The fertility awareness method may very well be the most versatile and inexpensive form of birth control or family planning. Versatile, as in it can be used to prevent pregnancy as well as determining the most fertile time to conceive. Inexpensive, as the cost associated with this method is virtually non-existent, you can attend free training sessions in your community health centers and even churches.
Basically, the fertility awareness method is a method which is free of drugs and devices and utilizes the body’s natural and normal functioning in determining the days of the month when a woman is most likely to get pregnant. After a woman has learned her most fertile time of the month, she then would be able to use that knowledge to her advantage; to get pregnant or to avoid getting pregnant altogether.
So how does this program actually work? Well, the first thing that you need to do is to familiarize yourself with your menstruation cycle and then chart it accordingly. When you’ve properly charted your cycles, you then can use that knowledge to either to abstain from sexual intercourse or use a barrier method during to avoid pregnancy, or you can take the opportunity to have sex and up your chances of conceiving if your aim is to get pregnant.
The second method is by utilizing your basal body temperature. This can be done by measuring the spike in your body temperature that typically occurs right after ovulation and will remain elevated until your next period. By examining these spikes from a number of cycles, the minute changes in temperature will tell you when ovulation can and will occur.
If you consistently chart your temperature, you’ll notice that before ovulation occurs, your temperature tends to be stable. As you approach ovulation, you will experience a slight decline but will immediately be followed by a significant increase right after ovulation. This sharp spike in temperature signals the onset of ovulation.
As the increase happens after ovulation has occurred, this particular method is best used by those who are willing to invest their time to track and examine their temperatures for a number of months. This will ensure the best times to conceive. However, factors such as illness, sleep deprivation and alcohol or drug consumption can affect your body temperature and would make it difficult to pinpoint ovulation.
If either of the two methods above are used correctly, the effectiveness of this method may reach a staggering 90% success rate. Of course it goes without saying that the efficacy of this method totally depends on your effort to chart and track your fertility pattern. In other words, your commitment will determine the outcome of this method.
The advantages of the fertility awareness method apart from its low cost is the fact that this method is completely reversible and there are no side effects associated with it. It’s also worth noting that the fertility awareness method is a method that does not violate any religious rules or concerns. This may be a factor if religion plays a role in your family planning process.
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