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

I tend to go by my body and symptoms, I usually ovulate around 7 days after my period by using my cervical mucus as a guide. If I was trying for a baby I would look into apps and ovulation kits to get it spot on.

I conceived on our first attempt, which hubby thought a bit unfair, he had been looking forward to trying for longer!

This was great as it is was what we wanted, however, due to my disabilities & health problems, we only wanted 1 child.

I am allergic to most medications & the contraceptive pill is one of them, so we have had to be ever so careful over the years, since I conceived so easily the one time we tried

Practice makes perfect

Dont tell people that you are even trying, there are too many questions, and too much pressure

I really want a reliable alternative to hormonal contraception. I would be very interested in trying this, but would want to see the clinical evidence.

I defo do not want to become pregnant right now and everyone I have mentioned this kind of method to seems to think it's a mad idea.

To be honest, I am probably not the best person to give any advice on this. My husband had been told he would never have children after a pretty horrendous medical history as a child, and I too had had complications and thought it would never happen. Three months after we met I fell pregnant, and luckily for us all went well, and fourteen years later we are still together!

works for us. i am very lucky to get ovulation pain on the side i ovulate from each month so i can plan either babies or not now! it helped us decide which days to try & conceive our 2 boys & girl too

I think you can sometimes over worry about ttc and then it puts more pressure on you, so I think it's best to try checking your ovulating for a couple of months, just so you can get an idea of what's regular for you and get insink with your body, and then after that take the pressure off by just having fun. Both times I got pregnant was when I was on holiday after months of ttc.

I used an app to track ovulation, caught on the first 'try' haha

for my older children i seemed to fall pregnant very easy . my last child was quite hard though. we used temp tracking, ovulation sticks and a chart id printed off the internet , which all seemed to help us

The clear blue ovulation sticks are brilliant and always worked for me once i figured out i ovulate late and have a short luteal phase!

I would use it as an extra aid to contraception. Not fond of pill so always explore other options. As time goes I've become more in tune with my natural cycle and can sense the different stages.

Tracking ovulation with temp etc helped.

I will be ttc no 3 in January. We my previous two pregnancies I used opks and I think that was enough planning for me. I would forget to take my temperature so I think its a no from me. I am attempting a sway this time so thats enough pressure for me.

I'd be worried about using this alone to prevent pregnancy, but it looks helpful in TTC.

I've tried all sorts of things to get pregnant from ovulation calenders, peeing on a stick, temperature taking, apps, endometrial scratch, soft cups you name it I've done it but nothing has worked so far.

When I was looking to get pregnant 4 years ago, I did find a similar 'ovulation tracker' app where you entered your menstrual cycle info etc. It was far more basic than Natural Cycles though. Thankfully it actually worked well for us and I fell pregnant fairly quickly (around 3 months after first use of app).

I think the best way to TTC is to just relax in all honesty, checking ovulation stuff and getting too hung up on the biology of it all might hinder your body's ability to be receptive, if that makes sense.. I fell pregnant when I wasn't trying to and had just embarked on a new fitness regime to lose weight, but I appreciate that if someone finds something they feel helps them to focus on TTC then that's up to them.

Just keep your fingers crossed.

And yeah the app is great.

I had a look at the app: it looks user friendly and the free thermometer would be good if you are TTC. I didn't use any fertility kits or apps with my first DC and it took me about a year to conceive him. I used Fertility Friend with DD and fell pregnant much quicker. I'm not TTC so I wouldn't use a fertility app just now, just a period calendar as I have irregular cycles, but if I ever was again I would consider using Natural Cycles.

We're trying at the moment and find using the Clearblue fertility monitor really helpful.

I've been very lucky, getting pregnant each time when I'm not really trying!

I've not had to look too much at my cycles so not got any tips.

I used the clear blue ovulation tests and conceived quickly!The app looks good but I wouldn't pay for it I don't think.

We had 4 attempts at IVF to conceive our twins. In all honestly, I really found living a clean healthy lifestyle really made a difference. I smoked (very few mind you) during the first 2 IVF cycles & I drank moderately. I was under a huge amount of stress though, which is perfectly normal during fertility treatment. When the first 3 attempts failed, we took a "year out" to come to terms with things & consider our next move. During that time, I quit smoking, stopped drinking completely & became quite focused on exercise & diet. Before our "final" IVF, I also had weekly sessions of accupuncture to relax me. It worked & 9 months later, we were blessed beyond words. I truly believe a clean lifestyle & a chilled out attitude made a difference to me.