QuestionHi and thank you for being a part of this. My husband and I have been fortunate in using NFP with our four boys. had my last baby in Jan. and since then my usual 28 day cycles have gone to 30-31 days. My last period was July 10 and lasted 7 days. On the last day my husband and I had intercourse. I am now on day 35 and haven't got my period. I took 2 early pregnancy tests and both were negative. How do you know when you are fertile? or which days to avoid? I have never been on birth control and am not interested to ever start. Thank you!
AnswerBased on the information you are giving me, I have to assume you have not been charting the signs and symptoms of fertility. Therefore, you have less information than you could have. I would recommend that you start doing that if you are interested in successfully practicing NFP from now on.
OK. Two negative pregnancy tests probably means you are not pregnant. They are generally pretty accurate, especially after the date you should have gotten your period.
I would guess that your cycles are changing because you are getting older (I know, no one wants to think that could happen!! LOL.) If you were taking your temperature in the morning before you get out of bed, you would be able to see on the chart if you had a spike of .4 degrees around the middle, which is ovulation. If there was no spike, then you didn't ovulate. That could happen more often as you get older.
The other thing you would see is how many days after ovulation until your period starts. That is the "post-leutal" phase and you cannot get pregnant ever during that phase. But if it's too short (less than 14 days, then there might not be enough progesterone to sustain a pregnancy. That's important information, too.
The other symptom you could chart is the mucus changes as your period ends and your time of ovulation commences. The mucus increases in amount and quality and you can track that on the chart as well.
In a cycle, you can count on three phases: the first day of your period until about day 5-7 (depends on how long your cycles are) are SAFE days. Then from day 5-7 until 2 days after you ovulate, those days are the UNSAFE days when you could get pregnant. After that, you cannot get pregnant and then your period starts and the whole cycle begins again. The variability is eliminated when you chart and look at the pattern over the months. The first few months of charting will be a learning phase but afterwards you will gain confidence and knowledge and your decisions will come quite naturally.
There is more information on this website: http://www.nfpandmore.org/
There is a downloadable manual and a chart you can print, too. I hope this helps. Let me know if you need more information.
Brigid
