Talk to me about charting to avoid

mcgee

Has anyone done it and NOT gotten pregnant? How long did you do it? How many days prior to and immediately following ovulation did you abstain? Any recommended websites?

joyco

My grandmother tried it and said that every time she figured they were in the clear, she got pregnant.  Ha!  (she has 5 kids, so you can imagine how "well" it worked)

Also, my friend LOVES the k'tan, thank you SOOO very much!

mcgee

Ha! Well, I had heard that, of course, but I wondered if anyone had success using the basal body temp/charting method.

I'm so glad your friend loves the K'Tan! I think it's wonderful!

thethomps

We have.  Granted, it was only for a few cycles prior to getting pg.  I used my CM as a guide for when to abstain or use other methods of bc (condom or spermicide).  If it's dry, crumbly or non-existent, you are good to go.  If it's even slightly wet/runny/eggwhite-ish, then use backup.  I am very regular, so it ended up being about 5 days before O and 5 days after that I would make sure to abstain or use bc.  I chart using pen and paper, so I'm no help there.

I have a friend who charted for 7 years before getting pg.  The whole time they were TTA, so it does work long term!

chargermama

I used fertilityfriend.com for a year to NOT get pregnant.  Looked great until one miscalculated session of kookie and here I am now... but I used OPKs and temping.  I guess I am a gooey mess down there b/c I could never get a good gauge with my CM.

Duckie07

Yup, we did.  We successfully avoided for two years with charting before DD, and we loosely charted again after DD for another two years before we wanted to conceive again.  We read TCOYF and used the software that came with it.  I found that the book and software was all I needed.  I will definitely go back to charting to avoid after this pregnancy.  It does take lots of dedication on both yours and your DH part, but we were very happy and successful using this method.  I don't mind sharing more details off the board if you'd like.

ali-1411

Duckie07:

Yup, we did.  We successfully avoided for two years with charting before DD, and we loosely charted again after DD for another two years before we wanted to conceive again.  We read TCOYF and used the software that came with it.  I found that the book and software was all I needed.  I will definitely go back to charting to avoid after this pregnancy.  It does take lots of dedication on both yours and your DH part, but we were very happy and successful using this method.  I don't mind sharing more details off the board if you'd like.

If you don't mind me asking, how quickly did you get pregnant each time?

I always wondered if people are successful because they wouldn't be getting pregnant easily anyway.  kwim?  Just curious, I don't have an opinion either way.

Duckie07

ali-1411:

If you don't mind me asking, how quickly did you get pregnant each time?

I always wondered if people are successful because they wouldn't be getting pregnant easily anyway.  kwim?  Just curious, I don't have an opinion either way.

I don't usually like to tell how long it took, but I think your question is legitimate.  We got pregnant the first month trying with DD and the second month this time around.  However, we knew we had bad timing the first month trying for DD#2, so we weren't expecting to get a positive pregnancy test that first month. 

SaraLouiseBride08

ali-1411:

If you don't mind me asking, how quickly did you get pregnant each time?

I always wondered if people are successful because they wouldn't be getting pregnant easily anyway.  kwim?  Just curious, I don't have an opinion either way.

We charted to avoid for just over two years. I think  big part of our success, though, was how regular my cycle was. Otherwise, it would have taken a lot more work than I'd have put in. Anyways ... I read TCOYF and went from there. After about 6-9 months of charting temps and CM, I realized I always O'd between days 15-18, and I could always tell by my CM. So after that I just tracked my CM and periods. Whatever TCOYF says about avoiding is what we did ... I think 5 days before and a certain number of days after? However long sperm lives. It's been a while! Anyways, we usually had no problem either not having sex or using a condom, but I must admit, sometimes we did the 'ol pull and pray method.

 

How quickly did we get pregnant? It went something like this:

Me after 3 glasses of wine: Keep that baby maker away from me, I'm ovulating.

Husband: Come on, babe! We're going to start trying next month when we get back from vacation anyways.

Me: FINE (famous last words coming next:) No one gets pregnant on the first try anyways.

Meet Olivia:

ali-1411

SaraLouiseBride08:

 

How quickly did we get pregnant? It went something like this:

Me after 3 glasses of wine: Keep that baby maker away from me, I'm ovulating.

Husband: Come on, babe! We're going to start trying next month when we get back from vacation anyways.

Me: FINE (famous last words coming next:) No one gets pregnant on the first try anyways.

Meet Olivia:

LOL.  Awesome.

jml5q

I charted to avoid for about 5 months prior to TTC DD and then in between the two kids. Although I will say we used condoms during fertile times, not abstaining, so i'm not sure if that technically counts. But i also have a super regular cycle.

As for ali's question, we got pregnant the first month both times we stopped avoiding.

But i will say it definitely takes dedication and i'd find myself having the converstation SLB had after 3 glasses of wine. So it can be dangerous if one of isn't fully set on no more babies!

userdeleted

We tried it after Leo was born and it didn't work out too well - it was impossible to temp with all the night time wakings and that fun newborn stuff. 

We've been doing it for a few months again now successfully. I have long, weird cycles but it is actually very clear when I need to be avoiding if I am being good about temping every morning. I know several couples who have done it long term. From what I can gather, the problems that people have with it isn't that it doesn't work, it's that it can take dedication and if you're opposed to using barrier methods you might be abstaining for long periods of time.  

MrsMillerTime

We are and have been since DD was 6-ish months old (when I quit taking the minipill).  There is usually about a 10 day window when we abstain - my cycles are pretty regular so I can usually tell when I'm going to O.  I do not temp (because I'm lazy) but I pretty much track everything else using the Fertility Friend app on my phone.

That being said - we did have a scare this month because I was 10 days late.   

AustinBride06

Charted to avoid for about 8-9 months then went back on BCP. Got pregnant after a BCP user error. Miscarried, charted to avoid 1 more cycle then TTC w charting and got PG on the third cycle. Charting really became second nature...much easier, much better for my body, and really much more interesting (I loved looking at all my stats) than any othe form of BC IMO. Contemplating Mirena but will go back to charting otherwise.