Advice/Tips for an NFP Newbie

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jazzy0710

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My husband and I will have been married for 2 years tomorrow and very recently decided to give natural family planning a try. I used to take the birth control pill for several years but ditched it back in March. Since then I have got a period every month, but as I suspected from being on the pill for so long they have been light.

My last period began June 24th and ended June 30th. Now I realize that you have to take your temperature each day which I have been doing since my period ended. There were a couple of days where it was a bit up but I mean it is hot out. Doesn’t ovulation start usually around day 11? That’s what I thought. I’m confused if someone out there could help me I would greatly apprechiate it. Thanks!
 
First off, have you taken any NFP courses? If not, I HIGHLY recommend it.

There are SEVERAL methods out there.
Since you’re talking about taking your temperature, the method that uses that sign is called the Sympto-Thermal method, which also charts your cervical mucous and cervical position signs to track your fertility. There are also other methods that mostly focus on the cervical mucous sign.
But again, it’s VERY important that you take a course to fully understand the intricacies of the methods. I would first of all contact your parish or diocese office to see if there are any local classes available and start there.
I would NOT be presumptive and go by counting the days of your cycle. This is basically a version of the “rhythm method”, which is very outdated and quite unreliable. Modern NFP courses teach you how to track your fertility symptoms on a daily basis, thus not taking any “guesses” as to what’s going on based on counting days.

I recently found this website that lists many of the different methods at the top (under the “methods” heading)…
livingthesacrament.com/

Hope that helps!
 
jazzy0710 said:
My last period began June 24th and ended June 30th. Now I realize that you have to take your temperature each day which I have been doing since my period ended.
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There is more to natural family planning that temperature taking. That is one sign, and actually the thermal shift indicates ovulation has already occured. It is mucus and/or cervix observation that indicates that ovulation is upcoming. And, you are to abstain during the presence of fertile mucus.

PLEASE take a class. You may need to abstain for a full month or more to chart your signs and become familiar with NFP.
jazzy0710 said:
There were a couple of days where it was a bit up but I mean it is hot out.
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That should not impact basal body temperature. You are using a basal thermometer and taking your temperature upon waking and before you get out of bed or move around, correct?
jazzy0710 said:
Doesn’t ovulation start usually around day 11? That’s what I thought.
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Ovulation is different for each woman, and varies from month to month for an individual woman. You cannot rely on averages, rules of thumb, etc. You need to rely on mucus observation and the cross check of the temperature.
jazzy0710 said:
I’m confused if someone out there could help me I would greatly apprechiate it. Thanks!
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There are multiple methods of NFP. I suggest you look into Sympto-Thermal (taught by Couple to Couple League, Northwest Family Services, and a few other groups), Creighton Model Fertility Care, Billings Ovulation Model, or Marquette Model NFP.

Please take a class in one of these methods.
 
Hi I am in the same situation as you are, I never did take the classes for NFP but I did bought the book and the thermometer with it and I have been taking my temp every morning. because I couldn’t take the NFP classes at the time what one teacher told me is that 10 days before my next period I should be infertile, to take my temp every morning and when my temp rise to 98.5 and it does that for a few days with out going down that means that I should be infertile, I have been doing this for the last 5 years and so far its been working. I do recommend taking the classes.
 
jazzy0710 said:
Doesn’t ovulation start usually around day 11? That’s what I thought. I’m confused if someone out there could help me I would greatly apprechiate it. Thanks!
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Ovulation happens when it happens. 13 days is the most common for my wife, but it’s happened anywhere from 10 days into her cycle to 23 days into her cycle.

Taking a class is highly recommended because if you only read a book then you only get textbook examples. Textbook examples are always ideal or close to ideal. Reality is often not ideal. When you take a class, you get to talk to a real person about your own charts. The class we took met once a month for three months, which gave us two opportunities to talk about real charts.

It can take six months after stopping the pill before your cycle regularizes. Symptoms and temperatures during that time can be a bit difficult to read, possibly for longer than six months if your body was adversely affected by the hormonal imbalance of the pill and takes longer to recover. What to do when you want to start NFP after having taken the pill is one of the topics covered in the classes, along with things like how what you eat can affect your symptoms or how stress can delay ovulation.
 
Thanks very much for your replies everyone. I asked a couple of months ago about classes and my priest told me that there was a priest in another city a few minutes away that used to do them but he apparently moved away. I will give the archdiocese a call tomorrow.
 
jazzy0710 said:
Thanks very much for your replies everyone. I asked a couple of months ago about classes and my priest told me that there was a priest in another city a few minutes away that used to do them but he apparently moved away. I will give the archdiocese a call tomorrow.
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Your diocesan family life office is a good place to start, just be aware there are also classes available that are not affiliated with the diocese, for example Catholic hospitals also often offer classes. And, there are distance teaching options available. Google some of these and look on their websites for teachers in your area.
 
I took classes for sympto-thermal method through Couple to Couple league.

I took a class and purchased the at home course for continuing education.

The website has a list of available classes in your area if you (name removed by moderator)ut a zip code.

Not only is every woman different but every cycle for each woman is different…you can’t really “expect” to ovulate around the same time each month.

You need to be charting carefully everyday and you need to make sure you temp with a basal body thermometer and do it before you leave your bed every morning around the same time. Weather shouldn’t effect it much at all.
 
I have called my local archdiocese. They gave me a Dr’s email. Just waiting to hear back. 😃
 
Not sure if you’ve looked into the Creighton Model, if not then I would highly recommend it.

We used it to avoid a pregnancy for almost 5 months, and then to achieve a pregnancy and became pregnant straight away. I love it!
 
We’ve always used the Billing’s method and learned it secondhand from a family member who took the class. This method is strictly mucus obervation based. This may or may not be universally true (I’m not a doctor or even remotely trained in medicine), but my wife finds that it is MUCH easier to track her results if she refrains from using mucus-supressing cold medicines (at least until after the peak day is identified and past). I wonder if it isn’t a good idea in general to ask pharmacists about whether drugs one is taking have mucus-supressive effects.

We’re lucky in that my wife almost never needs meds, so Billings has been easy to use for IDing peak times (if not always easy to obey…)
 
The original post leaves out some important details.
Yes it is uncommon for ovulation to happen that early, but not impossible, this can vary so much, it’s not good to go on observations like this.

You say the temperature has been up for a couple of days, how up is up? do you mean literally a couple of days as in 2 days?
The most basic rule for temperature shifts as taught by Couple to Couple League is:
  1. wait for a temperature that is above the last 6 previous temperatures.
  2. find the highest temperature in those previous 6 days, Low Temperature Level (LTL)
  3. wait for 3 days of temperatures that are at least .4 degrees above LTL
Random temperature spikes occur fairly regularly in my experience, but in ~5 years of charting, we’ve never seen a sustained shift that didn’t correspond to the start of infertility.

I too would encourage you to take the class to gain the full benefits of whatever method you end up learning, I’m glad you were able to get in touch with some one.
Best wishes!
 
Interhawk said:
The original post leaves out some important details.
Yes it is uncommon for ovulation to happen that early, but not impossible, this can vary so much, it’s not good to go on observations like this!
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Good point!
Usually I ovulate around day 24 out of a 38 day cycle, this last time I ovulated day 14, this hasn’t happened to me in 7 months of charting… (thankfully we realised as we were ttc!) It really does depend on your body every month.
 
I am considering NFP. Although I m not Catholic, I ve always been drawn to the faith. I have tried different contraceptives and I just want to say I had problems with each one- they messed my body up. The iud sent me to the er. I hurt so bad I thought I had something wrong with my appendix. They found no reason for my pain but I knew & went the next day and had it removed.
My oldest is 21 - I had my yougest @ 42. She is 3. I can’t imagine doing it again at 45. Where would I go to inquire about NFP?
 
sojourner5 said:
I am considering NFP. Although I m not Catholic, I ve always been drawn to the faith. I have tried different contraceptives and I just want to say I had problems with each one- they messed my body up. The iud sent me to the er. I hurt so bad I thought I had something wrong with my appendix. They found no reason for my pain but I knew & went the next day and had it removed.
My oldest is 21 - I had my yougest @ 42. She is 3. I can’t imagine doing it again at 45. Where would I go to inquire about NFP?
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I would contact your local Catholic diocese office… they should have local class information for you.
There are also lots of online resources… this is a good place to start:
livingthesacrament.com/index.php/methods

The methods listed there are direct links to the companies that provide classes in many areas too…

Prayers for you!
 
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