Fertility Awareness

Julie(lipse sayz... This relates closely to ThatTimeOfMonth, but has to do mostly with the rest of gals' monthly cycles. There are a bunch of ways to tell when you're fertile... those of you who were at NBTSC 1998 (sess 1) may have been at Stephen's sex workshop might remember him talking about them.

Guys, you should know about this stuff too. ;)

technical stuff (methods)

• BBT: If you take your temperature every morning (or whatever time of day you wake up: the important part is that you've been sleeping for at least four or five hours, so the temperature isn't influenced by your activity. Your temperature immediately on waking is called your Basal Body Temperature, or BBT) at the same time, and write it down or plot it on a graph, you will probably notice a sharp rise of about 0.6 degrees F when you ovulate, after which the temperature stays up around there until you menstruate and it goes back down again. The biggest draw-back to this method is that it's not real reliable unless you have a vaguely regular sleep schedule. The later you wake up/the longer you've been asleep, the higher your temperature will be, regardless of where you are in your cycle. If you're sick or drunk or totally sleep deprived that will raise your temperature too. Just note those occassions in your records.

I kept records when my sleep schedule was totally screwy, and I could still see the jump in temperature. Right now I have my alarm set to the same time every morning (8:30) and when it beeps I turn it off, pop the thermometer in, wait for it to beep, take it out, and go back to sleep. This works fine, as long as I get to bed at a reasonable time (say, before or around 3 am). I use a digital thermometer. It cost about $6, and it stores the temperature until the next time you turn it on, which I like.

• Vaginal secretions / mucous: Basically, your natural secretions down there are dry and tacky when you're not fertile, and then they get wetter and more cloudy colored as you start getting fertile, and a day or two around when you ovulate, they're very wet and clear, kind of like egg whites. Then they dry up again. If you're not comfortable poking around in there, you can just look at what's left in your underwear or on toilet paper. Personally, I prefer to wash my hands and stick my finger in there. Mucous changes are probably the earliest sign of ovulation.

Most of the time, your mucous is slightly acidic. Sperm die in the acidic mucous after about 3 to 5 hours. When you start to approach ovulation you produce fertile mucous, which aside from being smooth and slick and wet is also slightly alkaline. Sperm can live in this mucous for 3 to 5 days, the outside limit, under perfect conditions, being about 7 days. Yeast [0] also prefers an alkaline environment. I wonder if you could use pH paper as a FertilityAwareness method? I've never heard of anyone doing it, but it seems like it'd be simple enough to try. I'm not sure how big the pH changes are.

• Cervical position/os: Your cervix also changes throughout your cycle. When you're not fertile, it's low down (easy to reach), and the opening, or os (rhymes with "toss") is closedexcept during menstruation, when it opens a little bit to let the endometrium ("blood") drip out. The rest of the time it's actually plugged up with infertile mucous to keep sperm out. It feels harder to the touch, sort of like the tip or your nose. Some women say that it's tilted more at this time, but I haven't noticed that. Around ovulation, the cervix becomes higher up inside you, the os opens up, and it's softer to the touch, more like your lips, and for some people it straightens out a bit. To tell what your cervix is like, of course, you either need to reach up in there and feel it, or look at it fairly often with a speculum, hand mirror, and flashlight, or both. It takes time to learn what's normal for you throughout different parts of your cycle, and this is probably the least popular method of fertility awareness.

• Saliva: I have Reanna to thank for hearing about this one originallyshe e-mailed me an article on one of the saliva fertility testers from Canada, the Luna. The idea here is that right around ovulation, the salt content in your saliva (& vaginal mucouses) goes up. If you look at a little of your spit under a decent microscope, you'll see "fern" shapes made of salt crystals for two or three days around ovulation, and the rest of the month, it won't really look like anything. I know of three products designed to be used for this purposebasically, they're small (lip stick sized) microscopes, bundled with information on using them as fertility indicators. The cheapest one is the Lady Fertility Tester, $36. I've heard it's reliable. There's also the Luna, $60, and the Lady-Q, $65. All three can be purchased on-line.

When I have some extra $, I'm going to get a Lady Tester, just 'cause it sounds like a neat idea. (Also, my mom keeps hinting that she wants me to be on The Pill. I'm not comfortable with that at alleven though it's low risk, the risks are serious ones (infertility or birth defects in my future children, breast cancer). I make an effort to avoid invasively mood-altering drugs, and anything that screws with my hormones is def going to affect my mood. Besides, I know a couple people who got pregnant on the Pill. :( So, I want to be able to send my mom a couple months worth of exceptionally good fertility records with detailed descriptions and references, 'cause I really don't want her to worry too much about my sex lifeI don't think there's any reason for her to.)

(Later note: I did in fact purchase a LadyTester. It's not terribly well made... The lenses stick in the casing a little, and I can't tell how to replace battery or lightbulb. I do get salt patterns sometimes vaguely before I ovulate, but overall I'm not impressed. I think it's a reliable method for only about 80% of women who show marked changes.)

• Hormones: As anyone who has ever suffered from PMS knows, your hormones change throughout your cycle too. Unfortunately, the only ferility awareness methods for directly measuring hormonal changes are those expensive ($300 - $400 and up) little computerized systems. These are clearly out of my price range, and unnecessary besides, since I've got four other methods at my disposal, and so far the three I've used correlate really well.

The most common applications of fertility awareness are trying to get pregnant and trying not to get pregnant. I do use it primarily for the latter (and in 10 years or so, probably for the former). However, I've also found it useful in anticipating/preventing yeast infections, and it would probably give good information on other kinds of problems down there too. It's also a good way to just be in touch with your body and hormonally influenced moodsa lot of people mentioned out-of-control feelings associated with ThatTimeOfMonth, and I certainly felt that way, not just 8 years ago at menarche, but more often too. I think this is a great way to feel back in control again.

• FertilityAwareness as birthcontrol: Here's the deal. Sperm can live for 7 days, tops in fertile mucous. An egg lasts 24 hours, but very occasionally, a woman will ovulate twice in the same cycle, sometimes two days in a row, so 48 hours after ovulation takes that possibility into account. Many people tack an extra day on there, so three days after ovulation is a very careful waiting period. Once those three days are over, you're pretty safe, until your cycle starts over again. Of course, you should use condoms anyway (& other forms of protection), to protect against diseases and bad luck. It takes three months to a year of consistant practice before you can really be considered proficient at fertility awareness, and have enough information on what's usual for you. (That's why I think it's a good idea to start before you're sexually active, if you're interested in ever using it as birthcontrol...it'll work better, and you can learn when you're not under any pressure.) The time between ovulation and menstruation will always be the same. For most women it's 14 days; for me it's 12 days. Variation in cycle length occurs between menstruation and ovulation. To get a reasonable estimate of when the safe period ends at the beginning of your cycle, subtract about 20 days (14 for the time between ovulation and menstruation, 6 for the time a sperm can survive before ovulation) from your shortest cycle (within the last year, if you know it.). This gives you a pretty conservative estimate.

• Blank fertility charts: http://www.fertilityuk.com

[0] Candida yeast lives naturally in a lot of women, but sometimes it gets a little overzealous, and the result is painful itching, a gooey white, yeasty smelling discharge, and if it's not treated, eventual tissue damage (ack!). Things that encourage yeast growth are moist conditions (sitting around in a wet bathing suit, say), too much sugar in your blood stream or just down there (yes, sad to say, drizzling chocolate syrup between one's thighs in sex play isn't all it's cracked up to be (and no, I've never made the mistake of doing this)), or the introduction of foreign or agressive bacteriathis is why most of you have probably been taught to wipe from front to back after going to the bathroom, for example. Why do bacteria have an effect on yeast? Well, the yeast aren't the only things down therewe have tiny ecosystems going on in our bodies. Particularly, we have little acidophilus bacteria in our koochies, and these friendly little fellows usually keep the yeast at bay (by secreting hydrogen peroxide, I think). Acidophilus are the same little bacteria found in yogurt and in our intestinal tracts. SO, anything that hurts the acidophilus will encourage the yeast. Antibiotics can stimulate yeast infections for this reason. If you have a yeast infection, unsweetened (you don't want to feed the yeast!), active culture yogurt can be used effectively to treat it, because you're adding more acidophilus and they will kill the excess yeast. I've tried this, and it works very well, although it is a bit messy. It's less msesy if you freeze the yogurt briefly first. I make my own yogurt and freeze it in cardboard tampon applicator tips. Then I peel the cardboard away and have a briefly solid measured application of yogurt. It's not as cold as it seems it would be. I swear.