like a IUD?

Actually it's not. Slipping in a diaphragm or putting on a condom before you have sex takes mere seconds. It's nothing.
Fertility tracking is also super easy. I keep a thermometer on my bedside table. I take my temperature every morning before I get up and enter that temperature into my phone app. How simple and quick!
Whenever you're in the bathroom, check your cervical mucus and cervix position. That also takes mere seconds to do.

There is no such thing as a "set it and forget it" method of birth control. EVERY method requires constant maintenance:
Pill: take same time each day.
Depo: get it every three months on time.
IUD: must check your strings
implant: check to make sure in place and not broken.
They are not set and forget. You have to check them regularly! True story from another person: "My Paragard partially expelled and I ONLY knew because I regularly checked my strings. The rod you need to feel for regularly!"

So the benefits of diaphragm+spermicide+condom+fertility-tracking method is that you don't have to mess with your body's hormones (potentially causing cancer and other medical issues), and your uterus doesn't have to be in a constant state of low-grade inflammation (copper IUD). Copper IUD's have risks of getting stuck and requiring surgery to remove, heavier period bleeding, ectopic pregnancy, etc. Hormonal birth control makes women gain weight, decreases sexual desire, makes them experience heavier bleeding and cramping, and have more emotional meltdowns. It fucks with a woman's hormones and it is totally unnecessary.
Research the risks and side-effects of unnatural birth control methods. And then research how easy and effective natural birth control methods are.

How to never have a UTI or any other type of infection from being sexually active:

1. Be in a long-term, monogamous relationship. Preferably both of you are virgins and have never had sex with anyone else. But if not, then get tested to make sure you're clean! STDs do not exist in monogamous societies because it is impossible for them to spread.
2. Eat a whole foods HCLF vegan diet. What you eat affects how healthy your sex organs are. Most people have issues because they have multiple partners OR because they eat like shit. Fix these two issues and 99% of problems within our society would disappear.
3. Don't drink alcohol or anything with caffeine. Both of these substances increase the chance of UTIs because they cause dehydration of the urinary tract. My mom personally experienced this because she loves unsweetened tea. She stopped drinking the tea and suddenly all of her painful UTI problems disappeared.
4. Both of you should shower and have clean sheets. Keep your sex toys clean. Basic hygiene, duh!
5. Drink plenty of water and pee before sex. AND always pee after sex! Staying hydrated and peeing after sex will keep the bacteria out of your urinary tract!
6. Don't wear tight underwear or sleep without underwear if you want to. Let the naughty bits breathe a little. And for the love of god, change your underwear daily.

While condoms help prevent STDS, diaphragms can increase the risk. That's why it's so important to be in a monogamous relationship AND to make sure you eat healthy, stay hydrated, stay clean, pee after sex, etc.
Hormonal birth control is also known to increase the risk of UTIs, so don't blame it all on the diaphragm if you're not taking steps to stay clean.