NFP Users: How many days per cycle do you abstain when trying to avoid pregnancy?

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I’d just like to add that the stickers are the best part about Creighton 👍. Our instructor was telling us that sometimes her TTC couples will draw little hats or outfits on the white baby stickers!

Me…I just get a kick out of it. And it provides for a really easy, nonchalant way of telling FI what’s up with my cycle.

“Honey, I just finished my first sheet of white baby stickers today…those green stickers are woefully under-utilized. Thank goodness we have a few more months of sticker-usage to clear this all up–before it really matters!”
 
STM user here. I guess it is about 10 days for us. Phase 1 ends about day 9-10 then phase 3 starts about 19-20. Although both pregnancies were perfect, day 14 ovulations (Thank you God. It kept my non-NFP OB-GYN off my back) I am usually so irregular that we find that funny. I’ve had long cycles (40 days) but usually phase 1 is just extended.

I like my cross-check. My temps clearly shift when I remember to eat my nori (kelp sheets for rolling rice and sushi.) Currently having some strange mucus during breast-feeding. If I was going mucous alone I would say it doesn’t look that fertile but cervix is way high, way soft, and way open. DD is only 6 months old and was a very rough pregnancy. We are abstaining longer right now.

When I can get more sleep my temps become accurate again. Looking forward to it…😛
 
Rach620 said:
Go to the Creighton Model FertilityCare website and search for an instructor there: fertilitycare.org/teacher.htm

If there still isn’t anyone in your area, then I’d suggest calling up your diocesan office of family life to see if they can give a referral–if not to doc, then to a local NFP instructor. Most Catholic dioceses have lists of local NFP instructors because classes are required for those getting married. Any local NFP teacher should be able to identify at least NFP-friendly docs in your area, if there aren’t any NFP-only ones.
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Good suggestions, thank you, I am working on this.
 
I use the NFP and abstaining 12 days.
My cycles are typical 27 - 33 days and menstruation 6 -8 days
 
My wife’s cycle averages 26 - 28 days. So, beginning on day 8 after the first day of her period, we abstain for 10 days. We are very lucky in that she can actually feel the slight, yet unmistakable, pain of ovulation. which usually occurs 7 - 9 days later. The extra two days are for caution. We have used this pattern for the last 5 and a half years, and have also taken her temperature and other signs for confirmation. Because of this, we have avoided surprise pregnancies, and the two kids we’ve had during that time showed up on the first time trying without any guesswork. 👍

Who says NFP doesn’t work? :cool:
 
Here’s one for everybody.

What do you do when your wife wants to contracept and won’t use NFP? Or I should say, if she does use NFP she complains and really doesn’t believe in it?

James
 
IgnatiusBenedic said:
Here’s one for everybody.

What do you do when your wife wants to contracept and won’t use NFP? Or I should say, if she does use NFP she complains and really doesn’t believe in it?

James
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This is a good question, but it is off-topic here. There are some great answers to this that many of us can share. Please start a new topic here in Family life and send me a private message and I will join. Name it something like, “What to do when your wife doesn’t believe in NFP?”

To send a private message, click on my name and a menu will appear. Click “send private message.” I’m looking forward to helping where I can. God bless you and your wife.
 
I have a 29-35 day cycle. Menstration lasts 9 days, only 4 days of spotting. Our phase 2 starts on day 6, once I finally start spotting, because mucus always shows up then. Phase 3 is only 5-6 days long before menstation begins, again 😦 Our phase 3 is the only time we can have marital relations since my menstraul flow is super heavy. Does switching to the Creighton method help? We are currently using STM and have kept in touch with our teaching couple on a monthly basis and still don’t know why our phase 2 is so long 🤷 So we abstain for approx 23-29 days per cycle depending onif the cycle is longer or shorter.
 
jones2009, I understand this must be hard on you. Indeed switching methods may help you.

Regarding the early beginning of Phase 2, I suppose especially learning Billings would be of help, because it would teach you to differentiate between non-fertile and fertile mucus : apparently you, like me, have constant mucus, so learning to detect the difference is important (to give you an idea: for a Peak Day usually between D14 and D16 of my cycle, my mucuous turns fertile around day 8 to 11)
Similarly, I know the STM very well, and from what I saw, the identification of Peak Day with mucuous does differ from Billings. For some women, where the decrease in mucuous is very sudden, this makes hardly any difference, but for others, it makes for a exceedingly short Phase 3.
Moreover, for many women the temperature rise only takes places several days after ovulation, so waiting 3 days after this rise can be pointless.
To give you my example: I learned Billings, but once I was confident with it I added temps in order to be sure the ovulation was really over (and I hadn’t had a “fake” ovulation): usually my temp rises on the 2nd or 3rd morning after Peak.

So, yes, investigating Billings may be of help. Of course, at the beginning, you’ll be asked to abstain during Phase 1 so that you can learn to detect the mucuous changes, but since that’s already what you’re doing, doing it for a few more months “for a good cause” should be ok, shouldn’t it;) ?
Hope that helps !
 
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