Confused aboud NFP

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Yeah.

Before I started doing NFP, I didn’t understand why I had such freakishly low body temperatures. Come to find out, 98.6 is very, very high for me and I might only hit that once a month, if that. A more normal temperature is 97.3 or 97.7.
pensmama87 said:
I will say I prefer a specific basal body temperature thermometer as opposed to a regular fever thermometer because regular thermometers don’t always go very low. I temp very low (if I’m 98.6 I’m probably running a fever). The ones meant for BBT seem to take that into account.
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Xantippe said:
Yeah.

Before I started doing NFP, I didn’t understand why I had such freakishly low body temperatures. Come to find out, 98.6 is very, very high for me and I might only hit that once a month, if that. A more normal temperature is 97.3 or 97.7.
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It also explained why I could feel so super lousy and hot yet “not have a fever.” I frequently felt as a kid like I was not believed about being sick because the thermometer didn’t read the right numbers. My kids are actually the same way - if I call the pediatrician and the nurse wants to know what the thermometer said, I make sure to say, “It says this, but that’s high for him.”

I’ve had several nurses sigh at me when she gets a low temp reading and think I must be some kind of paranoid mom, only to have the pediatrician look in my sons’ ears and say, “Oh wow, look at that infection!” :rolleyes:
 
pensmama87 said:
It also explained why I could feel so super lousy and hot yet “not have a fever.” I frequently felt as a kid like I was not believed about being sick because the thermometer didn’t read the right numbers. My kids are actually the same way - if I call the pediatrician and the nurse wants to know what the thermometer said, I make sure to say, “It says this, but that’s high for him.”

I’ve had several nurses sigh at me when she gets a low temp reading and think I must be some kind of paranoid mom, only to have the pediatrician look in my sons’ ears and say, “Oh wow, look at that infection!” :rolleyes:
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Totally.
 
Hello again,

Whould there be a problem if I would use spermicide gel as a back-up on infertile days? At least for the first months while I am still trying to figure out a pattern? It surely isn’t abortificent and it is not a barrier method either. I know it’s not very safe, but just to keep my mind in ease on infertile days.
 
Starbelle said:
Hello again,

Whould there be a problem if I would use spermicide gel as a back-up on infertile days? At least for the first months while I am still trying to figure out a pattern? It surely isn’t abortificent and it is not a barrier method either. I know it’s not very safe, but just to keep my mind in ease on infertile days.
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No… sorry, that would not be accepted by the Church. The marital act must be free from all artificial contraceptives, including spermicides. God bless.
 
Starbelle said:
Hello again,

Whould there be a problem if I would use spermicide gel as a back-up on infertile days? At least for the first months while I am still trying to figure out a pattern? It surely isn’t abortificent and it is not a barrier method either. I know it’s not very safe, but just to keep my mind in ease on infertile days.
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No…and to be honest I wouldn’t bother.

It’s the most ineffective method of ABC available. It has a very high rate of user error.

If it’s an artificial form of ABC the Church forbids it.

NFP or abstinence are your only two options.
 
On a purely practical note, spermicide can also be very irritating.
 
UbiCaritas said:
Well, that could be one way of ensuring that abstinence is fairly easy to cope with… 😃
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True dat.

On another thread recently several posters mentioned how NFP helped bring them to the Church. That was my experience too, after dealing with the effects of contraception. I would seriously rather abstain (temporarily or permanently) or have another baby than deal with the effects of contraception. They are seriously unpleasant.
 
Starbelle,

Is there any NFP training through your local parish? From I remember of our NFP training some 21 years ago there were no fancy electronic monitors or charts. Some of these people who responded may not actually be following NFP as taught by the Catholic Church.
Please be sure to get authentic catholic teaching. My wife and I used NFP very imperfectly for 21 years and have never had a unplanned pregnancy and we have 3 beautiful children which were all planned within about a 3 month window.

NFP is the absolute best method for cooperating with God’s will and staying open to life for those who are called to married life and have not taken a vow of chastity giving themselves completely to Christ. Mary and Joseph lived a marriage of complete chastity, but they had both taken this vow and agreed to keep it even into their marriage. Unless both spouses are agreeable to this, it would not be fair to impose it on a unwilling spouse. God bless you for moving towards God’s will for your life. I hope he continues to bless you and pour out grace upon you and your spouse.

I pray that you will trust God, and remain open to life. God will provide for you financially if it is his will that you have children. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you is what he promises us.

God recently blessed me with money out of thin air when I was betrayed by someone and I trusted him to keep me safe and take care of me. I pray that you will also put your trust in the one who loves you more than you love yourself and knows you better than you know yourself therefore he can be trusted.

Pray always, trust God, avoid sin, love your neighbor.
 
mavdragon said:
Starbelle,

Is there any NFP training through your local parish? From I remember of our NFP training some 21 years ago there were no fancy electronic monitors or charts. Some of these people who responded may not actually be following NFP as taught by the Catholic Church.
Please be sure to get authentic catholic teaching. My wife and I used NFP very imperfectly for 21 years and have never had a unplanned pregnancy and we have 3 beautiful children which were all planned within about a 3 month window.

NFP is the absolute best method for cooperating with God’s will and staying open to life for those who are called to married life and have not taken a vow of chastity giving themselves completely to Christ. Mary and Joseph lived a marriage of complete chastity, but they had both taken this vow and agreed to keep it even into their marriage. Unless both spouses are agreeable to this, it would not be fair to impose it on a unwilling spouse. God bless you for moving towards God’s will for your life. I hope he continues to bless you and pour out grace upon you and your spouse.

I pray that you will trust God, and remain open to life. God will provide for you financially if it is his will that you have children. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you is what he promises us.

God recently blessed me with money out of thin air when I was betrayed by someone and I trusted him to keep me safe and take care of me. I pray that you will also put your trust in the one who loves you more than you love yourself and knows you better than you know yourself therefore he can be trusted.

Pray always, trust God, avoid sin, love your neighbor.
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Why on earth would it not be in accordance with Church teaching to determine when you’re fertile via hormonal testing (ie, a monitor) rather than with fertile signs like mucus?

It sounds as though you probably learned a mucus-only method–at a guess, Billings, or perhaps the Four-Day method. Such methods do work quite well for some people, but other methods have been developed in the last decade which make NFP easier for those of us for whom the subjectivity of mucus observations isn’t a good fit. There are many methods out there now, one of which doesn’t even require mucus observations. As long as ta method only involves determining when a woman is fertile and then using that information morally, it’s perfectly in accordance with church teaching.
 
mavdragon said:
Starbelle,

Is there any NFP training through your local parish? From I remember of our NFP training some 21 years ago there were no fancy electronic monitors or charts. Some of these people who responded may not actually be following NFP as taught by the Catholic Church.
Please be sure to get authentic catholic teaching. My wife and I used NFP very imperfectly for 21 years and have never had a unplanned pregnancy and we have 3 beautiful children which were all planned within about a 3 month window.

NFP is the absolute best method for cooperating with God’s will and staying open to life for those who are called to married life and have not taken a vow of chastity giving themselves completely to Christ. Mary and Joseph lived a marriage of complete chastity, but they had both taken this vow and agreed to keep it even into their marriage. Unless both spouses are agreeable to this, it would not be fair to impose it on a unwilling spouse. God bless you for moving towards God’s will for your life. I hope he continues to bless you and pour out grace upon you and your spouse.

I pray that you will trust God, and remain open to life. God will provide for you financially if it is his will that you have children. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you is what he promises us.

God recently blessed me with money out of thin air when I was betrayed by someone and I trusted him to keep me safe and take care of me. I pray that you will also put your trust in the one who loves you more than you love yourself and knows you better than you know yourself therefore he can be trusted.

Pray always, trust God, avoid sin, love your neighbor.
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Please don’t call into question those of us who are working diligently to follow the Church’s teaching and avoid sin, and just happen to be using an electronic fertility monitor. Please…just don’t.
 
I didn’t mean to ask if it was irritating or if it had side effects… I’ve used the product before and I know it’s ok. Anyway, the side effects of ABC are sometimes exaggerated. I understand, from a religious point of view they are forbidden, but they are quite safe when taking health into consideration.
 
mavdragon said:
Is there any NFP training through your local parish? From I remember of our NFP training some 21 years ago there were no fancy electronic monitors or charts. Some of these people who responded may not actually be following NFP as taught by the Catholic Church.
Please be sure to get authentic catholic teaching.
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So what is authentic Catholic teaching in regards to NFP?
And how is using a fertility monitor contrary to that teaching?

I haven’t seen anything in this thread that is contrary to authentic Catholic teaching.
Could you please point out and quote the posters who have deviated from Catholic teaching so we are all on the same page?

I’m curious.

I’m thinking Marquette method (fertility monitor) and using the Lady Comp versus say charting temps and/or mucus patterns is no different then an argument similar to using snail mail (physically mailing a letter) versus using e-mail.

Both clearly achieve the same purpose and both are perfectly moral options…the difference is one is a bit quicker and more efficient then the other and it takes out some user error.
 
Starbelle said:
I didn’t mean to ask if it was irritating or if it had side effects… I’ve used the product before and I know it’s ok. Anyway, the side effects of ABC are sometimes exaggerated. I understand, from a religious point of view they are forbidden, but they are quite safe when taking health into consideration.
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ABC side effects can and are quite serious.

I’ve spoken to plenty of women who very much dislike the side effects of the pill.

When I was on the pill many years ago…I experienced mood swings and a serious decrease in libido…but what was far more serious and what scared me more and convinced me to stop using the pill (before I converted) was the fact that I was beginning to experience pain in my thighs and legs.

The pill is notorious for causing blood clots which is extremely dangerous.

Once I got off it…the pain and the mood swings were gone and I’ve never had issues like that again.
 
Kelfa28 said:
So what is authentic Catholic teaching in regards to NFP?
And how is using a fertility monitor contrary to that teaching?
I haven’t seen anything in this thread that is contrary to authentic Catholic teaching.
Could you please point out and quote the posters who have deviated from Catholic teaching so we are all on the same page?
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Let me start by reiterating that My wife and I practiced NFP imperfectly. We came up with our own way to interpret what was taught to us and now we are suffering from those decisions. My wife is no longer open to life and much like the original poster is trying to control or guarantee that she will never become pregnant again. This position has had dire consequences for our marriage and our family. We have not been intimate for almost 3 years and three weeks ago she filed for divorce. You can view the only thread I have started on this site to get the entire story.

I do not mean to demean or distort or cast any doubt on methods that may be approved by the catholic church but I just do not have any knowledge of. It had just occurred to me that the original poster may have come here first for the information instead of getting it from her parish or from a NFP class. Because quite frankly when one has been exposed to the full message of a NFP class, we can’t help but be convinced that this is truly the way that cooperates with God’s will.

What is more important than any specific method is that we remain open to life, and truly seek God’s will for our lives and stop turning in on ourselves in selfishness to what we will that God do for us.

May God bless those of you who choose to be offended with patience and understanding, and a kind heart who seeks the benefit of the doubt, when no offense is intended and only the good of the original poster is being pursued.
 
Hello again. It seems that NFP is much harder than I thought. I took your advice and read Taking charge of your fertility. Everything seemed so clear and straightforward, I was sure it was going to be an easy task. However, except for my cervical mucus, nothing adds up. My temps are all over the place, absolutely no pattern (unfortunately I wake up during the night so that might be the problem) and I didn’t get a line quite as dark as the control one on my opk. From the eggwhite mucus I concluded that either I ovulated on day 13/14 or that my body was not able to ovulate after all and it is an anovulatory cycle.
After a month and a half of abstinence I figured that day 26 was safe and had intercouse. On the morning of day 28 I had the feeling that my period was about to come (I had a specific mild pain in my lower abdomen - the only premenstrual symptom I have) and was thrilled. In the evening the coast was still clear so guess what…we did it again. Now I am absolutely freaking out, since my period is still not showing. I’ve done everything I knew to bring it on: drank some red wine, just came from the gym where I added some extra weights to my routine, took vitamin C, applied accupressure on SP6 and now I am standing with a warm water bottle on my abdomen.
If I think about it logically, I’m sure I’m not pregnant. It was day 26, had no fertile cervical mucus and I used spermicide to be safer. But I am so afraid, I just want to have my period and not think about this until next month.
Every hour that goes by without results is killing me. What do you ladies do to trigger a late period? Is there any tea or anything else I could take?
 
Starbelle said:
Hello again. It seems that NFP is much harder than I thought. I took your advice and read Taking charge of your fertility. Everything seemed so clear and straightforward, I was sure it was going to be an easy task. However, except for my cervical mucus, nothing adds up. My temps are all over the place, absolutely no pattern (unfortunately I wake up during the night so that might be the problem) and I didn’t get a line quite as dark as the control one on my opk. From the eggwhite mucus I concluded that either I ovulated on day 13/14 or that my body was not able to ovulate after all and it is an anovulatory cycle.
After a month and a half of abstinence I figured that day 26 was safe and had intercouse. On the morning of day 28 I had the feeling that my period was about to come (I had a specific mild pain in my lower abdomen - the only premenstrual symptom I have) and was thrilled. In the evening the coast was still clear so guess what…we did it again. Now I am absolutely freaking out, since my period is still not showing. I’ve done everything I knew to bring it on: drank some red wine, just came from the gym where I added some extra weights to my routine, took vitamin C, applied accupressure on SP6 and now I am standing with a warm water bottle on my abdomen.
If I think about it logically, I’m sure I’m not pregnant. It was day 26, had no fertile cervical mucus and I used spermicide to be safer. But I am so afraid, I just want to have my period and not think about this until next month.
Every hour that goes by without results is killing me. What do you ladies do to trigger a late period? Is there any tea or anything else I could take?
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There is nothing you can do or take that will naturally trigger menstruation. Your body releases hormones and the egg needs to travel into your uterus. in order the implant if it’s fertilized. If it isn’t, more hormones are released to discard the egg and menstruation begins.

All you can do is take a pregnancy test to be sure you aren’t pregnant.

I think you might be a little paranoid about this.

It takes more then a couple of weeks to understand NFP and you really need a basic understanding on how the female body works…then you’ll understand the process better.
 
You are right about me being paranoid, I know I am, it would be a disaster to become pregnant right now, so I have good reasons.
It’s way to early for a test, I believe it has to be taken at least 10 days after conception. I know that it takes some time for me to know my body and also for my body to regulate itself after stopping the pill, I just hope it’s not always going to be like that. How many months of charting does it take to figure things out and actually be able to rely on this method?
 
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