After I had my oldest son (who is now 9 1/2) a rather new birth control pill was all over the TV. It advertised periods only 4 times a year, which were typically also lighter and shorter. Say what? Sign me up! Seasonale was great for me. Having only a period every three months, and it really was lighter and shorter, even sometimes only lasting 48 hours. I LOVED this pill. I talked about it in every conversation I get into about birth control pills. It was perfect for me.
After hubby and I got married, we decided to start trying to have a baby. While I was pregnant with my youngest I knew that I would be nursing, and rather than taking a low dose birth control, I decided to get the IUD. A lot of the women (friends & family) loved the IUD. Many of them didn’t have a period at all. I thought “perfect!” and discussed it with my doctor. I had it placed at my 6 week appointment after my son was born.
Oh I hated the IUD! Not only did it hurt a ton going in, but I spotted. And not just a little here and there. Almost constantly for MONTHS. I was so miserable. I kept holding out though, trying it give it another chance. But still spotting. So after 10 months of it, I finally called my OB/GYN and told her how miserable I was and asked that she switch me to something else. I tried going back to Seasonale, I mean, it worked so well for me in the past. Still spotting. So she tried a higher dose pill, still spotting. After one last try and another pill I went back in to see her. She gave me some hugs and suggested that I just go off birth control pills altogether and let my body adjust for at least 6 months, and then we can try again. I thought, OK it’s 6 months I can do this.
So I started on a search for something else. Condoms are OK. And they work, but are kind of a pain and a mood killer. I thought of a diaphragm, same thing though really. So I started googling charts. I figured if I could just chart my ovulations, I would know when to avoid “the deed” and therefore, avoid a pregnancy.
Well during my ovulation chart search I came across a website that you can track your fertility for FREE. You just sign in and input your chart. Things like cycle length, temperature (which helps in calculating ovulating), periods, etc. The site is called OvaGraph. It costs nothing at all and all of the work is done for you. The site is really great for women trying to conceive. There are chat groups, Q&A, and TONS of information on charting and reading charts.
Here is something else though. If you have been trying to conceive for some time, they have a product called OvaCue. This handy little device will track when you are ovulating for you! It really takes out all of the guess work. You just wake up each morning and put this little device on your tongue and it will tell you up to 7 days before you ovulate. Mine is avergaing about 5 days before. But nonetheless, the guessing is gone. Now with that being said, I also have the Vaginal Sensor. This is not needed for everyone. However my periods are between 29 days and 36 days. They are now all over the place, and I have been off birth control for five months. My body just has no normal anymore. Which is OK, but this really helps me determine the exact day of ovulation since the middle of my cycle changes every month. I am in love with this device. When I got it, I was already into my second week of cycle, and had to wait for the next one. I never wanted my period to come so bad before! I love that it only takes a second and it is so user friendly!
Here is what each device looks like.
OvaCue:
Vaginal Sensor:
And here is what my chart looked like last month:
So from my chart you can see that I ovulated on the 17th. But I knew on the 10th when that day was coming so I knew when to plan how not to get pregnant. I cannot say enough good things about this product. OvaCue has also written up a post to compare the differences between the different fertility monitors here. Not having to pee on a strip is a good enough perk, and that device costs the same, but doesn’t tell you in advance when you will be ovulating. It is kind of nice to know in advance, and is certainly a great benefit if you were trying to conceive and you knew your hubby was going to be out of town for any length of time.
So here is where to find all of the information about this super wonderful product:
Free Graph: https://www.ovagraph.com
OvaCue: http://www.fairhavenhealth.com/ovacue-bundle.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/FertilAid/92240570781
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/fertilaidamy
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/FairhavenHealth
And here is a video on the product!
I use it as well! It makes tracking soo much easier for NFP!