Ovulation Tests and Fertility Planning

Okay, so we're trying to conceive and we're doing our homework about how we can up our chances of getting pregnant. We've starting to learn that my specific date of ovulation has a direct impact of whether intimacy will result in pregnancy. We've read that ovulation test can help us, but what exactly do they do? How do they work? Are they really accurate? And if I do start to use one, do we need to be intimate on one specific day or is there a bit more leeway? 

The good news is this: knowing your exact ovulation date can greatly increase your chance at conception.  You might get lucky and happen to be intimate during your highly fertile time is but  chances your timing will be off.

Knowing your ovulation date is like turning on the lights and finally really understanding your body - no more fishing around in the dark, wondering if you are being intimate during your fertile times. With a bit of information, you can greatly increase your chances of becoming pregnant. 

Understanding Ovulation - What Do Hormones Have To Do With It? 

During ovulation, a number of different hormonal changes take place. Early in the menstrual cycle, a hormone called Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) enables your ovaries to nurture eggs.

Within the ovaries, follicles house each individual developing egg. The follicles that hold the eggs will secrete estrogen. As the menstrual cycle progresses, the follicle containing the developing egg moves toward the surface of the ovary.

Immediately before ovulation, the follicle begins secreting estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen helps the uterine lining thicken, expand and increases blood flow, readying the uterus to be a home to your newly developing baby. 

Directly prior to ovulation, another hormonal change, known as the LH Surge, takes place.  LH (or Luteinizing Hormone) is the hormone that actually facilitates ovulation: it causes the egg to separate from the ovary and enter the fallopian tubes. There it is ready and waiting to be fertilized.

Ovulation Predictor Kits 

Ovulation predictor tests detect this LH Surge, and are therefore able to notify the user as to when ovulation is about to take place. Typically a positive result for this jump in LH levels happens about 48 hours prior to ovulation. For this reason the tests are known as 'ovulation predictor kits' (OPK's) and not (as is often but incorrectly used) 'ovulation tests'.

This prediction of ovulation confirms the most fertile moments of a your cycle, it turns on the lights, and empowers you with the knowledge of exactly when intimacy will have the highest chance of resulting in conception.

The flip side of this awareness is that if contraception is your goal, knowing when your most fertile days are allows you to abstain during those times. Fertility Awareness is becoming a more common practice amongst women who realize that there are alternative methods of birth control other then the typical synthetic hormones. 

When To Be Intimate

So you've been tracking your fertility, and you now know when you ovulate. Having all this information is great, but how do you know exactly when to be intimate. How long before or after you ovulate is the optimal timing for sex? 

It is suggested that you have sex before the egg actually leaves the fallopian tubes, so that the sperm will be ready and waiting to greet the fertile egg. If you are using an ovulation predictor kits , it will go positive 24-48 hours before ovulation, signaling the optimal time for sex. Sperm can live for about five days inside a women's body, and the egg  will be viable for about 18 hours after ovulation occurs.

Don't forget that ovulation does not only occur when its dark out! Allow yourself some spontaneity and flexibility as you are plan the optimal timing for conception. 

Other Options For Tracking Your Fertility 

Even though ovulation predictor kits are a great way to track ovulation, they are not your only option. 

If you are using a cyclotest® fertility monitor for conception or contraception, the date of the first positive LH test (suggesting that on prior days the tests were negative) can be entered into your cyclotest. This will increase your Cyclotest's accuracy, and help you learn more about you cycle. 

To learn how Fertility Awareness can assist contraception and to see how Fertility Monitors make that task easier, visit the Ethical Family Planning website.

Ovulation predictor kits can be costly, and they are disposable which means they are going to end up in landfills. So what are you, as an environmentally aware person to do? Make sure you check out our other pages on the symptothermal method of natural family planning to get the low down on a free, easy, and environmentally friendly way of identifying ovulation.

Take a look at the original article here: http://ethicalfamilyplanning.com/how-ovulation-tests-help

Increasing Fertility With Herbs

You can't help it. At the mall you find yourself gravitating towards the baby clothing, fingering the tiny blue and pink outfits. Every diaper commercial on TV has you leaning forward with anticipation. You are ready to have a baby of your own, and all you can think about is preparing your body for conception and making yourself as fertile as possible.

Today, we understand the importance of knowing exactly what we are putting into our bodies, and you are probably looking for ways to increase your fertility without altering your body's natural rhythms. Good for you. Arming yourself with the knowledge that  medical or chemical solutions can be avoided by using the wholesome goodness of teas, herbs, and tinctures that mother nature provides is a noble adventure. There are even ways for your husband to join in on the fun and increase his fertility as well. Use the information below to get started!

Increasing fertility with tea

We have outlined some of the benefits you may experience from using speciality teas, along with tips on how to use them correctly. While we cannot fully guarantee increased fertility from using these teas, it cannot hurt to try these methods to raise your chances of getting pregnant. 

Please note that women who want to have a baby should avoid the following herbs: burdock, catnip, celery seeds, camomile, blue cohosh (caulophyllum), fennel, juniper, sage, cinnamon, and senna leaves.
Men are advised to avoid St John’s Wort, helleborus, ginkgo, too much liquorice, and echinacea.

How to prepare tea

To allow tea to develop its full effectiveness, you should always prepare it fresh. Unless specified otherwise, put one to two teaspoons of herb (from a pharmacy) in a cup and add simmering (not boiling!) water. Then cover and leave to draw for roughly 10 minutes.
Drink a maximum of 2 - 3 cups a day in small sips (don’t eat the leaves!). If after 4 - 6 weeks the desired effect has not been achieved, don't be discouraged. You can always try a different herbal tea that offers similar effects. 

Child-planning herbs for fertility

Area of application	Medicinal herb
Stimulates ovulation, strengthens the uterus, improves production of progesterone/gestagen & has an antispasmodic effect	Alchemilla
Cycle disorders	Mugwort
Ovulation, gonads	Rosemary
Hormone balance	Red clover
Promotes circulation of blood in the uterus	Black haw
Follicle maturation, sexual hormones	False unicorn
Vaginal environment, mucus membrane	Marjoram
Oestrogen formation	Siberian ginseng
Progesterone/gestagen, prolactin excess	Monk’s Pepper
Sperm quality, potency, libido	Tribulus terrestris

Monk's Pepper for female fertility

Monk's Peper (vitex agnus) is a tried-and-tested herb that can be used to balance of your female hormones. This plant is also known as chaste tree. Monk’s Pepper seeds regulate the hormonal balance by normalizing the release of prolactin and stabilizing the yellow body phase. Monk’s Pepper thus encourages ovulation and can increase fertility. Drink a cup of Monk’s Pepper berry tea every morning or take pharmacy-bought Monk’s Pepper tablets as directed.

A tea for each half of the cycle - The time between the end of menstruation and ovulation is known as the first half of the cycle. During this time you can strengthen your blood by preparing a tea made from the following ingredients: 25 g each of sage leaves, mugwort and Chinese angelica root.


The time between ovulation and menstruation is known as the second half of the cycle. For this period of time we recommend a tea blend which helps you relax and regulates your blood flow.
You will need 25 g each of alchemilla, yarrow, lemon balm and Monk’s Pepper seeds. 

Drinking three cups daily is recommended

Tea and herbs for male fertility

 Chinese medicine also offers herbs for men which can alleviate certain disorders and stimulate fertility. 

Taiga root (eleutherococcus) helps with male impotence. Add a teaspoon of Taiga root to approx. 150 ml of boiling water, boil for 5 minutes, cover and leave to draw for 5-10 minutes. Pass through a tea sock and sweeten to taste. Warning: Not suitable for those with restlessness or high blood pressure.

Pumpkin seeds can help remedy a zinc deficiency. Zinc is central to encouraging testosterone production — and thus increase libido and potency!

Basil for blockages - promotes fertility.

Stinging nettle fruits improve sperm quality. Take one to two teaspoons daily or  as a salad accompaniment.


A tea for virilityOriginating from Chinese medicine, this tea is intended to strengthen virility. Have the herbs mixed by your pharmacist:
3 g each of cnidium monnieri and cinnamon bark
4 g each of ginseng root and buckthorn
6 g each of barrenwort, eucommia bark, golden-eyed grass root, dogwood berries and morinda root,
9 g each of Goji berries and Chinese angelica root
12 g each of scrophularia root and atractylodis lanceae rhizoma root
Prepare the tea as described and drink 2-3 cups daily. 

In addition, a teaspoon of pollen every day can increases vitality.

How can I further help my chances at conception?

Preparing you body through diet and herbs can make you more fertile, but for your love making to result in a pregnancy, it is vital that your timing is correct. Tracking your cycle and ovulation through Natural Family Planing will give you the powerful knowledge of precisely when to have sex. When you have both prepared you body to be the perfect environment for conception and you know you personal fertility window, you can sit back (or lay back) and relax, and let nature take over.

Getting started with NFP is a chinch when using Cyclotest. Check out this handy tool that will give you simple, easy to understand information about your body's cycle –   and when intercourse will most likely lead to conception. 

Read the original article at: http://ethicalfamilyplanning.com/increasing-fertility-with-herbs

Coming Off The Pill

Congratulations! You have come off the pill and are ready to take the first steps towards brining a new baby into your family. This is an exciting chapter in you and your partner's lives, one full of fresh and exciting hopes and dreams. However, it is important to realize that having been on the pill can change the game plan in some very important ways as you try to conceive. Lets take a look:

Q: How long after taking the pill can we start trying to conceive? 

A:: After making the decision that the time is right to have a baby, of course you want to see the positive sign on the pregnancy test right away. Any delay can be really difficult! But women are often advised to wait roughly three months after coming off the pill before trying to get pregnant.

Three months is approximately how long the body takes to get back to its natural rhythm after experiencing a surge in hormones. In some cases, it can take up to 18 months for the hormonal balance required for pregnancy to be restored. This is especially common if a combined pill (progesterone/estrogen) was used.

Q: What should I know about becoming pregnant after being on the pill? 

A: Its important to realize that becoming pregnant immediately after coming off the pill may cause certain anomalies.

If your menstrual cycle has not yet returned or is not yet regular  and you do become pregnant, the expected due date of the baby will be difficult to correctly determine. This is because the moment of fertilization can not be accurately tracked without accurate menses. It can take a few weeks, or even a few months, before menstruation returns with complete regularity, so it is always a good idea to wait an adequate amount of time before becoming pregnant.

Additionally, if you become pregnant directly after coming off a hormonal contraceptive, you are one and a half times more likely to have non-identical twins or multiple births, especially if you have been taking a hormonal contraceptive for an extended period of time.

Q: What should I know about becoming pregnant after coming off a three-month hormonal injection cycle? 

A:Trying to get pregnant after coming off a cycle of the three month injection method of birth control has an even greater disadvantage. As a result of the injection dramatically altering the cervical mucus, it is commonly advised to wait twelve months or even longer conceive.

Its hard to get away from it, the bottom line is that an influx of hormones will alter you body's natural rhythm, and you may have to wait quite a while to actually become pregnant. This waiting time can be agonizing - after all, the reason you stopped using contraception was so that you could finally see the long awaited plus sign on the pregnancy test!

So What Are The Alternatives?

Well, hindsight, as they say, is 20/20 and not having these synthetic hormones racing around your body at all is the best thing when it comes to planing a pregnancy. Using Natural Family Planning (NFP) or the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) for your contraceptive needs is a great solution.

By using knowledge of your body's cycle and ovulation dates, NFP and FAM can be an effective natural birth control solution for most women. And as an added benefit, when the time to conceive comes along, you can simply transplant the knowledge of your body which you accrued during your contraceptive period to plan for an accurate conception.

Getting started with NFP or FAM is easy when you use a cycle computer. Observing your cycle with a cycle computer allows you to avoid intercourse or use protection during your highly fertile days for contraceptive purposes. When you know when your highly fertile days are, you can also pinpoint the days when intercourse has the highest chance of resulting in pregnancy. Therefore, using cycle computers for contraception can later help increase your chances of getting pregnant at the desired time.

Check out Cyclotest – it is  a great tool that can be used for both contraception and conception. Simple, easily to understand information about your body's cycle is presented on small handy screen. It is a great natural contraception solution that will quickly turn into your best friend when the time for conception is right! 

Check out the original article here: http://ethicalfamilyplanning.com/coming-off-the-pill

Understanding Fertility Charting

Hop into the drivers seat and take control of your fertility. Natural family planing, allows you to finally understand exactly what is going on with your menstrual cycle and ovulation, and then use this knowledge to power your hormone free, completely natural and effective method of birth control. Best of all, fertility charting will easily morph into an irreplaceable ally when you are ready to become pregnant.

Some Basic Science

Once a month, your fallopian tubes release an egg that is capable of being fertilized and becoming a pregnancy. However, that egg is only capable of being fertilized for about one day. After that, the egg is no longer viable. Sperm, however, can live inside a women for up to five days.

What is commonly referred to as the fertility window is this combined amount of time. It is the about 24 hours that an egg can live, plus the five days sperm can live already released inside your body.

The length of the monthly cycle varies upon each woman individually.   By charting the length of your cycle and the day of ovulation, you are able to create a pattern that displays when you’re likely to become fertile in the coming months.

Planning Around Your Fertility Window 

Essentially, fertility awareness comes down to knowing your unique body and making fertility-based decisions about when to plan for or avoid intimacy, depending on your goal.  To avoid pregnancy, you have to understand the difference between your non-fertile ‘safe days’ and your highly fertile ‘risk days’.On your safe days, you can have sex with out protection, and you will not become pregnant because you do not have an egg ready and waiting to be fertilized. On your risk days, when you are fertile, you decide wether to abstain from sex all together or use an alternative form of contraception.

Use the same knowledge when planning a pregnancy to time your intimacy around your fertile days. Chances are you will be much more successful in achieving a desired pregnancy! 

Methods and Indicators

Very few women ovulate regularly on the much-vaunted 14th day of the cycle. The female cycle and therefore the moment of ovulation are subject to numerous influencing factors, which means that ovulation is fundamentally unpredictable by simply counting the days of the month.

Sexual intercourse shortly before ovulation is the most promising time to bring about pregnancy.

There are a number of different methods which enable you to determine when you are ovulating.  These methods include: 

• observing your Basal Body Temperature (BBT) as well as changes in cervical mucus or cervix.  This combined method is known as the symptothermal method and is known to be the most reliable out of all the other methods of natural family planning. 
• observing subtle changes in Basal Body Temperature (BBT)
• observing changes in hormone levels with the aid of ovulation tests
• observing cervical mucus
• observing cervical position





Bringing It All Together 

A combination of some or all of these observations can be used to chart your cycle and calculate ovulation. Once you know your ovulation date, all you have to do is identify your fertility window to plan or avoid a pregnancy. Check out Cyclotest, a simple, highly accurate device,  which combines a number of the different methods to establish your unique fertility window. 

Read original article at: http://ethicalfamilyplanning.com/understanding-fertility-charting

Simple misuse of contraception, how a little knowledge goes a long way!

Simple misuse of contraception, how a little knowledge goes a long way!

There are many contraceptive methods around which are misused by couples as a result of a simple misunderstanding.  What many women fail to realize is that the window of time where they're at risk of becoming pregnant is relatively small and therefore, using contraception day in and day out is not entirely necessary.

For example, if a woman is not using a pill, patch, coil or any other type of hormonal contraception, she will actually only be fertile for 18-24 hours per cycle when she ovulates.  Since sperm can survive up to 5 days, intercourse 5 days prior to ovulation could fertilise an egg so we have  a fertility window of  6 days per cycle.  


In order to avoid pregnancy during those 6 days, the woman should either abstain from sex or use a barrier contraceptive.  

Most people who use barrier contraceptive tend to use them on each day of their cycle, even on the 20-22 days when there's no risk of becoming pregnant, when they actually only need to be used during their Fertility Window.

Contraceptive Monitors help you identify your Fertility Window, those 6-8 days per cycle when intercourse could lead to pregnancy. 

Click here to read on and learn how they do it and how they can help you take control of your contraception.  




 

Cancer and the Pill

In 2007 the World Health Organization determined that oral contraceptives were Group I carcinogens, which are capable of causing several cancers in women, including breast cancer. Unfortunately their findings have yet to be published in mainstream media, therefore many doctors aren’t aware of the risks and continue to prescribe oral contraceptives to their patients.

A new study widens this risk to include African-American women. Scientists at Boston University School of Medicine followed 53,848 African-American women for an average of 12 years, beginning in 1995. They found 789 cases of breast cancer. Of these cases, the number of estrogen receptor-negative cases was 65% greater in women who had used the pill. Such breast cancers have a worse prognosis than estrogen receptor-positive tumors. The risk for breast cancer was greatest in women who had used the pill within five years and whose use was greater than ten years.

Funding for the study was provided by the National Cancer Institute.

What do you think about this? If this is a proven study, shouldn't more people be aware of the potential risks?

References

Oral Contraceptive Use and Estrogen/Progesterone Receptor–Negative Breast Cancer among African American Women: http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/19/8/2073.full.pdf+html

23 Year Old Woman Pregnant Seven Times In Five Years, Despite Using Contraception

A mother of 3, Gemma Potter, has gotten pregnant 7 different times in five years despite using the pill, condoms, the coil, progestogen injections, and an implant. She is currently expecting her fourth child (she's had 3 miscarriages and 1 ectopic pregnancy). Doctors have been unable to pinpoint the cause of her extreme fertility.

Here at EFP, we found this article very interesting and couldn't help but ask ourselves if using natural contraception instead of the hormonal options she used, would have ended up in 7 unwanted pregnancies. Although her case may be rare and her cycles irregular, perhaps practicing fertility awareness could have prevented the pregnancies if she abstained from intercourse on her fertile days. What do you think?

You can read the full article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/gemma-potter-pregnant-_n_1160098.html