[name_m]Just[/name_m] wondering if any other ladies use Kindara to track your cycles, and if so, will you be purchasing Wink? I love Kindara, and am almost positive I’m going with Wink. I’ve been using the Fertility Awareness Method as my method of birth control for 6 years (but it can also be used to help conceive, or just to help you learn about your body), and I think Wink is going to make it even easier.
For people who don’t use Kindara or haven’t heard about it, it’s worth checking out. Kindara is an app that helps you track your cycle. Wink is a thermometer that automatically syncs with your phone when you take your temperature. Yay!
I am currently pregnant, but am discussing birth control methods for once my period returns after baby girl is here. What was your experience with using the fertility awareness method as birth control?
I use My Period [name_m]Calendar[/name_m] as an app on my Nook. I use it to track my periods, and it uses the data from my periods to predict my fertile days. I mostly use it to track any changes with my periods, but it’s great for using birth control as you can set it to remind your to take your BC pill/patch/etc, and it’s great for anyone trying to conceive because it’ll tell you when your fertile days are. It has a built in forum so you can talk to other people who has period problems, who are TTC, who has questions about birth control methods, or who was surprised by an unplanned pregnancy, and whatever else you want to talk about. It even has a “pregnancy mode” that you can enable in the settings for when/if you become pregnant and it will start a count down until your due date.
It’s not for everyone. You have to be the sort of person who doesn’t mind putting some effort into birth control. You also have to be at least somewhat predictable in your cycle. I think the most important thing is you have a partner who is receptive to it. You have to communicate, and you have to be open to other types of sex/intimacy (or be okay with abstaining or using condoms) for about a week every month. Being open to sex toys and being adventurous in the bedroom helps. It works for us, but I would not recommend it to anyone who doesn’t say yes to all of the above.
@redwoodfey / thanks for the info! prior to conceiving we used condoms so we are definitely open to using them during fertile days while we are not trying for a baby.
[name_f]Hope[/name_f] you find something that works for you. They have a blog with useful information if you want to learn more about it. Here Taking Charge of Your Fertility by [name_f]Toni[/name_f] Weschler might be useful to you, as well.
I’ve been using FAM with Kindara for about 6 months and I love it. Its been great to learn more about my cycles and general health. I’ve been using a BBT but have just pre ordered Wink ($10 off link if anyone is thinking of getting one https://kindara.com/r/aK5SBOXxm).
I’m looking forward to trying it out but I don’t think it’s being released until [name_f]April[/name_f] 2016
I only charted for a few months before I got pregnant, but I’m hoping we can use FAM for birth control after baby comes. I’m a little worried because we’ve never used condoms or anything, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. I have had pretty irregular cycles in the past, so I love being able to pinpoint ovulation and know roughly when to expect my period and everything. Also my due date agrees exactly with my chart, so that made me feel good, especially because this cycle was crazy. I didn’t ovulate until like cd36! But I knew that I hadn’t ovulated yet, so I wasn’t taking pregnancy tests every week and panicking. I agree that it’s not for everyone, but I’ve really liked it so far.
I don’t think I’m getting wink. My cheap thermometer does a good enough job for me right now. I’m waiting to see if tempdrop is as good as advertised, because it’d be really nice to not have to worry about inconsistent temp times or not enough consecutive hours of sleep, especially if I’m going to be up with a baby at night. Hopefully it’ll be out soon so there will be some reviews later this year when I would be ready to order. But otherwise I’ll probably just stick with my cheapy thermometer, wink sounds nice but just has a lot of features that I don’t think I’d be willing to pay so much for.
Also I do use kindara for charting. I’ve looked at others but started there, so it’s the easiest for me to read and understand.
Also seconding Taking Charge of Your Fertility for anyone thinking about doing this kind of charting. You need to really know what you’re doing if you’re using it as birth control, just tracking periods isn’t reliable enough! And even TTC, it’s really helpful to know when you’re about to ovulate or how to figure out when you did to see if you need to work on some hormonal issues.
It works for us, but I would not recommend it to anyone who doesn’t say yes to all of the above.
prior to conceiving we used condoms so we are definitely open to using them during fertile days while we are not trying for a baby.