Fertility Charting

Fertility Awareness is the ultimate in environmentally friendly solutions for those who want to take charge of their fertility or contraception.

The really good news is that it is growing increasingly popular as many women turn away from hormonal forms of contraception as well as hormonal treatments which help bring about pregnancy. So no homones flowing through our bodies, urine and rivers, no condoms in landfills and if you want to get pregnant later you use the knowledge learned aboout your fertility for contraception and use it to get pregnant!  Fertility Awareness is based on cyclical charts and observations which are built up through simple observations of your body and how it behaves during it's different fertile phases.

Women who experience difficulty while trying to get pregnant often turn to fertility charting in order to pinpoint the day or days of their cycle when they have the highest chances of becoming pregnant.  Many couples who fail to get pregnant may often only be trying to conceive on the wrong days.  Their chances of conceiving are increased greatly when they identify the most fertile days of their cycle and then engage in intercourse on those days. The same knowledge can of course be used to avoid pregnancy.

Fertility Awareness - How Is It Done?

In order to chart your own fertility, you should not be taking any kind of hormonal birth control or any other medication that affects your ovulation cycle or body temperature.  To practice fertility charting accurately, you also must commit to being consistent and thorough in your practice.  Charting fertility for conception and contraception can be an enjoyable activity that is really helpful in understanding your natural cycle, but it does take time and preparation.

Basal Body Temperature (BBT) is probably the most common fertility indicator which is used by women to help identify ovulation.

Aswell as the BBT, hormonal changes can be observed too. The hormone, LH, increases when ovulation is imminent. If you can detect it you know you're about to ovulate. Simple. Urine tests are the most common way to detect it in a domestic environment, these are cheap and easily bought in any pharmacy.

The secretion and discharge of sticky cervical mucus is also related to ovulation. Observation of this is also a valid way to monitor your cycle and forms part of the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM).

All of the data from these different fertility indicators can be collected together to make a fertility chart like the one below which helps demonstrate what is going on, unseen, within your body. Learning to chart fertility is a skill in itself, but there are solutions at hand in the form of contraceptive monitors.

Sympto-Thermal Reliability

How effective any contraceptive method is depends on how old you are, how often you have sex and whether you follow the instructions.

If 100 sexually active women don't use any contraception, 80 to 90 will become pregnant in a year.

If used according to teaching and instructions, the Symtothermal Method is up to 99 per cent effective.This means that up to one woman in 100 will get pregnant in a year.

The Symptothermal Method is more effective when taught by a specialist natural family planning teacher, and when more than one fertility indicator is used. Devices such as Cyclotest also make using this natural method of contraception a lot easier and therefore more accessible to many women.

Some people choose to combine their fertility awareness knowledge with male or female condoms – this is sometimes known as fertility awareness combined methods. The effectiveness of this depends on how well you use male or female condoms.

A Quality Thermometer For Accurate Charting

For accurate charting you need a quality thermometer. The thermometer we recommend below is from Cyclotest and was designed for especially for manual fertility charting.

What makes it so special?

Firstly, when you take your temperature it gives a nice clear beep and records the temperature so when you next turn it on you can see what the reading was.

Why is that important? Well it lets you wake up bleary eyed, take your temperature and go back to sleep, worrying about recording the temperature on your chart until later in the morning when you've had a coffee.

Secondly, like the cyclotest, this thermometer has a flexible measuring neck which allows better placement under the tongue than a rigid thermometer. Only with correct placement will you get an accurate reading.

Very importantly too is the quality of its German manufacturing ensures that it is correctly calibrated to medical standards.

Finally it has a low battery symbol incorporated. When trying to measure to a hundreth of a degree, a digital thermometer needs a constant flow of electrical current. When the battery power starts to fade on a digital thermometer the readings will become less accurate. Although it will eventually stop working, advising you that indeed the batteries need changing, the previous collection of readings would have been inaccurate.

When trusting your contraception or efforts to conceive to a thermometer, shouldn't it be a quality one?

How Contraceptive Monitors Can Help

Simplifying the daily charting routine by taking, recording and processing the data such as BBT, contraceptive monitors are an easy way to practice the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) of birth control. The negative side effects and health risks associated with hormonal contraceptives are leading more women to seek out alternative, natural forms of contraception and these monitors are an easy way to do that.

Cyclotest, The Simple Solution 

Cyclotest is a small handheld device with an integrated digital thermometer which takes control of your fertility charting for the easiest experience. The complete Cyclotest range of products is growing, the Cyclotest is available in blue or the Cyclotest Baby, a smiliar device, is available in pink and comes with the software to download fertility charts, useful for those who are trying to conceive.

Both Cyclotest and Cyclotest Baby are designed to give you control and understanding of your fertility without changing the natural harmony of your body.  

Cyclotest 2 Plus - The Contraceptive Monitor for Fertility Awareness

This device gives a 97% contraceptive reliability just by taking a simple waking temperature in the morning, for the first few weeks of each cycle.

But you have the option of increasing that reliability to 99% if you monitor a secondary fertility indicator, LH hormones or the appearance of cervical mucus. When one of these two natural indicators is noticed you just press a button and Cyclotest has learned that bit more, adding to its accuracy.

Remember that unlike other contraceptive monitors, Cyclotest is a one off purchase, there's no need to buy any environmentally unfriendly test sticks every month so for it's level of accuracy and huge array of functionality it is the best value contraceptive monitor available on the market.    

Cyclotest Baby for Those Who Want To Conceive

Cycotest Baby has been developed with the want-to-be mother in mind..

Based on a simple waking temperature, Cyclotest Baby can identify the most fertile days to try for pregnancy..

Since Cyclotest Baby is identical to a regular Cyclotest in all but the colour and packaging, it can be used for contraception without any modification after pregnancy. It costs just a small amount more as it has the software and USB cable incuded to allow easy downloading of fertility charts which are a goldmine of data for any fertility specialist.