Tell me about NFP... how does it work? Do you track cervical mucus, cervical position, use OPKs, etc.?
I've tracked to get pregnant but never to avoid!
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If you haven't already, read Taking Charge of Your Fertility - it's a great resource! I personally can tell based on on the combination of
cervical mucus and day # in my cycle, and I am very strict about avoiding anytime anywhere near expected O date and avoiding anytime cervical mucus starts increasing. I can generally predict the date of my period +/- a day based on when I get egg white cervical mucus plus 14 days, so I'm pretty confident that I'm estimating O date accurately. -
We've used NFP for 10 years ... honestly, between LO1 and LO2, we were probably not as careful as we'll be now that we're done having children.
I second reading TCoYF!!!
We use the pull-out method 95% of the time. The only time I don't worry about it is right after my period. Of course, there's always a chance of early ovulation, but that's part of the % failure rate of this method of birth control.
I do use an app (p-tracker), to track my cycle, but I never used the features beyond just start and end dates of my period. I can tell when I'm getting fertile (based on CM and level of labido). We don't avoid sex during this time though - in the future, we'll use condoms during peak fertility.
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It's basically the exact same as tracking to get pregnant, you just have sex at the opposite times. My husband and I have used NFP as our method of birth control since we were engaged. That being said, it's not a method of BC I would recommend unless a surprise pregnancy would be welcomed. My son is the result of sex when I should have been past the window for conception. That was after 6 years of using NFP successfully. So if avoiding pregnancy is absolutely necessary, I would use a different method.
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Same as @Truth Bombs, we used it for several years to avoid getting pregnant and then to get pregnant, but my second child is the result of an oops. We used the pull-out method and it worked pretty well until the one time it didn't. I just say that she was determined to exist :).
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I was very very loosely doing that.... After DD1, my period came back at 9 months and I got pregnant (surprise!) when DD was 16 months. In that half a year or so my cycles were really wonky so it was hard to track and then I got lazy and then just got pregnant.
So right now I don't have period, we grudgingly went back to condoms and after I'm done nursing I think I rather just go back on the pill than to track b/c we are likely done with 2 so a surprise 3rd would be very surprising...
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We sort of used this and also just used condoms during fertile times, and I ended up pregnant after only 2 months. He was a very much wanted baby but definitely a surprise!
In case you think I just did it wrong, I had read the book several times, I'd been tracking my temps and cervical mucus for literally years, and I was using opks. My cycles were long and irregular but I had never ovulated before dpo22, so our plan was to use condoms after dpo10 to be totally safe. I must have ovulated like 10 full days early during the cycle that I conceived DS. We are still not completely sure how it happened because we only had sex once and I had a positive opk 7 full days later.
Needless to say, I know the method works great for some (especially for those with very regular cycles) but we won't be using it again!
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We sort of use it, but we use the pull-out method. Not 100% reliable, but nothing is. When we wanted to conceive, we stopped pulling out. That worked. In the 5 years since, it's worked, as well.
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I did for a year-ish. Yeah I temped/charted, used OPKs (could have quit later but they were very helpful the first 6-9mo), cervical mucus, and eventually tried cervical position. I had pretty regular cycles and O'd CD 15/16. One cycle I O'd early on CD 14 and we had had sex on CD9...so I got pregnant. I did have cervical fluid that day (creamy) so I believe it was user error. We did want another, hence the NFP instead of a different method. If I use it again, I will probably do pull-out method until after I confirm O. You should not have unprotected sex if if you've had any cervical fluid, even if it's not watery or egg white
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@catlady: @avivoca: @Truth Bombs: I'd echo this ... we were ok with NFP before kids (and between kids), but now that we're "two and through", we'll be looking into another form of birth control (permanent).
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So if I am on CD 13 and have watery CM I probably shouldn't be having sex, right?
We were avoiding this month to take a break from fertility treatment but we may have messed that up. In the past my cycles have been long so I was not expecting to be fertile this early...
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@kes18: I had no idea that creamy CM could be fertile! Crazy!
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@mrskansas: I don't know that it's "fertile" necessarily (I think it counts as semi-fertile?) but I think going by the sympto-thermal method you need to have X number of "dry" days to have unprotected sex! I can't remember exactly as it's been 1.5 years now but definitely look it up!
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@mrskansas: I ONLY had watery (and creamy) cervical fluid so watery for me was right around O day (2-3 days before). And sperm live for 5 days so take that into account.
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My cm is not consistent and I can't use it as a way to track. I also have sorted cycles and can't safely have sex before ovulating. So I have to temp and we only have unprotected sex after on but right now I am breast feeding a 8.5 month old so can't really temp because I am up a bunch at night.
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My MIL did it with just mucous. I am trying just mucous too because I hate temping and am okay with an oops. I avoid days with EWCM. I know I get two days of EWCM then ovulate.
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@mrskansas: OPK is undoubtedly the best way to go for it. OPK is also strictly advisable for women who tend to notice that their periods are either little delayed or early than the due date. The process of counting the days or self-analysis of vaginal mucous to detect the window of ovulation is not much reliable if you really want to stay away from pregnancy for a while. I'm quite scared of the conventional ways.
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@G@9: How does that work? I actually thought using only OPKs would be one of the worst ways..? Do you use OPKs for ~6mo (or whatever) to establish normal O day and then avoid a certain number of days?
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@kes18: No, you cannot set a fixed date of ovulation with OPK use. It just detects the ovulation window, I don't think it can regulate ovulation. It tells you "it's time for ovulation".
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We basically do this with CM but we also ALWAYS pull. Never even came close to a mess up in 9 years. But I also know when I'm close to ovulating with cm and tend to avoid around then.
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I temp and we use condoms until I confirm ovulation. We are likely one and done and are not comfortable with having an oops. Once we are 100% sure we're done we will be taking more permanent means.
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We use nfp for trying to do conceive and not, mainly only monitoring cm. I'm extremely regular, though.
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@G@9: But isn't using OPK's only too late of a notification to stop having unprotected sex? If you ovulate 12-48 hours after a positive OPK and you had sex the day or two before your positive OPK then you're pretty much asking to get pregnant
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This is a true question and not meant in any way to offend, but why does one choose nfp? Religious reasons? Not wanting hormonal birth control? None of my close friends use this method so I've never heard the pros/cons.
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@Littlebit7: I was curious about it for short-term preventing while we take a break from fertility treatments.
I wouldn't use it long-term since a copper IUD is like 99% effective and super convenient without the hormones.
I'm interested to hear other responses!
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We did it for awhile and it worked great, but I have really, really regular cycles. Used condoms from the end of my period until a few days after the temp shift. We only used it at a point where we would have been ok with an oops.
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We do NFP but I refuse to avoid sex during ovulation because I enjoy having sex when my body wants it! We're not religious so we just pull out. I mostly just keep up with my cycle so that I know what my mood will be, etc., and when we need to be extra careful. I really would love to move on to something more permanent but my sex drive is sensitive to hormone fluctuations so I don't want to get on anything.
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@Littlebit7: DH and I are totally secular...my reason for doing it is because I hate condoms and my sex drive is really destroyed by birth control pills.
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@Littlebit7: I don't react well to the pill (tried two types) and I'm nervous to try anything else with hormones including implants, rings, shots, etc. I also have a metal allergy so I wouldn't consider an IUD. We find most condoms horribly uncomfortable to the point that I am nearly crying in pain with my husband barely feeling any sensation. When TTC, we got pregnant on the first try twice so I'm worried if we use a method during my fertile window that fails I will get pregnant. Because of all that, we've settled on combination of NFP methods with at least one other form of less effective/reliable contraception (natural lambskin condom and/or spermicidal film).
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