Best time of the month?

Avatar for kissmedeadly
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Best time of the month?
5
Tue, 10-19-2004 - 3:35pm
What is the best time of the month, NOT to get pregnant? For the first time in 7 years, I am coming off the pill and my doctor wants me to wait a full month before getting an IUD to make sure any of the probelms I was having, arent from the BCP.

So we have to go a month with just condoms, which makes me nervous. I wanted to know what days of your cycle are the safest.

Also, Does Day 1 of your cycle start on the 1st day of your period?

:) thanks ladies

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-30-2003
Tue, 10-19-2004 - 4:54pm
Hi kissmedeadly, welcome back!

In theory, if you were cycling naturally on a stable 28 day cycle the first few days after your period and the last few days before your next period would be the safest. But that's only in theory under typical conditions, which you don't have. Just coming of hormones you may ovulate right away or not ovulate at all. Cycling naturally anything can throw your cycle off. That's why the rhythm method doesn't work. If you only have 30 days there isn't time to learn the techniques and chart your fertile signs; basal body temperature, cervical position and cervical fluid to determine your fertile days reliably. However, a good book on the menstrual cycle and charting is Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler. If I were you I would use condoms combined with a contraceptive sponge or a good spermicide and follow all the rules for their correct usage. That way you should be ok. Let us know how you are doing, ok?

Good luck,

      Jill

    

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-21-2003
Tue, 10-19-2004 - 6:31pm
Yeah, not enough time to learn charting. Also the pill can really mess up your fertility signs for the first couple months off it. If you want to, you could only have sex with a condom during "dry days" and abstain the rest of the time. That probably won't leave you many days to have sex (I think most women coming off the pill tend to have more cervical fluid). But it should make the condoms more effective. Basically you just wipe or check with your fingers before and after using the bathroom any time you aren't sexually aroused. If you are dry all day you probably aren't fertile.

Or if you want to take more risk you could just keep your eyes open for creamy (can be opaque, cool to the touch, not stretchy) and egg white (clear and stretchy) cervical fluid and only abstain on those days, since sticky cervical fluid is somewhat less fertile.

And just want to make it clear for anyone else reading this using condoms would be absolutely necessary doing something like this.

Anyways, hope that helps somewhat!
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-21-2003
Tue, 10-19-2004 - 6:59pm
Of course the more I think about it the more caveats I think of :) If you do something like I mentioned and want to be conservative... egg white cervical fluid is your best indicator of ovulation. If you get it and dry up the next day you aren't necessarily not fertile. The egg lives 24 hours, etc., etc. If the condom broke you could still get pregnant. So the rule is you are infertile after 4 dry days after egg white cervical fluid. You might want to continue to abstain on those days even though they are dry. And since you wouldn't be temping you won't know for sure you ovulated. You may get several patches of egg white cervical fluid as your body tries to ovulate, each time having to use the 4 day rule.

Anyways probably way more info than you wanted... :)
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 10-19-2004 - 7:29pm
you might want to check into this in the future...


http://www.tcoyf.com/

Avatar for kissmedeadly
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Tue, 10-19-2004 - 7:58pm
Thank you so much Jill and all the ladies that replied :)