Want to get pregnant? Don’t want to get pregnant? Share your tips with Natural Cycles - £300 to be won NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

It’s – for many – one of life’s juxtapositions that we can spend many months and years trying to avoid pregnancy and can also spend a long time trying to get pregnant!

The team behind Natural Cycles, the fertility app for women which, in clinical studies, has been shown to be as effective as The Pill, would love to hear your tips and stories based on fertility – how you listen to your body to look for signs of ovulation, how you managed to conceive and whether you use natural methods to control your fertility at all.

They say “Natural Cycles works by identifying a woman’s ovulation and fertile window by tracking her period and temperature.” Women are required to record the temperature under their tongue in the morning and enter it into the app which uses a unique algorithm to determine whether you are fertile on that day. “The success of Natural Cycles depends on its algorithm”, says Dr Elina Berglund, Natural Cycles CTO and co-founder. The app was invented by husband and wife team Dr Raoul Scherwitzl and Dr Elina Berglund who was part of the Nobel Prize-winning team that discovered the Higgs boson. “We’ve called the algorithm ‘Alba’ and it’s unique because it has collected data from hundreds of thousands of cycles. This means Natural Cycles can adapt to each individual woman’s body and, with a high degree of precision and accuracy, determine when she is ovulating.” Natural Cycles has 130,000 users in 161 countries.

They’d also love to know what you think about the app – based on first impressions – have a look here and share on this thread what you think? Do you think the app would be a convenient alternative to the contraception you use now or something you’d consider if you were TTCing?

Whatever your story, please share it below and you will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list). PLUS 50 posters selected at random will also win a lovely gift from Natural Cycles – which includes 6 month of free subscription and a basal thermometer (worth £43).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draws.

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Unlike most on here, I tend to use NFP not for TTC but for contraception instead. After years of using hormonal contraception decided didn't want a hormonal version again and it works well for us. Understanding your natural cycle is useful to know as it is, but this gives us additional help and information on "safe" and "non-safe" periods.

I think an app like this would be useful when TTC, but I understand why some people feel it may add additional stress to the overall process for them.

My friend bought this, if the algorithm works it sounds great. It would need to be a wearable Bluetooth thermometer to work for me.

To be honest it doesn't seem to offer much more than other apps which are either free or less expensive.

Wouldn't work for me with pcos. I can months without a period then have two in the same month

Might use it for TTC if I felt it was taking a while or I needed some help. My first pregnancy was an accident. Second I downloaded Ovia and used it sporadically (found it quite stressful to take temperature and monitor mucus every day), but got pregnant first cycle anyway. Would NOT use an app for avoiding pregnancy, though! Even used perfectly I imagine it would have an unacceptably high failure rate. And very easy to get a temperature wrong -- e.g. if you have a cold, stay in bed late etc. I have also sometimes had two LH surges in one cycle. Would be fine with that if it was my own idea/botched rhythm method, but pissed off if the app I had paid for, and which was marketed as contraception, turned out not to work too well after all...

We used an ovulation kit and it worked first time...

I recently suffered a miscarriage after 6 months of trying naturally and using a fertility app on my phone, as much as I really want to try again I'm petrified the same thing will happen!

This sounds like a very good idea and definitely something to look into

i have 3 boys so i wouldnt be looking to get pregnant again, i am on the depo provera injection and it works really well x

Very interesting to read about the methods readers use. None of these were ever mentioned when I had my children.

Not trying to get pregnant right now, recently had the coil fitted but also use apps to keep a track of my very irregular cycle!

I do not think I would bother - what will be will be and if you are always trying then it will happen if it is meant to be!

I've used ovulation kits in the past without much success key is to free your mind and not think about trying to get pregnant

I'm not sure , if I was trying to conceive Again I'd probably just buy a ovulation test or keep track of my cycles to know when I am and am not fertile.

I didn't use apps but ovulation sticks worked well for me :)

Some of the posts here have hinted at the famous "just relax and it will happen" idea, which has something in it but IMO isn't true.

I think that all these tools can be useful if you're not sure you're ovulating. I wasn't sure; my cycles were anything between 26-34 days and I'd never noticed ovulation or cycle changes before TTC. I tried:

• Thermometer and Fertility Friend (stressed me right out)
• Clearblue Fertility monitor (simple and effective, lost the sodding thing three months later in a house move and couldn't justify new one at that cost)
• Ovulation microscope (very pretty but I just didn't trust it for some reason. Then I lost it).

By this point I'd figured out how to "spot" ovulation anyway (the day mid-month I got blindingly furious and could smell everything, also cm). So I still use the cheap strips occasionally, and try every other day around those key dates.

Throughout all these methods, I've been pregnant six times in three years - none have lasted but that's not due to timing unfortunately.

You can be the most hyperactive vigilant measuring sort and get pregnant, or the most laissez-faire and not get pregnant. Or somewhere in between and so on.

I agree that stress and depression and anxiety all have roles to play in fertility, and apps definitely can add to these, but it's also never as simple as "just relax" - just in case there's someone reading this despairingly!

I think the app looks good but I wouldn't pay for it. If we pay attention to our bodies, keep a note of dates, it would be pretty easy to predict ovulation, the rest is up to mother nature. I good diet, no smoking and alcohol would make a massive change. My first pregnancy took us over a year of predicting and planning, the second, whilst not trying at all was after a relaxed night, and a lovely surprise the month after with the 'blue line'

I've used various fertility apps over the years and they've helped - I've always fallen pregnant within the first 1-4 cycles when ttc. I've used a BBT thermometer and ovulation sticks as well, I don't think I would rely on just an app.

used an ovulation stick worked within 3 months

Dont stress about it

Looks useful.

This sounds amazing from the viewpoint of a more natural form of contraception and well as for those who are trying to conceive. I was incredibly lucky and fell pregnant quickly and easily with each of mine but having decided our family was complete I lived in total fear of an accidental pregnancy. My three were all born very close together as we wanted to get the chaos of having young children out of the way in one go but the older they got, the more panicked I was about going back to the beginning again with an unplanned pregnancy. This sounds like something that would have made me feel in control. There is a history of early menopause in my family and I think I'm in the early stages now at 43 which adds to the worry in some ways, as periods are few and far between.

Looks useful, I haven't tried this yet but I think I will give it a go.

My children are older now. There were no techy apps when I was tring to conceive.

I think the app may be very useful, I am one of those few who managed to get pregnant whilst on contraceptive so I know all too well that contraceptive is not 100%! and anything to help either way is always a bonus.