Marquette method question

[Caleb777]

Hello,

I am researching different NFP method for postpartum use. My wife and I have 3 wonderful kid, the youngest being 3 months old. We used STM in the past, but had to abstain in the postpartum phase.

We cannot use LAM because of breastfeeding problem…

I researched the marquette method but something is bugging me: in the normal instructions, it says that the fertility monitor detects ovulation 2 to 5 days in advance and that this isn’t enough to avoid pregnancy. But in the breastfeeding protocol, you wait for the fertility monitor to show a high reading before abstaining…

This doesn’t make sense to me…

thanks a lot for your help

 

[UbiCaritas]

Hello,

I am researching different NFP method for postpartum use. My wife and I have 3 wonderful kid, the youngest being 3 months old. We used STM in the past, but had to abstain in the postpartum phase.

We cannot use LAM because of breastfeeding problem…

I researched the marquette method but something is bugging me: in the normal instructions, it says that the fertility monitor detects ovulation 2 to 5 days in advance and that this isn’t enough to avoid pregnancy. But in the breastfeeding protocol, you wait for the fertility monitor to show a high reading before abstaining…

This doesn’t make sense to me…

thanks a lot for your help

First, if your wife isn’t breastfeeding exclusively, I STRONGLY suggest you talk to an instructor about what protocol to use, or post on their forums to talk to the developer and his assistant.

If a woman’s exclusively breastfeeding and using the Marquette method, you get, on average, 70 days of highs between the first high and the first ovulation, which is plenty to avoid pregnancy even with the super-est of super sperm. If she isn’t, though, it can be a lot less than that. A lot less. I went from Low to Peak my first cycle. And while most first cycles don’t have a long enough luteal phase/phase 3/post-ovulation phase to sustain a pregnancy (you usually need 10 days there to sustain a pregnancy, and 4-5 is normal for the first cycle), you can’t count on that. Mine was 10 days long, and we’d been intimate in a timeframe that could have resulted in a pregnancy 5 months after a C-section, not a great prospect at all. We’d have kept and loved the baby, of course–it’s just that I wasn’t supposed to get pregnant again for at least 10-12 months, and a pregnancy that close to a C-section is considered high-risk.

Please understand I’m not knocking your wife for not exclusively breastfeeding; it didn’t work out for me, either! I just didn’t understand–and to be fair, the published protocols weren’t terribly clear–that in that case, the method could be less effective for me. In retrospect, had I known that, we’d have abstained until I’d had my first period.

An ongoing issue with Marquette is that they’re terribly underfunded and there are a lot of politics between the NFP group there and the higher-ups at the university. The website’s been in need of an update for years (the more recent protocols are now behind a paywall), but the university won’t fund it; they developed a better charting software and app, but the university won’t let them release it, and so on. The developer and his assistant are FANTASTIC about answering questions posted (anonymously) to the forum within 24 hours, though. The forum paywall is about $60/year or $35/6 months, as I recall. It went up fairly recently to help with the website update costs, which I’m hoping will mean an update soon.

Also, for the record, I continued to use Marquette after that initial scare, and while I’m never going to love NFP per se, it was by far the best method for me, plus it worked perfectly for both TTA and, eventually, TTC.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

First, if your wife isn’t breastfeeding exclusively, I STRONGLY suggest you talk to an instructor about what protocol to use, or post on their forums to talk to the developer and his assistant.

If a woman’s exclusively breastfeeding and using the Marquette method, you get, on average, 70 days of highs between the first high and the first ovulation, which is plenty to avoid pregnancy even with the super-est of super sperm. If she isn’t, though, it can be a lot less than that. A lot less. I went from Low to Peak my first cycle. And while most first cycles don’t have a long enough luteal phase/phase 3/post-ovulation phase to sustain a pregnancy (you usually need 10 days there to sustain a pregnancy, and 4-5 is normal for the first cycle), you can’t count on that. Mine was 10 days long, and we’d been intimate in a timeframe that could have resulted in a pregnancy 5 months after a C-section, not a great prospect at all. We’d have kept and loved the baby, of course–it’s just that I wasn’t supposed to get pregnant again for at least 10-12 months, and a pregnancy that close to a C-section is considered high-risk.

Please understand I’m not knocking your wife for not exclusively breastfeeding; it didn’t work out for me, either! I just didn’t understand–and to be fair, the published protocols weren’t terribly clear–that in that case, the method could be less effective for me. In retrospect, had I known that, we’d have abstained until I’d had my first period.

An ongoing issue with Marquette is that they’re terribly underfunded and there are a lot of politics between the NFP group there and the higher-ups at the university. The website’s been in need of an update for years (the more recent protocols are now behind a paywall), but the university won’t fund it; they developed a better charting software and app, but the university won’t let them release it, and so on. The developer and his assistant are FANTASTIC about answering questions posted (anonymously) to the forum within 24 hours, though. The forum paywall is about $60/year or $35/6 months, as I recall. It went up fairly recently to help with the website update costs, which I’m hoping will mean an update soon.

Also, for the record, I continued to use Marquette after that initial scare, and while I’m never going to love NFP per se, it was by far the best method for me, plus it worked perfectly for both TTA and, eventually, TTC.

I have a question for you regarding marrquette.
When you say an average of 70 days of highs does that mean 70 days of unsafe time to Abe relations before the average ovulation? Is that 70 consecutive days pp that you are given a “red light” if trying to avoid? And if not ecologically bfing is it accurate at all or is it just a time you cannot have relations because the window is not big enough?

 

[UbiCaritas]

I have a question for you regarding marrquette.
When you say an average of 70 days of highs does that mean 70 days of unsafe time to Abe relations before the average ovulation? Is that 70 consecutive days pp that you are given a “red light” if trying to avoid? And if not ecologically bfing is it accurate at all or is it just a time you cannot have relations because the window is not big enough?

Several good questions. I’ll answer the ones I know the answer to. Your questions in bold, my answers in regular.

When you say an average of 70 days of highs does that mean 70 days of unsafe time to Abe relations before the average ovulation?

The way that the PP protocol for cycle 0 works is that you reset the monitor after every 10 days of testing. Your body will generally (again, assuming breastfeeding) attempt to ovulate several times before it actually does. Once the monitor reads a “high” reading, it will continue to read “high” automatically until it gets a Peak (ovulation) reading.

So, let’s say that on day 5 of a 10-day “cycle,” you get a high. No relations until either you get a peak, or you reset the monitor and get a low. The latter isn’t terribly uncommon–see above about multiple attempts to ovulate. You might get a low or two (or none) in that next 10 day cycle; lows are usable, highs are not. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Generally, it doesn’t come out to 70 straight days of abstinence, though of course, for some it can. From what other breastfeeding moms say (I only partially breastfed, and that for 4 months), the awesome thing about Marquette PP is the initial lack of abstinence or subjectiveness, while the seriously annoying thing is the amount of abstinence as you approach ovulation in the first one or two cycles. The monitor does have to get to “know” you, which often means that the second ovulation (ie, the one after your first period) doesn’t get detected. It didn’t for me, meaning about a month of abstinence, bleh. I later learned that a lot of women use backup cheapie OPKs while using Marquette–ie, testing with the monitor in the morning and the OPKs in the evening–and I did that as well until my doc gave us the all-clear to TTC again.

Also, IIRC, Marquette’s breastfeeding protocol is geared towards exclusive but *not *ecological breastfeeding.

Is that 70 consecutive days pp that you are given a “red light” if trying to avoid?

See above, but generally speaking, no.

And if not ecologically bfing is it accurate at all or is it just a time you cannot have relations because the window is not big enough?

The postpartum protocol once you are cycling is accurate regardless of feeding method: abstinence begins on day 10 or the first high reading, whichever comes first, of the first cycle, day 9 or the first high of the second, and so on until cycle 5/day 6, where it stays until you reach 6 months postpartum, and then it’s 6 days prior to the earliest Peak reading you have. Abstinence continues until 6 days after you get a Peak reading. I’m not entirely certain this answers your question, though; if it doesn’t, could you rephrase it?

(Standard disclaimer: for anyone reading: if you really need to avoid, please, please don’t use only the information in my posts in order to do so. Please check the protocols on the Marquette forums and talk to Dr. Fehring or an instructor for clarification. I’m not an instructor, just pretty familiar with the method. )