Natural Family Planning

is that charting temps to pinpoint ovulation and avoiding sex/using condoms then?

we are thinking maybe of trying this method vs taking the pill as i'm not sure I want the side effects of the pill.

i got my mirena out on the 19th as it wasnt sitting right.
and i dont want more hormones in my system than I need, and this cycle I have ovulated on sunday (cd18) and it was fairly easy to see as my temp plummeted then rose since.
and OPK's were getting darker around then too, i just never got a + one

It is effective. I find it wouldn't work well for us as I've no self control when ovulating, and husband is no help (and I'm allergic to latex). There's a great book (huge too) called Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler that explains the method. I'm sure it teaches you everything you'd learn in a class (I think I paid around $20 on Book Depository). Mine came with some software (just a demo, haven't used it because I used Fertility Friend) and paper sheets in the book you can photocopy for tracking.
OPK's aren't accurate for preventing, but a combination of checking cervical mucus and temping is.

Hey Kellz. We do here, but I don't bother with OPKs or temps. My body's pretty good at telling me when I'm OVing and I can almost every cycle pinpoint the exact moment. Of course that did work well when my cycles were regular 29 days and I always OVd on cd14/15, but then that time last year I fell preg but then MCd was because my body threw a spanner in the works and decided to suddenly OV on CD10 without any pre-OV signs at all! Since then my cycles have been a bit wobbly and I can OV anywhere from CD10 to CD19! So now it's a bit trickier using that method. Where it used to safe after AF finished, I wonder if OV might suddenly appear next day after what happened last time, or sometimes the pre-ov signs can last for a week before OV actually happens so I'm waiting waiting waiting to know when it's "safe" again.

I think as long as you are disciplined it it pretty reliable. I have been doing it since DS was born more or less, we use condoms around ovulation time, I know the signs pretty well from having charted to get pregnant with DS. I did go on the mini pill but I felt like I was putting on weight and it stuffed up my periods so I went off again. If you want to do charting to be extra careful you can or OPKs but if you are familiar with your cycle I'd say it's relatively safe, of course not as safe as using contraception there is more room for error hehe but as long as you're disciplined and careful Id say its ok. Now Im going back to work we might look at something again because I don't want to get UTD while Im working for at least a year or so.