Josie & Kelton 5: I just see babies having baby showers!

[TheRadleyPorch]

On 12/20/2019 at 12:30 AM, just_ordinary said:

My biggest problem with all methods that rely on counting/observing your own body is this:

It doesn’t matter that you had the perfect regular cycle up to date. Hormonal changes can hit at anytime. Bodies can change, symptoms can change, a one time off can happen too. Even with checking your cervix and temperature you only for sure know afterwards (and when you are stressed, ill, travelling..... it can show in your curves so it isn’t perfectly interpretable) that ovulation happened. Experience and knowledge is the key with those methods but we should never forget they we can miss signs or that changes can happen without notice.

Stating that your cycle has been ever on point and expecting the next to be too is a bit naive if you definitely don’t want to conceive. Even ovulation tests can not proof a hundred percent when your ovulation is. The mix with temperature is pretty safe but still. I wouldn’t do it if I couldn’t handle dealing with a pregnancy.

These are common misconceptions about FAM/NFP. It's not for everyone, and there are many reasons why someone would not want to use a fertility awareness method of birth control, but not having perfectly regular cycles does not have to be one of those reasons if you are using a sympto-thermal method and are well-educated on how to use it. The sympto-thermal method is able to give you highly accurate information on what is going on at every point in your cycle--it's based on what is happening in your body NOW, not what happened in any previous cycle. Calendar methods are different and do involve counting, and they are definitely far less reliable. I've been using the sympto-thermal method for the last 6 years with no pregnancies, and my cycle ranges between 28 and 40 days (with a few really long outliers during stressful times). It takes like 2 minutes out of my day now so it's basically as annoying as brushing my teeth. It does take some time and education to get familiar enough with the method and your own body to use it accurately--and for that reason it's not going to be the best choice for preventing a fundie honeymoon baby. The other thing about it is that unlike pretty much any other method, "imperfect use" is equivalent to "non-use." Take birth control pills for instance--if you miss a pill here or there, the effectiveness goes down but it's still giving you a decent amount of contraceptive ability. You're still using the pill, you're just using it poorly. If you are using FAM/NFP and you have sex during the most fertile period of your cycle, you're just...not using it. And that means that the effectiveness with "imperfect use" is going to be very low even if the effectiveness with perfect use (which is totally achievable!) is very high (which it is). 

[just_ordinary]

8 hours ago, TheRadleyPorch said:

These are common misconceptions about FAM/NFP. It's not for everyone, and there are many reasons why someone would not want to use a fertility awareness method of birth control, but not having perfectly regular cycles does not have to be one of those reasons if you are using a sympto-thermal method and are well-educated on how to use it. The sympto-thermal method is able to give you highly accurate information on what is going on at every point in your cycle--it's based on what is happening in your body NOW, not what happened in any previous cycle. Calendar methods are different and do involve counting, and they are definitely far less reliable. I've been using the sympto-thermal method for the last 6 years with no pregnancies, and my cycle ranges between 28 and 40 days (with a few really long outliers during stressful times). It takes like 2 minutes out of my day now so it's basically as annoying as brushing my teeth. It does take some time and education to get familiar enough with the method and your own body to use it accurately--and for that reason it's not going to be the best choice for preventing a fundie honeymoon baby. The other thing about it is that unlike pretty much any other method, "imperfect use" is equivalent to "non-use." Take birth control pills for instance--if you miss a pill here or there, the effectiveness goes down but it's still giving you a decent amount of contraceptive ability. You're still using the pill, you're just using it poorly. If you are using FAM/NFP and you have sex during the most fertile period of your cycle, you're just...not using it. And that means that the effectiveness with "imperfect use" is going to be very low even if the effectiveness with perfect use (which is totally achievable!) is very high (which it is). 

Don’t get me wrong- I am a massive fan of this type of birth control. I prevented and conceived very successfully in the last 5 years that way. 

But I would still argue that people shouldn’t go into this without lots of research and using a second form of non hormonal birth control in the first cycles. Observing your body, being able to interpret your temperature curve, cannot be learned in one cycle in my opinion. Even when the basics are quite simple. And it definitely needs more awareness and effort than swallowing a pill every day around the same time.

I would never go back to hormonal birth control for several reasons or but I wouldn't recommend nfp to my teenage daughter as a form of contraception either (wouldn’t recommend the pill either).

[TheRadleyPorch]

Clearly I agree, which is why I said that it takes time and education and several cycles to establish a pattern and thus would not be good birth control on a fundie honeymoon. Or for plenty of other people. I don’t think you’re arguing against anything I said. But perhaps after Willow, Josie and Kelton can get their act together and have access to more education without parents looking over their shoulders and could use FAM/NFP quite successfully, if that’s what they want to do (not that I think they’d ever tell us what birth control method they’re using, nor should they feel a need to). 

[Satan'sFortress]

I used the Fertility Awareness Method to GET pregnant.  I thought it was very cool and I kept tracking my cycles for many years using that method just because I found it interesting & a good way to understand my body.  I used the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility--not sure if it is even still current??  Again, I really found it quite interesting.

[VineHeart137]

3 hours ago, Satan'sFortress said:

I used the Fertility Awareness Method to GET pregnant.  I thought it was very cool and I kept tracking my cycles for many years using that method just because I found it interesting & a good way to understand my body.  I used the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility--not sure if it is even still current??  Again, I really found it quite interesting.

Same. I read the same book in 2017. Got pregnant the first cycle we tried (YMMV). I also thought it was cool tracking my cycles. I definitely understand my body better now!

[theotherelise]

Yeah, I have a traumatic response to even the idea of going back to FAM. I also used it when trying to conceive. On my first visit with the Reproductive Endocrinologist after 13 months of temping and tracking, he told me to take out my BBT thermometer and smash it. It was such a relief. I kept waking up earlier and earlier each day because I was stressing about taking my temp first thing in the morning.

The problem with FAM in my experience is that you can't really know if it will work for you as prevention or conception tool until you've tried it for awhile. But in general, I think it's an absolute positive to be connected to your body and its changes. And it can be very useful. If you combine it with a pull out, it could be really effective for anyone avoiding other forms of birth control for whatever reason.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

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