Basic intro to charting

Charting your cycles is really helpful for letting you know a) when you’re fertile (so should be having loads of sex :lol: ), and b) when you’ve ovulated. You ovulate once a month and the egg lives for about 24 hours. However, sperm can survive in fertile cervical fluid for up to 5 days. So, you could theoretically have sex anywhere from up to 5 days before ovulation and get pregnant (in my case, it was 3 days before). Once the egg is gone, it’s gone, and your chances for that month are over. The time after you ovulate and before you get your period is called the luteal phase. It is almost always 12-16 days in length in most women and, most importantly, it should be very consistent for you from month-to-month. If it’s usually 13 days for you, it shouldn’t ever be more than 14 or less than 12. If you’re having irregular cycles, this means that your time to ovulatation is what is varying, not your luteal phase. So, for example, if you have a luteal phase of 13 days and your cycle last month was 28 days, then you ovulated around Day 15. If your cycle the month before that was 36 days, you ovulated around Day 23. I have long cycles and I wasn’t ovulating until Day 20 or so - it was so good to know that from the charting, otherwise I would have been timing sex for Day 14 or so and that would have been useless. So to chart you basically just record your cervical fluid and temperature. The cervical fluid will indicate when you’re in your fertile phase (it goes from dry or sticky to creamy or stretchy/eggwhite (the most fertile)). Your temperature will let you know when you’ve ovulated – it will be low until you ovulate (about 36.0-36.5), will go up once you ovulate (36.6-37.0), and will stay up until you get your period again (unless you’re pregnant, in which case it’ll stay up!) You can’t use an ordinary thermometer to take it, you have to get a basal body one (available in Boots & other chemists), they are more accurate and will usually give you a double-decimal reading (eg 36.25). And it is a bit of a pain the arse because you have to take it first thing in the morning, the same time every morning, before you get up or go to the loo or talk or anything. So it is a bit of a pain, but I didn’t mind it too much – I thought I would hate having to set the alarm on the weekends but it was quite nice to just wake up, temp, then snuggle back in. The cervical fluid checking is easy enough, you just use a finger to “sample” the outside of your vagina a few times a day – sounds gross but hey, no worse than changing a nappy, right? ;) One important thing – your temp will let you know when you’ve ovulated, but once it goes up then the egg is gone and it’s too late, so you can’t rely on it for timing sex – that’s what the cervical fluid is for. It will go from dry/sticky to wetter/creamier as you enter the fertile phase. The most fertile-quality fluid is clear and stretchy, like raw eggwhites – if you have that then you should jump your hubby straightaway! :wink: That is just a brief overview – I REALLY, REALLY recommend getting the book “Taking Charge of your Fertility” by Toni Weschler. I got in from Amazon but they prob have it in Easons too. It explains all of the above in much greater (and better) detail. She has a website – www.tcoyf.com – you have to pay if you want to use her software, but the forums are free & the girls are really helpful. Another great website is www.fertilityfriend.com – this lets you input your temp & cervical fluid data, it will track your cycle for you & tell you when you’re fertile, when you’ve ovulated, etc. You can get a basic membership for free or pay for a VIP one with a few more bells & whistles. I hope that helps a bit. If you have any questions post below or PM me.

Hi Tasket, great post! just couple points I'd add to it, more for other people who may not be familiar with charting ..... [b:359bdy8q]thermometer [/b:359bdy8q]- I used a very basic thermometer which I purchased for 9 euro in the local chemist. It had one decimal point, but it allowed me to identify the temp surge. Don't know how much the BBT thermometers are, but if they are expensive I would save money and get an ordinary one, so long as it has at least one decimal point. [b:359bdy8q]temp ranges [/b:359bdy8q]- low and highs will vary from person to person. My lows/highs were quite substantially lower than yours were (low=35.7, high=36.5), but key thing is that this was consistent for me. [b:359bdy8q]websites [/b:359bdy8q]- yes, these are handy (I used www.fertilityfriend.com myself), but a very simple excel spreadsheet can be just as handy. Like you Tasket, I didn't mind setting clock at weekend to temp 'cos I can very easily roll over for another few hours kip. Also, charting your temp can save you money on pregnancy tests, as if you are not pregnant and your period is on the way, you will see a temp drop that morning, telling you that it's coming and that there's no point wasting an expensive HPT this month. Enjoy the charting folks ! bibikay

I'm not ttc right now but I found that post of yours very interesting without being too disgusting like the MM stuff. We aren't using any contraceptive either right now and I'm just monitoring my body so I know when to avoid sex until we are ready ttc. However, if it happens well and good but from the posts here, I don't think its that easy. Anyway, I'll keep that all in mind for when we decide to "get serious" about it. Congrats, by the way and thanks for the info.

Girls thanks a mill for that, i'll be putting it to practice now :wink:

can I add that you should read 'Taking Charge of Your Fertility' by Dr Toni Weschler. She basically invented cahrting. the book is an unbelievable source of info. Any question you have - you'll find it in there. I knwo you don't like the mention of MM on this site, but I think you'll find the majority of those TTC over there link TCOYF with success. I've used it for years -as a way of avoiding pregnancy! and now that we're TTC its so much easier with charting. Great to know that you're in charge of your body - not drugs.

ooops, sorry, double post. :oops:

Great Post.. Thanks Tasket :D

This post is great. I have just recently started charting and I was getting confused when looking up the internet about the CM signs. This puts it in simple english. I personnally think that a sticky should be put on this as it is a great help to people just starting to chart. Thanks a mil