TCOYF -- life-changing information about fertility

So obviously, it took Russ and I a while to get pregnant. But after giving all the credit to God for our little miracle, I give all the credit to the book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility. If you struggle with infertility, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. And actually, if you're a woman, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

The book is not a miracle worker, so if there is something seriously wrong, it can't make things happen for you. BUT the book does teach you how to know your own body, which is helpful whether or not you are capable of getting pregnant. And whereas most gynecologists will tell you to try for a year before you come in to talk about infertility, if you chart, you can know within about 3 months if you need to talk about infertility, and you can bring evidence into your doctor to tell them why you want to get started with infertility stuff right away.

I'm one of those people who never ever tracked a period before trying to get pregnant. I never knew when I was going to start, when I had last started, or how long it had been between cycles. This is important information that is very helpful when you're trying to get pregnant!

When we started trying (pre-book), I started recording when I started each cycle, but that's about it. I recorded some symptoms here and there, but I really didn't know what I was doing. Russ and I actively tried for a baby on days 10-17 of my cycle, just like my gynecologist had recommended. I didn't get pregnant. Obviously.

My sister (who is also diabetic and also struggles to get pregnant) recommended the book to me early on in our trying. But I'm lazy, and I wasn't worried yet. Several months later, the teacher I was TAing for also recommended the book to me, but still I waited. After trying for about 12 or 13 months, I finally checked the book out of the library. I proceeded to read over 100 pages of it that afternoon; I was fascinated! And then shortly after, my good friend Aleisha gifted me the book, so I then had the book throughout the remainder of my charting adventures so I didn't have to keep checking it out of the library. It's definitely a good one to own :)

Again, the book talks about knowing your body. There are basically two things you have to do to get to know your body better: take your temperature first thing in the morning, every morning, and analyze your cervical mucus.

{temperature}
If you are "normal," your temperature will fall in a low range from day one of your period until the day you ovulate. My temperatures for this phase were generally between 96.9 and 97.6 (but yours could be different). The day after you ovulate, your temperature will spike, and it will stay high until day 1 of your next cycle (or it will continue to be high if you are pregnant). My temperatures during the second phase were generally between 97.6 and 98.3. During the "high temp" time, your temperature should never drop into your low range. After ovulating, you should only have 12-16 days of high temperatures before your next cycle. I had one cycle with 14 days and one with 15 days. If you have more than 16 and you definitely ovulated, you are almost certainly pregnant.

If you are not normal, your temperatures can do a number of things. The one that I learned can happen to me is that my temperatures went up and down and all around for an entire cycle, and I never actually ovulated. This happened during the one cycle I charted where I ran out of a medication I was taking. Apparently that medication helps regulate me! (It is not Clomid, it's called Metformin, and it's "for diabetes" except that I didn't need it for diabetes. My doctor just told me that one of the side effects is fertility. Now I know why! It helps regulate ovulation! And also, it's not just given to women with diabetes. My non-diabetic coworker also got pregnant while on Metformin.)

{cervical mucus}
I read stuff online about cervical mucus before I read about it in the book, and from all the reading I've done, I basically only figured out one thing: eggwhite consistency = fertile cervical mucus. There are other phases of cervical mucus, but I don't know the order or anything; I just watch out for the eggwhite stuff. This is important because temperature will only tell you that you have already ovulated, but cervical mucus helps you know it's coming up. Whenever I had eggwhite mucus, Russ and I would start trying. We would try once per day, every day until a day or two after my temperature spiked, just to make sure we had made love on the day of ovulation. I typically had eggwhite mucus for about 5 days. (I also laid in bed with a pillow under my bum for 20-30 minutes on these 5 days to try to keep everything in there haha.)

What I really learned from charting is WHEN I ovulate. I'll give you a hint: it's not between days 10-17. I charted 4 cycles total, and on the 2 that I had a normal cycle and ovulated, I found that I ovulate around day 20-23. I had been timing things totally wrong!

I charted for three cycles where I did not get pregnant. There are three very good reasons why: On cycle one, Russ and I were camping with family when I ovulated. We had made love a few times before I ovulated, but weren't able to the day before and the day of ovulation because we were sharing a tent. No sex close enough to ovulation = no babies. On cycle two, I ran out of my medication that regulated me, so I did not ovulate that cycle. On cycle three, I was taking a lower dose of the medication than normal, so my cycle lasted longer than normal. I may have ovulated this cycle (but later than usual), but if I did, I had the worst diabetes day of my life the day after I ovulated. Like, probably should have gone to the hospital. It's called ketoacidosis, and I'm pretty sure if I was going to get pregnant that cycle, the ketoacidosis made sure I did not. And then on cycle 4 of charting, it happened!

After one month of charting, I had my annual appointment with a gynecologist. Let me just tell you, I have never been so annoyed with a doctor in my entire life. When I brought up the book, she admitted to never having read it and proceeded to discredit it. I tried to explain some of the concepts, and she brushed them aside. She started talking about a few fertility tests that they do. She said cycles should be between 26 and 32 days, and if it's any higher or lower, something is wrong. She talked about one test that they do on I think it was day 19 of your cycle, and if certain levels aren't high enough, then there's something wrong. Well guess what? My cycle is generally 36-38 days, and I'm pregnant. And I don't ovulate until day 23ish, so if I were to take that day 19 test, my levels would definitely be too low because I would not have even ovulated yet. So what I truly love about this book is that it gave me the power to know my own body better than the doctor. I'm sure that doctor knows a lot. And I'm sure that what she said is true for a lot of people. But I also know that it's not true for me. Because I am now more familiar with my body :)

Knowing your body is a serious benefit because it can help you avoid or achieve pregnancy, and it can also help you tell your doctors a little bit about what's going on with your body if you find that something does seem to be wrong. If you're struggling with infertility, you might be able to narrow down which tests actually need to be performed. I will also never use expensive (IUD) or everyday (the pill) birth control again, because if I don't want to get pregnant, I just won't make love in the 3ish days surrounding ovulation (or we'll use condoms in those 3 days). When I do want to get pregnant again, I will know what days to try. And because I saw normal patterns in my ovulation, I knew that I didn't need to consult a doctor about any tests just yet (though several people asked me if I was going to do that anytime soon), I just needed to make sure I was timing things right for me and my cycle.

Basically, this book is great and it taught me a lot. If you have any questions, I'd love to answer them if I can. Oh, and if you want to see/use the charts, go here.