my boyfriend and I have decided for physical, emotional, mental, social, moral, and romantic reasons to discontinue use of hormonal birth control and instead use NFP, but we're not being too careful as being pregnant is obviously always a huge blessing. one step closer to being rid of some of the liberal "brainwashing" we were raised with, haha. i was on birth control from age 15-23 so i have no idea what to expect now that i've stopped, other than i was told my period will be "irregular" for 1-3 or more months. hoping someone here has experience stopping birth control as it's kind of scary! how do i know what is normal "irregular" and when to take a pregnancy test or see a doctor? i got a normal period a month after my last birth control patch, but since then the bleeding i've had is so light (basically just pink discharge) that i'm not sure if it's actually my period, i know spotting can happen when pregnant but the bleeding is basically on time for when my period should be. however it's not like what my periods would feel like and this is about 3 months off birth control now. is the spotting an irregular period? will my period go back to how it was on birth control and when? is it possible for pregnancy spotting to mimic a cycle and happen periodically or does it sound like i'm not pregnant? i haven't had any pregnancy symptoms, but assuming i'm not pregnant, is this the expected "irregular" period or something to get checked out? if my period is irregular for a while, how will I know if i need a pregnancy test? just if i have pregnancy symptoms? what if i mistake pregnancy symptoms for my hormone changes? how do I know if something is unusual enough to see a doctor? i'm so excited to be back to my natural hormones and cycle after so long, and to stop messing with my natural fertility, but in general, what should I expect now that i've finally stopped hormonal birth control?