Thank you to everybody for all of your helpful information. Like I said, I am trying to better understand the workings of NFP and help my wife to understand why the Church teaches as it does, how NFP can work, how effective it truly is, and ESPECIALLY I need to help her to understand that even though she is very irregular she could still effectively use NFP. Let me give some additional information, and maybe you all could give further insight. As a young married couple, we’ve been married for only a couple years. Not long after marriage my wife did check into NFP. She tried the thermometer practice for two months and has told me that it didn’t work for her, there was no pattern. I don’t know the best way to put it, but however it is supposed to work it did not work for her. Was she doing it incorrectly or does that particular method not work for all women? She has not tried any other NFP method, such as checking the mucus and other bodily signs, or the Creighton Model. Also, she is VERY irregular. Sometimes she will go even 1-9 months between her periods, it is a totally random thing and she never knows when to expect it. I am trying to understand this situation better and I appreciate any clarification and insight you all could provide me with. Thanks!
I would definitely recommend she learn a cross-checking method by taking a class or learning from a private practitioner. When your wife was experiencing no temp pattern a few things could have been happening. If she was coming off the Pill she would have no real pattern. The suspicion I would see
most likely is that she was anovulatory during that time. When I was struggling with infertility my husband called my temp chart “the Rocky Mountains.” What makes the temps change with a pattern is the presence of and levels of estrogen and progesterone. I had enough estrogen that I would start to show fertile mucus and my cervix would start to rise as if entering the fertile phase. But, because of my low thyroid, I didn’t have enough estrogen to release an egg. If an egg is not released, there is no corpus luteum (think “egg shell”) left behind to release progesterone.
Temps drop with estrogen and then rise sharply after an egg is released and progesterone is present. When the progesterone wears off the temp again drops sharply and menses usually begins that day. The estrogen phase lines the uterus. The progesterone phase sustains the lining for implantation. If implantation doesn’t occur, the progesterone wears off, and sloughing of the lining begins.
If you, the husband, were to take your temp each day, yours would look like hers did during her confusing time since you don’t ovulate. With charting it is very interesting to watch what our bodies do. I was anovulatory for 6 months yet had enough hormone levels to bleed each month. I ovulated one month, then was anovulatory for another 6 months then ovulated one more month and we conceived our son (happy happy, joy joy!) A breast-feeding mother would have a chart that looks like your wife’s did.
I really like the cross-checking method of Sympto-thermal because it has you look at all the signs of fertility. I have often said though, is that I wish sympto-thermal users would get a more “Creighton Method” understanding of cervix and mucus. You want to know cervix and mucus? Talk to a Creighton user! You want to know temps? Talk to a Sympto-Thermal user!
My guess, and this is only a guess because I am not a practitioner, from the symptoms you present here is that your wife has some estrogen releasing and the uterus is building a small bit of lining. There is not enough to release an egg and the lining is not getting thick. After many months she is finally getting a thick enough lining that it can no longer sustain and finally releases. I would be very interested to know what her cervix and mucus are doing during those times.
During my wildly irregular cycles my temps are most reliable in helping to conceive. My cervix and mucus were the most reliable in watching for the return of fertility after childbirth and breast-feeding infertility. My temps are also the best indicator of the months I need to add more iodine (kelp supplements) to my diet to get my thyroid right.
There I went…on and on again…Sorry. I am just on a mission that every woman know the amazing gift of fertility. I think if more women understood the gift of fertility, more women would want to embrace that gift and have more BABIES!!
. You need to find out WHY you are having these problems. Get a Creighton trained practitioner at www.popepaulvi.com for real help, not just a cover-up.