Let’s review some things first. The part of your cycle where estrogen is dominant is the first part – the part before ovulation. Progesterone is dominant after ovulation – the last part of your cycle. Estrogen causes lower BBT and higher fertile quality cervical fluid. Progesterone causes a temperature shift to higher temps and a drier (non-fertile) cervical fluid.
During one’s period at the beginning of the cycle, you cannot get pregnant. When we talk about your period, I mean true bleeding and shedding of the uterine lining that is built up during the progesterone phase. You may have heard, however, of women getting pregnant during “their period” – however, this is not a true period with shedding of the lining. Rather, it is an episode of “break-through” bleeding after a long estrogen period. Anytime you are charting and have not had a temperature shift to confirm ovulation, you should assume you are still fertile – even if it has been thirty or more days of a low pattern.
How can this happen? Many times stress is the culprit here. My cycle around my wedding was 43 days long; I didn’t ovulate until a week and a half after the wedding on cycle day 25. Job stress can contribute; as can sudden increases in exercise training (exercise on its own should not inhibit ovulation and fertility, unless you are training for the Olympics and not giving yourself enough rest time. Let’s just go ahead and bust that myth).
Additionally, you can have an annovulatory cycle, a cycle without ovulation. My wedding cycle was simply a very long cycle, but you can have cycles where it seems like your body simply starts over. This is ok if it happens every once in a while, and is quite normal. However, if you only have annovulatory cycles, or have many more of them than fertile/true cycles, you should check with a doctor or midwife. Just like with really long cycles, you should use protection (if trying to avoid pregnancy) or keeping going (if trying achieve pregnancy) until you have that temperature shift. It can be hard to tell when your body will go ahead and ovulate on super long cycles or annovulatory cycles.
Here’s one of my pregnancy charts – Elias chart. You can see how we achieved pregnancy. Any time we made love before the fertile period was just for fun; same for any time after the fertile period. That fertile window is what you want to focus on. This is especially important for anyone who naturally has short cycles or long cycles. If you don’t ovulate on day 14 (again, many of us don’t), you’ll want to analyze your cycles to understand the best time to try.
What about if you are trying to avoid getting pregnant? This is one of the things that I really loved about charting when I first started. Traditional birth control – shots, pills, barriers, spermicides – require that you use them throughout the cycle because they don’t tell you when you are fertile. By knowing when you are fertile, you can limit the use of these methods. (Of course, taking birth control pills 5 days out of your cycle is not going to work!) My husband is not a fan of condoms – many of us aren’t. Knowing my fertile days allowed us to only use condoms during those days; we were free to go without any other time of my cycle.
If you are trying to avoid, there are a few rules/guidelines to follow. You are free during a true period (see above!). You are free three days after a temperature shift with dry-up of cervical fluid (they have to go together). You are free anytime you do not have fertile quality cervical fluid, though the closer you get to expected ovulation, the more careful you will want to be. The best advice – chart for at least three cycles before relying totally on this method to avoid pregnancy.
There are so many other things we could discuss about the finer points of charting, but it would take a great deal of time. I suggest that everyone own a copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility
, or at least check out a copy from the library. It’s an invaluable resource and well worth it.
Again – I have no affiliation with Ovusoft, etc. I simply like and use the software. Thanks.
During one’s period at the beginning of the cycle, you cannot get pregnant. When we talk about your period, I mean true bleeding and shedding of the uterine lining that is built up during the progesterone phase. You may have heard, however, of women getting pregnant during “their period” – however, this is not a true period with shedding of the lining. Rather, it is an episode of “break-through” bleeding after a long estrogen period. Anytime you are charting and have not had a temperature shift to confirm ovulation, you should assume you are still fertile – even if it has been thirty or more days of a low pattern.
How can this happen? Many times stress is the culprit here. My cycle around my wedding was 43 days long; I didn’t ovulate until a week and a half after the wedding on cycle day 25. Job stress can contribute; as can sudden increases in exercise training (exercise on its own should not inhibit ovulation and fertility, unless you are training for the Olympics and not giving yourself enough rest time. Let’s just go ahead and bust that myth).
Additionally, you can have an annovulatory cycle, a cycle without ovulation. My wedding cycle was simply a very long cycle, but you can have cycles where it seems like your body simply starts over. This is ok if it happens every once in a while, and is quite normal. However, if you only have annovulatory cycles, or have many more of them than fertile/true cycles, you should check with a doctor or midwife. Just like with really long cycles, you should use protection (if trying to avoid pregnancy) or keeping going (if trying achieve pregnancy) until you have that temperature shift. It can be hard to tell when your body will go ahead and ovulate on super long cycles or annovulatory cycles.
Here’s one of my pregnancy charts – Elias chart. You can see how we achieved pregnancy. Any time we made love before the fertile period was just for fun; same for any time after the fertile period. That fertile window is what you want to focus on. This is especially important for anyone who naturally has short cycles or long cycles. If you don’t ovulate on day 14 (again, many of us don’t), you’ll want to analyze your cycles to understand the best time to try.
What about if you are trying to avoid getting pregnant? This is one of the things that I really loved about charting when I first started. Traditional birth control – shots, pills, barriers, spermicides – require that you use them throughout the cycle because they don’t tell you when you are fertile. By knowing when you are fertile, you can limit the use of these methods. (Of course, taking birth control pills 5 days out of your cycle is not going to work!) My husband is not a fan of condoms – many of us aren’t. Knowing my fertile days allowed us to only use condoms during those days; we were free to go without any other time of my cycle.
If you are trying to avoid, there are a few rules/guidelines to follow. You are free during a true period (see above!). You are free three days after a temperature shift with dry-up of cervical fluid (they have to go together). You are free anytime you do not have fertile quality cervical fluid, though the closer you get to expected ovulation, the more careful you will want to be. The best advice – chart for at least three cycles before relying totally on this method to avoid pregnancy.
There are so many other things we could discuss about the finer points of charting, but it would take a great deal of time. I suggest that everyone own a copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility
, or at least check out a copy from the library. It’s an invaluable resource and well worth it.Again – I have no affiliation with Ovusoft, etc. I simply like and use the software. Thanks.
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