Is charting right for you?

If you are considering trying to conceive or if you have already been trying unsuccesfully for a number of months then you may be considering charting your fertility signs. But what is fertility charting and is it right for you?

Is fertility charting right for you?

In the most basic sense fertility charting involves taking a temperature reading each day and looking for a sustained rise in temperature that indicates that ovulation has occured. It allows you to find a pattern in your cycle and plot the most fertile days in the coming cycles so that you can make sure to have sex on these days and in this way increase your chances of conception.

Charting - the plus side

When you first start trying to conceive you can either decide to start charting straight away or alternativley give it a couple of months of trying without charting and turn to charting if you find that you are still not pregnant after a number of cycles. If you are coming off the pill charting can be useful to see when you ovulate for the first time. Although many women who stop taking the pill find that their cycles return to normal quite quickly and they get their first period as normal others find that their cycles can be irregular and that their first period off the pill may be significantly later than expected. There is nothing more frustrating that a late period with no explanation, charting can show you whther or not you ovulated and so whether or not you have any chance of being pregnant.

Charting is also useful if you know you have irregular cycles. Irregular cycles can sometimes mean that you are not ovulating on a regular basis, once you know this you can approach your doctor for advice and help in regulating your cycles. Charting can also warn of any potential problems such as a short luteal phase (the phase in which impantation occurs) and so save months of wondering why you are not getting pregnant.

Charting - the downside

First of all it makes time drag. Every day is marked by a temperature reading and it can be devastating to see your temperature drop at the end of an unsuccesful cycle which indicates that your period is about about to start.

A second downside is that knowing exactly when you need to have sex can make it a bit of a chore, you will not want to miss an opportunity and so chances are you will find that you are having to talk yourself into when all you really want to do is go to sleep/watch telly!.

Fertility monitors

Although they can be a  little expensive electronic fertility monitors are perfect for you if you are a little nervous of charting on your own. They work by taking your temperature each day and recording it for you - you will then be able to identify a pattern over a number of cycles. An even easier way to do this is to use ovulation predictor kits either singles or in a device such as persona which will tell you whether or not you are fertile on the day you use the test, although if you have irregular ovulation it will get expensive to keep buying the tests and so in this case you could use charting and test sticks together.