Current Method: Marquette
Previous Method: BBT
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- Tell us a little about yourself.I am the stereotypical overachiever oldest child, very passionate and convicted. I love family and my Catholic faith. I am beyond blessed with incredible parents, grew up by the beach in the South, and am now a wife and mom to a spunky toddler. My interests have always been reading, writing, and my Faith. I am called to be a Catholic speaker and apologist, it's just been a winding road getting there. I graduated early from Christendom College with honors in December 2016. My B.A. is in English Language and Literature. My career started in writing/editing, but has been focused on marketing for the past four years. I am our family's sole income source while my husband goes back to school. I just opened my own copywriting business.
- What effects has fertility awareness had on your relationship?Fertility awareness has given us the ability to be intimate while suffering from chronic health conditions. It has also highlighted health issues. But, it has been beyond hard to have to use NFP to avoid pregnancy for our entire marriage, especially as that was not our plan when we became engaged.
- Current Method: Marquette - How did you find your instructor?Google I think! It was only a couple hundred dollars and it was virtual. She offered a great deal for those in the postpartum phase. I had follow ups until my periods consistently returned and I figured out the monitor.
- Describe your daily charting routine.Every morning from day 6 of my period through 5 days past ovulation I collect my first morning urine and test it with strips to measure hormone levels. I look for estrogen rise with a ClearBlue fertility monitor and LH rise with LH strips. I make sure my peak matches up on both and in the rare occasions it differs by a day I respect the latest peak day. It is so annoying and causes a lot of stress to make time for it, not go in the middle of the night, and travel with all the equipment.
- What made you choose this method?We used a combination of BBT/Calendar method before, and after 14 months it failed us during a health flare-up and our daughter was conceived! As much as God knew what he was doing in sending her to us, it is imperative we do not get pregnant again until I'm off this treatment. This was the only method that didn't rely on temperatures, regular cycles, or mucus, none of which I can count on b/c of my health condition. But, YEARS of abstinence was not an option. I LOVE how I have learned my body! I hate that it is a lot to travel with and awkward to do in other people's houses.
- Has charting helped you to understand your overall health?YES!!!! Oh my gosh, I was able to figure out how we got pregnant with our daughter and how much my stress can delay my ovulation. It also just helped me pinpoint that some pain was related to my cycle and not my chronic condition, which led me to request a hormone test. It turns out I am on a fast track to breast or ovarian cancer b/c of my estrogen levels. We caught it in time though. Without NFP, I would have thought all the symptoms were b/c of my other conditions.
- Did you switch to this method from another one? If so, why?We switched because the former method failed after 14 months (we got pregnant, and not because we gave into desire at a time we knew was risky). It wasn't able to be reliable when my body was flaring up. The transition was actually easy because I just started with Marquette immediately after having my daughter and it was SUCH a relief. It wasn't a guessing game anymore if I had ovulated or not. And I no longer had to feel scared when we were intimate that I had miscalculated. It also WORKED postpartum, and I exclusively pumped for a year!
- Previous Method: BBT - How did you find your instructor?I just read a huge, old NFP book my Mom used.
- Describe your daily charting routine.Every morning I checked my temperature when I woke up and observed my mucus and recorded my temperature in an app (I can't remember the name at this moment, but it wasn't Natural Cycles). This was awful. My mucus was irregular, my temps did not always have extreme dips. I felt like I was always guessing, and always felt guilty that I couldn't figure it out better. But I was WAY too uncomfortable to do internal measurements/observations and that was the only other way I knew to add more accuracy.
- What made you choose this method?Because it seemed the most reliable when all the other methods in the book were mucus-based and that was not reliable for us.
- Has charting helped you to understand your overall health?This method did not help at all.
- Did you stop using this method? If so, why?Stopped because it failed and we ended up pregnant at a very bad time! God provided for our little miracle girl, but switching from this method is one of the best things that happened for my health and our relationship.
