| Rhythms and Patterns You can use a homemade chart or one online (see "Reading and Resources" below) to record your cycle each month. After a few months, if you are ovulating, you should see a pattern forming, a personal rhythm. If you are like me, then your pattern will, in fact, be a lack of pattern. But even if you have a lack of pattern forming, you can still learn to recognize you own signs of impending ovulation if ovulation is taking place. You may also be able to recognize problems in your cycle. If you have a shorter than normal length of time between ovulation and the start of your period, this signals a luteal phase defect, which means that your progesterone levels during the latter half of your cycle are too low, maybe too low to maintain a pregnancy. Soy added to your diet can increase your progesterone levels enough to lengthen your cycle by a couple of days. Angus Castus and Red Raspberry can also be helpful in balancing out slight irregularities in cycles. As was stated on the Fertility page, the cyclical changes in mucus are not usually noticed in women with CF. However, you should check your mucus for a few months anyway, just to make sure of whether or not this is the case for you. If you do notice these changes lining up with other events, then it is very helpful for you. If not, then after a few months you can cease this exercise and rely on the other methods. Make sure you connect the dots of your temperature recording so that you can clearly see the rising and falling. When using a paper/manual charting method, you can circle the dot, day of cycle, or date of the month to represent having had intercourse. It is easy to lose track of those days on which you've made love, especially if you are intimate at different times of day. Recording it will ensure that you can leave 48 hours between each encounter so as to allow your husband's sperm volume to increase to maximum levels. It is also valuable to note that ovulation occurs 14 days or two weeks before your next period, not 14 days or two weeks after your period. This makes little difference if you have a 28 day cycle, but if your cycle is shorter or longer, this can change your estimated/actual date of ovulation quite a bit. This is because ovulation sets off a chain reaction, that should ideally bring on your next period. That is why many women who are not experiencing periods are anovulatory. For women with CF I have added fourth and fifth components of monitoring your cycle that are not usually included in books or NFP (natural family planning) methods. Here I will outline the very basics of each of these methods. Together they are very effective in achieving or preventing pregnancy. In order to understand each method fully, please see my reading and resource list for books and organizations that teach these methods in depth. Also, see "Reading and Resources" below for an easy way to chart your body's signals. Cervical Changes This method involves actually checking the state of your cervix itself. Your cervix changes dramatically in response to hormones throughout your cycle. It is very easy to reach when you are seated on a toilet because your tissues are relaxed and it falls closer to your vaginal opening, but in this position it is difficult to tell exactly where your cervix is lying. If you prefer you can check your cervix while lying on your back with your legs bent, feet flat on the florr or bed. If you have difficulty doing this or prefer to involve your husband more in the monitoring of cycles, you can enlist him to check it for you. Whatever method you choose, be sure to use the same one consistently, otherwise you may get false readings. Make sure you use the bathroom first (a full bladder can get in the way) and wash your hands to avoid introducing germs. At the beginning of your cycle (just after your period) your cervix is low in your vagina and closed tight. It will feel like the tip of your nose or like a rubber ball. As you near ovulation, it will rise higher in your vaginal canal and become harder to reach. This brings it closer to your womb and shortens the passage for sperm. It will also begins to soften and open, at first feeling like your chin and then like parted lips. After your fertile time has passed, your cervix will lower and become plugged with mucus again, to prevent the passage of sperm. Mucus Changes First, you should use the bathroom. Then you may check your mucus either by wiping your vagina with a tissue and using your fingers to examine any mucus on the tissue or by placing one finger inside your vagina and examining the mucus you produce. It is easy to obtain some mucus at the same time you check the state of your cervix. You will probably note that your vagina is very dry at the beginning of your cycle which means that you are currently infertile. You may then notice some "infertile mucus" which is sticky, tacky, opaque and holds its shape stiffly, like egg whites. When you place some between your thumb and forefinger and then pull them apart, it remains in little peaks. Next comes the "fertile mucus." You may feel a wet, slick sensation without being turned on. This mucus can be milky white, translucent yellow or clear and can be slick and abundant, though the consistency and color will go through changes leading up to ovulation. At ovulation this mucus will become very stretchy and slick so that you can stretch some for and inch or more between your thumb and forefinger. This mucus is called Spinnbarkeit or "Spinn." It may also be tinged pink or brown from breakthrough bleeding. Directly following ovulation you will notice the mucus returning to the sticky, tacky infertile type. It is important to note that if you have a yeast infection, you will not get an accurate reading of your mucus. To take advantage of your fertile time, you should have intercourse on the first day you feel wet or notice fertile mucus and then every other day throughout the time when your mucus is wet and stretchy. It is important to leave a day in between making love to maximize your husband's sperm volume. Since sperm can live several days in fertile mucus, it is possible to make love one day and actually conceive several days later. Though you may not notice changes in your mucus according to your cycle's phases, one thing you can do to encourage the possibility of pregnancy is a "vaginal sweep." Either use your fingers to clear out extra mucus or in a bath use one finger to open the vagina and allow water to flow in. Then cough or bear down to expel the water. You should notice a good amount of discharge coming out. This makes the accumulation of mucus less likely to prevent the passage of sperm, no matter how "hostile" it may be. Saliva Changes If you do not notice mucus changes or would like to confirm them with another means, ovulation microscopes offer an alternative. Make sure that the lens is clean and then place a drop of saliva from under your tongue on the lens. Do this first thing in the morning before brushing your teeth, eating or drinking. Let this sit and dry for five minutes before checking. Fertile saliva will create ferning patterns. Your most fertile time is from several days before ovulation to about 24 hours after ovulation. For charting purposes, you can replace your mucus record with a record of your saliva tests or you can use the comments section for recording your saliva tests. Because saliva contains mucus, you may or may not notice the appropriate changes at fertile times, especially if you have not noticed proper changes in cervical mucus. Saliva is a very accurate method of determining other hormone levels as well. So, even if you don't notice the appropriate changes on a ferning microscope, it doesn't mean that this method cannot be used for checking hormone levels. Usually a swab is taken and sent to a lab for analysis. This is discussed further on Improving Fertility under "Seeking Medical Help." Basal Body Temperature Be sure to use a thermometer that reads at least 1/10 degrees Farenheit. Take your temperature every morning at about the same time, before you get out of bed, take a drink or use the bathroom and . Record your temerature on a graph with a dot in the middle of the square below the appropriate day and to the right from the correct temperature, and then connect each dot with a line. Your curve will begin low at the beginning of your cycle and will rise right at or after ovulation. At ovulation, your temperature will rise at least 6/10 of a degree either in a single day or stair-stepping up over several days. Sometimes there will be a dip right before the rise in temperature occurs. Your temperature will probably remain high for several days or a week before falling in preparation for your period. Your temperature cannot tell you when ovulation is coming, only when it has already occurred. Your egg will only live for about a day. Sometimes you may miss a period without being pregnant. If your temperature drops as usual, then you are probably not pregnant. However, it your tempreature remains high well into the next month then you may be pregnant. BBT is usually highly accurate at pinpointing when ovulation has occurred. Reading and Resources Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, MPH The Art of Natural Family Planning by John F. Kippley and Sheila K. Kippley (The techniques in this book are equally effective for preventing pregnancy, achieving pregnancy and often for uncovering reasons for infertility. This book also shows you how to make and use your chart--ed.) Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition: How Your Diet Affects Your Menstrual Cycles & Fertility by Marilyn M. Shannon Creighton Model FertilityCare System www.creightonmodel.com www.fertilitycare.org Online Menstrual Cycle Charts www.MyMonthlyCycles.com www.fertilityfriend.com (On both of these sites you can easily, and for free, chart all your body's signals. It will also email reminders you specify, if you want--ed.) Couple to Couple League www.ccli.org/ (This is an international organization for teaching couples how to read their physiological changes and chart them as a couple. They offer a wealth of information as well as contact with others using these methods--ed.) Ovulation Microscopes Click www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/saliva-fertility-test.html for purchase, instructions and FAQs Pregnancy Tests and Ovulation Prediction Kits www.anotherblessing.com (They offer pregnancy tests and ovulation tests from $.25-$.50, plus free shipping in the USA, Canada, Mexico and Central America. They ship within 1 business day and all tests are packaged discreetly for your privacy--ed.) |
| Methods of observation and charting for determining fertility and cycles for women with CF |
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| By the God of your father who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. Genesis 49:25 |