iThei mdcdaelcinfd o c elllllrllll cf tthfeBut what are the alternatives for women who do not want to get preg-
nant? I had been using birth control pills for many years and knew I was
not ready to get pregnant, but I also knew I had to kick the birth control
habit. Condoms have a 14 to 15 percent failure rate. That can be too big
of a risk to take. I’m not too crazy about implants or any of the IUDs,
either.
I then learned about the Fertility Awareness Method.
This method utilizes knowledge of the female reproductive cycle to pre-
dict the days a woman will be fertile and the days she isn’t. There are only
six days a woman can get pregnant within every cycle.
With a typical menstrual cycle lasting twenty-eight days (count day
one as the first day of the menstrual period), on average, women ovu-
late somewhere in the middle. But not every woman has a twenty-
eight-day cycle. Also, not every woman with a twenty-eight-day cycle
ovulates right smack in the middle of the cycle. And many women
may ovulate at different times each month, depending on lifestyle
factors.
Fertilization can occur five days before ovulation or on the day of ovula-
tion. Thus at the beginning and end of a menstrual cycle, a woman is
typically infertile. She is fertile for six days somewhere in the middle after
she ovulates.
A thermal shift in basal temperatures, cervical position, and cervical flu-
ids help determine ovulation.
Our temperatures go up by 0.4–0.6 degrees Fahrenheit after ovulation,
and this thermal shift can be measured by using a highly sensitive basal
thermometer right after waking up. The temperatures, along with the
other fertility signs, are recorded daily in a fertility chart to help the
woman analyze where she is in the fertility cycle.