NFP & Irregular Schedule

[LittleNurse]

Hello!

My husband and I are starting NFP. Unfortunately, I was on hormonal contraception for 2 years before we have come to this point. But, we are excited (and a little nervous) about this next step!

We are trying to find a method that will work for us. The problem is that I have an extremely erratic schedule. I go to college full time and work full time overnights at a hospital (7pm-7:30am). This means, that sometimes I have to stay up after work to go to college or run errands, or it means I don’t get a full 8 hours of sleep before I have to get up and go somewhere, or it means that I end up sleeping the night instead of staying up all night because I have a 7am clinical. It is tough, but we make it work and it is only for a few semesters.

In addition to all of that I have hypothyroidism. While it is treated with medication, I still have very low body temperatures and I know my temperatures fluctuate a lot when I am tired.

So, we aren’t sure that a sympto-thermal method would be the best for us. Any recommendations on a good NFP method for someone with an erratic schedule? I’m not sure I want to rely too heavily on taking my temperature …

Our goal is to wait 2 years before starting our family. Financially we couldn’t support a child right now, and I know I wouldn’t have the time to devote to an infant while going to school and working full time. Work helps pay for school as long as I stay full time and the program requires us staying full time, so I couldn’t drop to part time in either - hence, we are trying to wait for children until the end of school!

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated! Would also love to hear anyone’e stories about using NFP with an irregular schedule and stories about coming off of hormonal BC!

Thanks everybody!!!

 

[Lorelei12]

I couldn’t temp either. I used Marquette, which combines the use of a fertility monitor with mucus observations. It helped us to avoid for a few years, and also to achieve a pregnancy. It is also pretty easy to learn the rules.

 

[white_sheep]

Also take a look at Billings. You will probably need to contact a mentor or whatever with whichever plan you go with.

Is Marquette basically Billings with the ovulation test?

 

[Lorelei12]

Also take a look at Billings. You will probably need to contact a mentor or whatever with whichever plan you go with.

Is Marquette basically Billings with the ovulation test?

I don’t think the rules of each method are quite the same, but I guess you could say that. Billings uses mucus observations, Marquette adds the monitor to those.

Also- we never had a mentor or any formal teacher. All the rules are clearly laid out on the website. I taught myself very easily. With the hypothyroidism, though, you may want to seek additional help- I believe Marquette has a message board and you can contact nurses or other medical professionals with questions, though I never needed to.

 

[Allegra]

I use Creighton model and it works really well for us. It relies only on cervical mucus and doesn’t require taking temperature. They teach you the signs to look for if you are going to have an irregular cycle and I’ve found it to be really accurate, even though I have very irregular cycles as well.

 

[LittleNurse]

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

I am definitely going to look into some of these methods. I like the fact that I don’t have to buy an expensive machine for Billings or Creighton, but I also like the fact that Marquette adds in another sign to track for more information on fertility/infertility. I live very rural so I’m not sure if I will be able to find any classes to take. It seems like Marquette would be easy enough to learn at home, so I am thinking that might be one of the best options for us right now.

Again, thank you so much for all of the help!