Fertility questions... anyone else chart their fertility?
Posted by Duckalucky on May 04, 2008 · Member since Aug 2006 · 1127 posts
Hey guys, I am charting my cycles because we're trying to conceive and it's nifty to know anyway. I would appreciate any advice or commiseration from fellow charters.
I am concerned with the temperatures I am recording because supposedly if your waking time is too different it can throw them off.... well, it's not my waking time I'm worried about! My bedtime has a 3 or 4 hour variance. I almost always rise at 5:30 but I go to bed any time from 10 to 2... if there is a "usually", I "usually" go to bed around 12:00. Will this create havoc in the apparent patterns of my rising temperatures? Is there anything I can do to compensate?
Thanks so much.
Hi Duckalucky. I chart for birth control-not trying to concieve, but it's all the same. I don't think you should have any problem with your erratic bedtimes. The important thing is that you have been asleep, resting for about four hours before you take your temp. So you may need to take into account that your temps will be a bit higher on days you go to bed at 2 a.m., since you're about a half hour under that 4 hour mark, but for all the other days you should be perfectly fine.
You'd have more to worry about if you waking schedule was the one that varied so much. You can easily compensate for that as well though. My typical wake time is about 7 a.m., and I tend to sleep a little later on the weekends. So I just set my alarm for 7 on the weekends, take my temp, role over and go back to sleep. Works fine for me... On days when I have to get up earlier than 7, which is usually a couple times a week (ranges from 5:45 up to 7) I don't worry about it and honestly have hardly noticed a difference. Not sure what charting software/template you're using. I use the PDF's you can download from www.ovusoft.com. These have an area where you write down the time if it's out of the ordinary so when you are looking for your temp rise you can tell why a certain temp might stray from the others.
Don't worry if it seems like your temps are too erratic either. Just keep tracking and you'll see the swing up once you're looking at the whole month.
i've read in tcoyf that you need to be asleep for at least 3 hours, so i guess its not set in stone if you've read that it's 4. maybe somewhere in between there.
I also found those ovulation predictors you can try at the drug store to be a lot easier than the temperature taking.....
Thanks guys! Great answers and I feel very comforted.
I went and browsed through the cycle gallery at www.tcoyf.com and was impressed with the huge variation in people's cycles. Hey, some of them even look like mine (minimal temp variation, otherwise predictable).
LMT, I'm using the Ovusoft program based on TCOYF -- same charts, only the computer calculates (or sometimes miscalculates) the coverline based on your input. If I were charting it myself, I know where I'd draw the coverline; the program is uncooperative about that, as it turns out, and stubbornly puts it wherever it wants.
Hiimkelsi, I think so too -- thanks for the confirmation. It just occurred to me that if I needed to adjust for each half hour I sleep in, I should also adjust for each half hour I stay up late... or not...
L2A, really? Hmm... aside from torturing my bladder to stay put until I've taken my temp every morning, and second-guessing the software, I think I'm okay with charting. Did you use the saliva ferning microscope dealies too? I got one because it was inexpensive and cool, and am actually quite impressed; it seems reliable!
L2A, really? Hmm... aside from torturing my bladder to stay put until I've taken my temp every morning, and second-guessing the software, I think I'm okay with charting. Did you use the saliva ferning microscope dealies too? I got one because it was inexpensive and cool, and am actually quite impressed; it seems reliable!
haha i do that too. i wait and wait and wait until its the right time, i wait just a little bit longer while i take my temp then run to the bathroom.
Do all of you use software like Duckalucky? I tried out the free 2 week trial of the software when I was first starting, and I don't really remember what I didn't like about it, but for some reason I preferred doing it by hand... Maybe it had something to do with more flexibility of being able to jot in notes and such?? I don't know. Aside from the botched coverline issue, do you like the software, DL? Now I'm tempted to try it again!
Do all of you use software like Duckalucky? I tried out the free 2 week trial of the software when I was first starting, and I don't really remember what I didn't like about it, but for some reason I preferred doing it by hand... Maybe it had something to do with more flexibility of being able to jot in notes and such?? I don't know. Aside from the botched coverline issue, do you like the software, DL? Now I'm tempted to try it again!
i use www.fertilityfriend.com and i love it! its really simple to use and they have a 20 day tutorial that they email to you once a day. it's free, but if you pay, you get extra stuff, but the free version is very simple, its just on their website, it takes me 1 minute every morning to just click on "enter signs" type in my temp and go. one thing that lets me do this though is that my thermometer saves the temperature, so i can take it at 7 am, fall back asleep and enter in the temp later in the afternoon. i think that if my thermometer didnt save the temp, i would just use paper.
I see virtues and really frustrating features, too, to the Ovusoft software. It's very convenient for me since I check my email every morning anyway. It does allow you to make notes, add medical procedures and other notes, etc. What it does not allow, to my very great annoyance, is the user to draw her own coverline. Grr.
I still take print charts with me if I go camping, etc. (Non-charters, you have not lived until you've held the pee until your 5-freakin'-minute basal thermometer gets your temp while you try not to chatter your teeth and pray you will get the sleeping bag and tent unzipped, and your shoes on, and yourself to the camp potty before the levee breaks!!) I like the intimacy of the print chart but I cannot be trusted to take care of papers, sadly. The computer is sufficiently big that I can't lose it... I think.
Personally I like it because I can print it out, hiding my sex life while leaving my reproductive health visible, for the doc... does that make me a prude? Haha! Anyway, you can customize what you prefer to let show when you print or upload it. One thing I do not like is the goofy symbols chosen for events (menstruation, ovulation, etc.) I don't know why they aggro me, but they do... they're a little twee, I guess.
I have seen pictures of the fertilityfriend charts and they look great -- very easy to read and natural and normal! I never tried that one.