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Charting to Avoid/ Fertility Awareness August

6K views 147 replies 15 participants last post by  jodi5 
#1 ·
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August 2011
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Welcome to the August 2011 charting to avoid and fertility awareness thread. We are all at different stages in family planning and our own fertility. Some of us are very ardently Charting to Avoid (CTA); some are CTA but would be thrilled with a BFP; and we even have a few who are "whatevering" or pregnant and continue to hang out here.

If you did not post in July, you may have been deleted from the list. If you have joined recently, please double check I have your chart linked correctly. If you were mistakenly deleted, you would like to be added/removed, or you spot anything you would like me to change, please post or PM me to let me know. Remember, you must post in August if you want to be on the September list!

To those who are new, welcome!
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Who We Are

Angelorum

AnkaJones

Ashley Payne BFPChart2.gif

azgirl BFPChart2.gif

BirthIsAwesome

Brendalee

Buterflymomma BFPChart2.gif

CarsonBookworm BFPChart2.gif

Ecologystudent

Erigeron

FaithHopeLove29 BFPChart2.gif

goinggreengirl BFPChart2.gif

jodi5 BFPChart2.gif (STM/MM)

JulesJourney

JuliMummy

kcroto42

librarygirl BFPChart2.gif

Lionessmom BFPChart2.gif

MillieJane BFPChart2.gif

mirpmama BFPChart2.gif

Ovaova BFPChart2.gif

physics girl BFPChart2.gif

PinkBunch

reborn

RknOHMum BFPChart2.gif

sosurreal09

Stefibeth BFPChart2.gif

ThreeLittleBirds
Toolip BFPChart2.gif

treeoflife3

wilson (CrMS)

WifeofAnt BFPChart2.gif

Graduates

Pregnant!
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Jaimee (November 2011)

mommy2two babes (December 2011)

lactatinggirl (January 2012)

JMJ (March 2012)

alyadri BFPChart2.gif (March 2012)

justKate BFPChart2.gif (STM) (April 2012)

miss_honeyb BFPChart2.gif (April 2012)

Wiki Resources for Charting to Avoid

Reasons to Choose Natural Family Planning - Why would you want to use charting to plan your family, anyway? Feel free to add your own reasons for charting!

Types of Natural Family Planning - It's not just the rhythm method. They've got this down to a science with options galore!

NFP or FAM Methods While Breastfeeding - You have options in the postpartum period while your fertility is returning!

Resources For Learning About Fertility Cycles - Find books to read or websites to visit, find an instructor, post your chart online, and learn about how your diet affects your fertility.

Fertility Awareness Method - A quick-start guide to the Fertility Awareness, a version of the Sympto-Thermal Method taught by Toni Weschler in her book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

Commom Abbreviations for Charting to Avoid/Fertility Awareness - BBT, EWCM, TCOYF, and more! Learn what all these crazy acronyms mean here.

Happy Charting Everyone!
 
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#3 ·
Thanks Physics Girl. If you run into trouble one month setting up the thread, I don't helping out from time to time. So nice to see you and glad you survived the move! That is a big job.

So, this morning I got a peak reading on the monitor. This is interesting since I didn't get a high reading although I definitely had some good cm having the past few days and was surprised I had not seen a high yet. It is a bit earlier than the last few cycles but I suspect getting back to what is normal for me. We'll see if I get my temp shift in a couple of days. Usually it happens 2 days after the peak on the monitor. So, for this cycle I will have used 6 test strips with the monitor. If this ends up being my normal, then a box of strips will last several cycles using this method which is not too bad at all. Over the last few cycles postpartum my use have strips has gone from 11 to 9 to 6 as my ovulation has slowly become earlier as I get back to normal patterns. I expect it will end up staying similar to what it was this cycle so likely somewhere in the range of 6-8. I could likely get away with delaying my start of testing a day or so as well as I know I am usually quite regular and used to always get ovulation pain around day 15 prior to charting so it is unlikely I would ovulate much earlier than I am this cycle and could still get a couple of days in to establish a baseline. I don't know that it is worth pushing that at this point, we''ll how things go the next while as my cycle reestablishes its normal pattern.
 
#4 ·
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by physics girl View Post

It sure does! I'll add your link by your name on the starting post.
yay!! thank you.
 
#7 ·
Ummm... hi! I'm charting to figure out what's going on but otherwise mostly TTA with condoms and soon deployment. My son is 8 months and nursing so I'm waiting for my fertility to return.

http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/2a4398 is my chart. Yes it currently looks really really funky.
 
#10 ·
WifeofAnt, that looks like a pretty normal breastfeeding amenorrhea chart. Did you chart at all before getting pregnant? Temperatures are all over the place, and be careful about Fertility Friend thinking you ovulated. Its ovulation detection is really sensitive, and with your temps going up and down, if you are temping every day, FF will guess that you ovulated when you didn't. To confirm ovulation with temperatures, you'll be looking for 6 lower temperatures followed by 3 higher temperatures, and the highest of the 3 higher temperatures will be at least .4F higher than the highest of the 6 lower temperatures. There can be some exceptions to this with shaving, etc, but anything else, and I would be skeptical. When you do actually ovulate, it will be followed by a period, but your luteal phase may not be as long as it normally would. Charting postpartum is an adventure. Have fun with it.
 
#11 ·
Welcome to August everyone. I guess I kind of dropped out of sight for a few days. My apologies. But physicsgirl came through for us! Thanks for starting the new thread.

I've been struggling with some anxiety (okay, a lot of) and my doctor diagnosed me with "general anxiety disorder" and prescribed lorazepam temporarily and Paxil. I don't like meds but right now feel so out of control that I'm going to try them. Any one know if either of these meds (particularly the Paxil, I'm only taking the lorazepam until the Paxil kicks in), has any effect on cycles? Obviously still temping and charting so I'll see it if it does but just wondered if I should be on the look out.

Oh, I heard from the CNM who is teaching the NFP class starting in September and it's Billings Method, which I've wanted to learn more about anyways! BF doesn't want to attend because he says he trusts me but I'm still working on it. I might get him to come around by the end of September.
 
#12 ·
Hi all! So I'm pretty certain that I finally ovulated after two weeks of EWCM. The day after I think O was I had some creamy stuff, and then the next day was just a little sticky, but sticky is my usual during infertile times. And now today, I've got some weird kind of gummy/stretchy stuff going on. Kind of like EWCM, but not as slippery, and it's yellow, not clear at all. I've actually noticed it the last couple of cycles post O, only I was never entirely certain I was post O until AF came because I had bad temp charts, and this weird stretchy cm. with the exception of a few disturbed temperatures, I actually have a good chart this time. So what's up with this weird cm? What do I chart it as? Can I consider myself infertile in a day or two?

Here is my current chart, for reference.

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#13 ·
This, when I was early postpartum, I had a point where I had 3 temperatures over the last 6 and a nice clear looking shift but I had not ovulated. My clear sign is that I did not have the cm to go with it at the time. My temps did drop after about 4 high temperatures. Just goes to show that it is important to look at the whole picture and not get caught up in one. It really is fascinating though watching as we try to find our cycles again. It was several months later before I ended up starting to cycle again. Good luck with your transition! It can be a tricky time when charting.

Jodi

Quote:
Originally Posted by JMJ View Post

WifeofAnt, that looks like a pretty normal breastfeeding amenorrhea chart. Did you chart at all before getting pregnant? Temperatures are all over the place, and be careful about Fertility Friend thinking you ovulated. Its ovulation detection is really sensitive, and with your temps going up and down, if you are temping every day, FF will guess that you ovulated when you didn't. To confirm ovulation with temperatures, you'll be looking for 6 lower temperatures followed by 3 higher temperatures, and the highest of the 3 higher temperatures will be at least .4F higher than the highest of the 6 lower temperatures. There can be some exceptions to this with shaving, etc, but anything else, and I would be skeptical. When you do actually ovulate, it will be followed by a period, but your luteal phase may not be as long as it normally would. Charting postpartum is an adventure. Have fun with it.
 
#14 ·
I was sure I would see a temp shift this morning as since I started cycling again, I had a temp shift 2 days after the 1st peak on the monitor. No such luck this morning. I did notice I am following a similar pattern to last cycle though so perhaps tomorrow. I have definitely dried up cm wise so it must be soon, unless I didn't ovulate at all yet and it is delayed.

Jodi
 
#15 ·
I definitely shifted this morning with a tmep of 97.9. I think this is the highest I have ever had at this point. We'll see what tomorrow brings but pretty sure i've ovulated so need a couple more high temps to confirm and then we will be good to go.

Jodi
 
#16 ·
Hello all! I'm new to this message board, but am so happy to have found it. My husband and I have been married for a year and have been charting to avoid for the last 8 cycles. Things were pretty wonky after getting off birth control but I think my body has finally started to even out again. Here's a link to my charts (never shared before so let me know if this doesn't work): http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/32e823">My Ovulation Chart</a>

Question for the group: I have a girlfriend that has also started charting to avoid, and she has been noticing really low temps. Lots of temps below 97 degrees. She's also gained quite a bit of weight lately, which triggered me to think it may be a thyroid problem. Anybody have any familiarity with this? Take care! amanda
 
#18 ·
Welcome, OvaOva! Your chart looks great!

For your friend, if the highest of her lower temperatures (6 pre-O temps) are consistently below 97.2F, her ovulation is delayed (long cycles), she is low on energy and gaining weight, I would definitely suggest that those may be signs of low thyroid function.
 
#19 ·
Welcome Buterflymomma and OvaOva!

I'm on CD 1, and I'm wondering when, if at all, the more experienced charters would have considered me safe last cycle. It looks to me like I'd have to either shave CD 15 0.1 degrees or consider the rules for a possible slow rise pattern, complicated by the missing temp from when I stayed up all night packing and cleaning. Thoughts?
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by JMJ View Post

WifeofAnt, that looks like a pretty normal breastfeeding amenorrhea chart. Did you chart at all before getting pregnant? Temperatures are all over the place, and be careful about Fertility Friend thinking you ovulated. Its ovulation detection is really sensitive, and with your temps going up and down, if you are temping every day, FF will guess that you ovulated when you didn't. To confirm ovulation with temperatures, you'll be looking for 6 lower temperatures followed by 3 higher temperatures, and the highest of the 3 higher temperatures will be at least .4F higher than the highest of the 6 lower temperatures. There can be some exceptions to this with shaving, etc, but anything else, and I would be skeptical. When you do actually ovulate, it will be followed by a period, but your luteal phase may not be as long as it normally would. Charting postpartum is an adventure. Have fun with it.
Yeah, I charted when I was TTC my son and my charts were beautiful, lol. Not like this one.

Also, what's the magic with 97.2? I didn't have any pre-O temps above 97.2 (outside of temps during my period) pre-baby.
 
#21 ·
Thanks JMJ and physics girl! I'll be sure to share the info with my friend. From what she's told me she is displaying a lot of the symptoms so definitely something to keep an eye on. That's one of the things I love about charting. Really puts you a lot more in tune with your body.

Take care!
 
#22 ·
i dont think i o'ed yet. i think i am gearing up to though. i am all over dh lately. he is afraid lol and might be trying to hide from me haha. i havent felt like this since before DD1 was conceived. i dont believe ff right now. i am sure i have been anovulatory up until now. i used to have mittlesmertz. or however you spell it. but that was when i was 16 before i started bc. but there was that time i quit taking it and i had it again. i wonder if that will happen this time. it is so frustrating waiting for everything to go back to predictableness. lol. now how to talk DH into having some non baby making fun..... :)
 
#23 ·
physics girl, to technically follow the rules, you would have had to wait until CD 25. You would have had to restart your 3 day count after the missing temp on CD 19 and after the low temp on CD 22. That said, I would have no problem with calling you infertile on CD 21. You had 4 (non-consecutive) days of clear temperature rise crosschecked by 4 days of post-peak dry-up. As long as nobody would die if you got pregnant (and really not much less serious reasons than that), I would say you would have been fine there.

WifeofAnt, lower thyroid function is a cause of lower pre-o temps, and higher thyroid function is a cause of higher thyroid function. I'm not sure why the arbitrary 97.2 number, but that is what is published in TAONFP. There are other causes of lower or higher pre-O temps, so I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that you have low thyroid function if your weight and energy levels are normal, you had no difficulty getting pregnant, and you have a full milk supply. All the same, I think a lot of us could handle eating more sea vegetables.
 
#24 ·
Welcome new people!

also wondering where the 97.2 comes from.

My pre-O temps are always 96.5-96.9 and around 97.4-97.8 post-O. I have slightly long cycles (about 32/33 days) but ovulate around 17 or 18 every month and AF arrives like clockwork. Just had my thyroid tested and it was perfect. And my cycles have been this way since I was 18 years old (I'm 31 now). It may indicate something for Ovaova's friend but doesn't mean much for me.

Actually, my 97.2 this morning was the first sign I had that I was sick because I won't O for another 6 days, most likely. Turns out I ended up experiencing almost every single side effect of my medicine (which included a fever and chills and maxed out my basal thermometer when I came home sick from work. can't find my fever thermometer).
 
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