Fertility Friend charting

[loobsie]

Hi, if any of you are using Fertility Friend to detect ovulation, can you please have a look at my chart and tell me how you'd analyse it? i am beyond confused!!

[url=www.fertilityfriend.com/home/MCB1982]My Ovulation Chart[/url]

ps
just to let you know, i got implant removed sept 1st.

dunno how to edit my post

here is refreshed link:

www.fertilityfriend.com/home/MCB1982]My Ovulation Chart

I'm not sure on that one. I would guess that your body is just settling down after removal of the implant so a regular cycle might not have been established just yet.

With charting, you really need to see patterns develop over a few months. Are you taking your temperature at the same time each morning? There are some quite extreme jumps in temperatures on that chart.

I'd say definitely no confirmed ovulation at the moment - not that surprising if you only had the implant removed fairly recently. You'll need to keep charting and see if things settle down. I see you've just started getting fertile-quality cf - you may see a clear jump up to a higher level indicating ovulation in the next few days, or the temps may stay erratic, in which case your body is probably beginning to produce all the right stuff but hasn't quite got it together yet! It's always tricky when you first start as you don't have a sense of scale - e.g. of whether the highest temps on this chart are actually at your 'post-ovulation' level or not.

Are you taking it at the same time (or thereabouts) every day as the white circles indicate that readings are out by a bit. I would not expect ovulation until at least 5 or 6 days after you stopped bleeding. Temperatures during AF can be erratic but I am not sure if that applies to withdraw bleeds as well but it does look like it is still jumping around.

I know that pre-ovulation I have a range of temperatures (36.25-36.45) and post ovulation (36.7 - 36.9) and this is quite consistent even though I have very erratic cycles. Once you start seeing you pattern it is fairly obvious when you ovulate....for the 1st couple of cycles when I wasn't sure if I had ovulated it meant I hadn't and once I saw the rise I was fairly sure I had ovulated and last month got a progesterone check to confirm it.

Good luck!

thanks everyone. yes it took me a week to get used to remembering when to temp so the first 7-8days approx are inconsistent. i get blue dots when i take temp between 7.45am and 8.15am. todays temp was the most accurate albeit at 7.30am because i got a full nights sleep (YAY) and wasn't up to baby. took temp as soon as i woke. the others i had to take at approx same time getting up to dd if i didn't have 3+hrs sleep. i know for def i ov'd 2days ago (judging by ov dip followed by temp rise, fertile cm, and cp. . the chart shows ov on cd10, which may have happened. i didnt have any other fertile symptoms but did have majorly increased libido. i was completely thrown out by AF on cd13, only 3dpo (according to FF). i wasn't sure why it didn't register it as a new AF. will ov date change now do ye think?

loobsie - a word of warning - FF's identification of ovulation is very unreliable. I use the rules of FAM as given in 'Taking Charge of Your Fertility' and day 10 is not a convincing ovulation according to those rules - you have what might be a temp shift on day 11 (which is why FF has marked it) but you have no other fertility signs, and of the six prior lower temperatures four have an element of doubt because of the time at which you took them. I'd ignore the day 10 thing.

It is quite possible that you ovulated on day 20 (two days ago) but according to the rules it is not yet confirmed. So far you only have one temp (today's) which is above the cover line, and also you have EW cf today, which is more likely to suggest that you have not yet ovulated. I think you may see a much clearer shift upwards some time in the next week or so.

Also - is the chart below one of your old ones? That shows a very clear temp shift (and at a higher temperature too - though that's pretty irrelevant especially if you're using a different thermometer now). I think eventually you'll see something that looks more like that.

Finally, re: your question - AF only counts as a menstrual period if it is preceded by a confirmed ovulation. So that's why it didn't start you a new chart.

hi kalidasa thank you so much for your information. you really know your stuff. yes the other chart is one i did before in jan 2010. i got pregnant the next month! i had only charted up to ov day and after that i checked temp every morning and it was consistently higher so i stopped recording it, and at 11dpo i got my bfp :)
i have been using a different thermometer this time. because i have 2dc i am up quite frequently at night, or speaking to baby from the bed (to say ssshhh!!) so i've been taking temps by ear. i don't think its very accurate though to be honest, as it seems to change within 10sec of each reading! when i get my next AF i'll go back to using the original one and just take temp each morning at exact same time, like i did in Jan 2010 (when i had dc1 to attend to). it was obviously working accurately, considering my first month charting looks like a chart should and i got bfp on 2nd month. i'm actually using this method to ttnc this time around. thats why i'm asking questions!!

Ah OK if you're tta (trying to avoid) it's particularly important that you completely ignore what FF says about ovulation! Their unreliability doesn't matter so much if you're ttc (unless it means you stop "trying" too early) but it's really a hazard if you're tta.

Yes, I'd try a new thermometer and oral/vaginal readings at a set time and see if that helps. I've been charting for years (can you tell?) and actually I've discovered that I don't have to be very strict about the timing to get a good chart, and even a fairly disturbed night is OK as long as I wasn't literally up-and-about for hours in the middle. But obviously it takes a long time to learn all these things that are quite specific to you.

I'm not sure about the implant but I know people coming off the pill often see several months of weirdness before things settle down so it may well be that. Good luck with it anyway! I think it's a great method of contraception, I've used it (+ condoms in the fertile stage) for about five years and really like it. Really useful for predicting your period too.

ok, well just to ask you 2 final questions... why do you think FF is so unreliable with its ov prediction?
if its so unreliable, how has it helped you avoid dtd at fertile times?

good morning, kalidas if you are still reading on.. just thought i'd let you know the world has been righted again :o FF changed ov day to cd20!

am still interested in your reply to my latter questions if you wouldn't mind? am considering purchasing annual subscription but after your comment, not sure if it would be money well spent? was going to do it to have info on irregular pattern since coming off implant.

I am confused! Surely FF cannot help you avoid getting pregnant? By the time you see the temperature rise you could potentially be pregnant if you dtd in the week up to the temperature rise. Unless you don't dtd until you see a temperature rise and only do it in the 2nd half of your cycle? Even OPKs wouldn't help as you could still get pregnant from dtd before a positive opk? I assume once you know your cycle and it is regular it could help?

LIG1979 good question! i am hoping to chart my cycles so i'll know when to anticipate ov. so for contraception purposes, i'll have AF, then use condoms until 2 days after ov has been confirmed and then have worry-free intimacy until AF arrives again.

Oh lots of questions! First, loobsie it uses an algorithm that isn't exactly the rules in TCOYF. You can fiddle the settings to 'FAM' (rather than 'advanced' or whatever it calls the default pattern) but even so ime it makes mistakes as far as the FAM rules are concerned. I think it just tries to assign an o-date much too quickly so almost any time after about day 10 it will try to find one.

Tbh I don't use ff for interpretation at all. I learnt years ago from TCOYF and I just use ff because it's really handy to have my charts on-line (and if you pay so you get the extra features you can do handy things like lay them on top of each other, and it's easy to keep additional notes about exercise/mood or whatever). But I ignore its interpretations completely and just do my own. You can 'override' their interpretation and draw your own coverline in which case they send you a warning message and then grudgingly put the line in in blue! It's quite funny. But I'm very confident in the technique so I just ignore what they say.

LIG1979 the method of avoiding that we're referring to is technically called 'fertility awareness method' and you use more than just your temps. You also need to monitor your cervical fluid every day (and probably multiple times a day) as that indicates both rising fertility (as it appears and becomes progressively more watery/stretchy) and ovulation (when it abruptly dries up). There are various rules you can use to apply these observations so you avoid getting pregnant - it's a bit complicated but they're all set out in the book 'Taking Charge of Your Fertility' (there are other books too, but this one is very clear and widely available). So for instance I use this method to allow me to have unprotected sex without risking conception at the very beginning of my cycle and again from once ovulation is confirmed (third day of high temps that coincides with cervical fluid dry-up) to my period. There are also rules for finding some 'safe days' between those times, but I think they are less reliable so from day 5-ovulation we just use condoms. Hope that explains a bit!

Your cycle does not have to be regular btw. Mine isn't at all (from 26-45 days) and I've used this method successfully for years. In fact I charted even while I was single because it was so handy to know when my period would arrive.

thanks for that kalidasa, it explains alot. i must buy that book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility". its good to know someone else out there is using same method i am trying, as contraceptive. its a relief to know it can be successful ,i am just tired of fake hormones.