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@QBbride: That's our plan for after the wedding (I hate my BC pill, but didn't want want to run the weight/skin/timing issues before the wedding).
I charted for 3 months just to test it out, and it really isn't bad at all. I got the femcal app on my itouch, and it made it SUPER easy (but be sure you know the TCOYF rules yourself as well). I'd pop the termometer in, wait for the beep, use the light of my itouch to read the temp and then just enter it in. It took 2 minutes a day max, and it was SO cool to know what my body was up to.
I wish I'd kept it up (we stopped since we knew we'd be on the pill for 6 more months) b/c I missed a period randomly and I would have felt MUCH better knowing I didn't O that month. Instead of freaking out about a possible pregnancy due to BC failure, we could have just had a sigh of relief after checking our chart.
I think charting to avoid can be done well, but knowing the rules and charts are both super important. Best of luck! (And I'm glad to see you feel better off the pill, I am so looking forward to being done!)
I loved it. Did it for a few years. Back when Ovusoft's boards were hopping, it was a great place to learn.
I just followed the rules from TCOYF and made sure to never take any risks. I found that it took me about 3 months to get a handle on what my signs were telling me. Never an oops. I used the rules in reverse after a few years and got pregnant the first cycle TTC.
I avoided again and now we're TTC again, cycle 3. I think I have had about 40 cycles charting TTA.
Good luck! I would never go on the pill again!
We used FAM to avoid for 5 months before we started NTNT. (And it was awesome to be able to see my temperature climb and know I was probably pregnant way sooner than a test could have told me.) I'm a huge fan, and I'm really looking forward to getting back to using it once my cycles become regular again after this baby is born.
I didn't find taking my temp & tracking it each day to be too hard-- especially surprising to me when I'm not so good at record keeping. But I had no issues with doing it every day. I used FertilityFriend to chart-- You can set it to use FAM rules and that will be a little more stringent than using FF's automatic charting.
There are a few threads on this on the Catholic boards. (They usually talk about Natural Family Planning-- the difference between NFP & FAM is that with NFP you abstain during your fertile days and with FAM you use barrier methods during your fertile days.) But the threads can be helpful.
Thanks ladies. I think I'll start by taking my temp and charting cervical fluid, just to get an idea of how it works. That way I can see if I do actually O when I think I do. I don't know if I'll trust it 100%, especially not right now considering our wedding is 11 months away. TCOYF was really interesting though, I would highly recommend it. Plus when we start TTC, I'll have a a better idea of when my fertile time is.
I went off BC 2 months ago and started using FAM right away. My cycles are always super regular on or off BC, which charting has confirmed. Both months I've O'ed on Day 15 and my cycles were 28 days long.
Taking my temp every morning is seriously no problem at all. I have an alarm set for the same time each morning (when I get up for work, but I wake up to do it on weekends), and when I'm half sleeping, I just pop the thermometer in my mouth, wait for it to beep, then put it back on my nightstand. My termometer saves the tempterature, so when I get out of bed, which on the weekends is several hours later, I look at the temp and plug it into Fertilityfriend.com. I also check my CM in the mornings, which takes all of 10 seconds, if that.
I love this method so far. I felt like I got every negative side effect listed in the BC packets, and I just feel so much better now.
Lovelovelovelovelove! :D
I would never, ever, go on the pill again. For a number of reasons, but largely because I love, well, "taking charge of my fertility!" Lol. It really is empowering, and pretty fascinating, I think.
I don't find taking my temp in the mornings to be inconvenient or annoying at all. I actually think it's kinda fun. But what I do to make it even easier is just have a therm that records the last temp so you can look at it later. I temp, don't even look at my therm, then go back to sleep. Later I look at my therm and record it in an app on my phone. So easy!
Oh but, full disclosure -- I feel comfortable enough with my charting abilities to "cheat" and only temp around my fertile days, and after I know I've O'd, I don't bother for the rest of the cycle. I think I remember the book talking about this shortcut method. It works fine for me.
The TCOYF.com forums are super helpful if you ever have questions you want answered from people who are really experienced with it. The TTA boards aren't quite as popular, but you'll definitely still get responses.
I just bout TCOYF to read it and decide whether to try FAM. I was having an awful time on the Nuvaring (fatigue, depression, and lack of sex drive). Honestly, it took me forever to realize that the way I was feeling might be from my BC. I just thought all the wedding planning stress, etc. was getting to me. After realizing it might be that, I took out the ring and felt so much better the next day and even more amazing the day after that. It has only been a few days, but I feel like an entirely different person! Because I cannot stand the thought of feeling like that again, I'm interested in trying something more natural. We're married now and will probably TTC in a year or two, so it wouldn't be a crisis if we got pregnant, but with lots of debt and my job ending in another month and a half with no prospects of another . . . well, I'd like some assurances of people successfully using this method. Hearing from the PPs is really helpful.
It totally worked for us for 3 months abstaining. Then we didn't follow it for a month and got carried away and went ahead during our fertility window. Got pregnant and m/c. Then we did it for 2 more months abstaining until we decided we wanted to conceive according to FAM! I would recommend to anyone with a regular period and cervical mucus. It's really healthy to prepare your body in an 'all natural' way.
Thanks for all the tips ladies! I've been trying to take my temp for the past few days, but I realized how bad of a sleeper I am, I wake up on and off all night! So that will be a challenge.
Just wanted to add a little encouragement! I have been using FAM (via TCOYF) to avoid for close to 2 years now. It has been great! The pill made me all crazy and emotional and it totally killed my libido.
Like someone else mentioned, my thermometer stores my temperature so I temp every morning at 6:30am and then go back to sleep. Later I update input my temp and other info online. I also love the support of having a community of people at TCOYF to answer my questions about charting or people who are just going through the same things that I am (i.e. I am in a group of people who are anxiously awaiting TTC).
Good luck to those of you who are new to charting! I love how much power charting gives us over our bodies and our cycles and our own fertility!
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Hi bees,
I went off the pill awhile ago because I was getting horrible migraines on it. I feel soo much better since going off the pill, and right now we're using condoms to prevent pregnancy. I've been looking into the FAM method a lot recently, and I'm wondering how much of a pain taking your temperature every morning is? I bought a copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility and I'm about half way through. I'm finding it really interesting! I think I pretty much know when I ovulate every month because I get really bad O cramps but obviously that's not a reliable enough indicator!
Anyways, just wanted to hear some of your experiences with it? Love it? Hate it?
Thanks!