Toni Weschlers book was recommended about a million times on the mental thread and I finally bought it on an amazon order while I was getting some other stuff. I LOVE this book, she totally, totally rocks my world. What a sensible woman and what an amazing volume. If you haven't read it, read it. Sheesh, I'm such a latecomer!! I wish I'd read it years ago.

How many of you chart using this method? Do you mind me asking? I'm hoping to use it for "pregnancy achievement" and maxxing out our chances as we're starting on the baby game way later than we originally planned. I also figure things might be ....bumpy for a while as I finally get my problem sorted out. I'd also like to use it as part of birth control later on, as I had hideous problems with hormonal intervention (3 day migraines, nausea to the hilt and total exhaustion) and have searched for a more natural method for a while.

I'd really appreciate any input anyone can give me on this topic. I'm hoping to use the time I'm being treated to start charting and getting to know myself some more.

Thanks,

Bees

Mods: if you feel this needs to be on the SI board, please go ahead and move it. I wasn't sure. :) :flower:

I have been using it for 3 cycles (almost 4 months, because my cycles have been so long)

I love it and we have been using it so far to abstain for now, but also want to track my cycles for future reference, since they are so irregular.

I am a scientist and love knowing how my body works. At first, I thought it would be a little weird or gross, but now I think it's cool and like doing it.

I've been using ovulation software (http://www.ovulation-calendar.com) in place of hormones since I'm still nursing (14 months! YAY!!!). It's nice to have a program tell me when it's safe and not safe to have sex. I don't need another Baz-let running around. LOL

You can set it to "baby conceive" mode or "baby avoid" mode. :lol: It's pretty cool!

I'm looking at downloading the trial at ovusoft.com but I need to check for compatability first. Plus it's only 15 days, so I want to make that worth it. I might chart manually for a few months and only do the software when we're ready to start in for sure and I feel comfortable with what I'm doing. You can backdate charts...so.... *shrugs*

Karen: I agree. One of the things I realised reading it was that I was pretty well informed about a lot, but SO MIS/UNinformed about the rest. Jeepers! Some of that was a little worrying. I've always known what it was doing (roughly) but to be able to pinpoint things will be helpful to me. I'm hoping we will use it for birth control in the future

Stephers: I took a look at that link and will look again. I think it looks fairly similar actually. Whatever I do, I hope to order it soon, because the exchange rate is good from here to the US right now. ;)

Bees, I've just started seriously tracking my fertility as well. I've always known in a vague sort of way what was going on with my body, but now I'm getting down and dirty :lol:

We're trying to conceive also, and it feels like we're doing it a little late, too. Though statistics show that the average new mother is much older now--closer to my age (I'll be 35 next month).

To make it easier for Mr. Heidi to keep track of things (and to really make this a couples effort) I downloaded a 45-day trial Ovulation Calendar (www.ovulation-calendar.com (http://www.ovulation-calendar.com)).

I use the mucus method, and so far we've had 100% accuracy--we've never gotten pregnant when we didn't want to, and we did get pregnant when we did want to.

One thing--I did not like the software I saw for doing any method. I looked at just about everything, and I didn't see any software that I could not track just as easily in Microsoft excel or access.

Good luck!
cheryl

A woman is fertile 14 days BEFORE her cycle begins AGAIN. I have used it to get pregnant and I have used it to NOT get pregnant...Besides, its usually when you "really are in the mood" that its not safe.

Thats SO annoying...

I have no experience with this myself, however I wanted to post my mum's experience. I'm sure a lot of you will find this hard to believe, however there is research to back it up.

My mum used fertility charting to get a baby girl! My parents already had a little boy, and they only wanted one more child and mum wanted to try for a girl (although all she really cared about was getting a healthy and happy baby).

There is a doctor here called Byron Kakulas, that has done a lot of research on muscular dystrophy (he can cure the disease in small animals called Quokkas, but they can't make the link to humans yet). The symptoms of Muscular Dystrophy are only present in boys - women are the carriers, so as part of his research, the doctor looked into ways of increasing the chances of female children in women that are already carriers.

The research found that little boy sperm tend to swim fast at first, but then run out of steam - so an egg fertilised late in the cycle is more likely to be a boy. Girl swimmers aren't as fast as the boys to begin with, but they have more stamina. So an egg fertilised early in the cycle is more likely to be a girl. (I'm going from memory here so if you're interested in trying this method you may want to contact Dr Kakulas to make sure I haven't got them mixed up!!)

Mum used a kit that she got from Dr Kakulas, and the result is me! The only thing that makes me skeptical about it, is that you would think the method would be more wide spread if it did work reliably... but mum said that she met other women who were using the method and they had just as much success so who knows?! :D

Ali

A woman is fertile 14 days BEFORE her cycle begins AGAIN. I have used it to get pregnant and I have used it to NOT get pregnant...Besides, its usually when you "really are in the mood" that its not safe.

Thats SO annoying...


I would like to state that the 14 day rule is a AVERAGE--like the 28 day cycle is an average. Personally, I'm usually fertile 20-40 days before my cycle starts depending on the cycle.

If you are not average--and many women aren't, please make sure that you physician knows this when you get preggo. Every stupid test you take is based on that oftentimes COMPLETELY INACCUARATE 14 day calculation and it will mess you all up.

Although my daughter ended up comming early (I know the day she was conceived b/c I know when I had marital relations,) my physician kept pushing back the due date. According to my dr, I had taken a positive pregnancy test a month before I was pregnant. lol.