Sex & Romance
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Cycle Beads
Anyone use them? I just started last month and want to know if anyone here has gotten preggo when using them correctly? I want to know what my odds are.. (not wanting a baby.. yet.) And any advice for good condoms for the days we need protection would be much appreciated! 
Re: Cycle Beads
Cycle beads are only 95% effective according to www.cyclebeads.com
They are only good if your cycle is 26-33 days long. All women have differences in their cycle lengths. You could ovulate later or earlier and your fertile period would differ than what is indicated by using the beads. I wouldn't trust them at all if you are looking to avoid or achieve pregnancy.
If you are truly looking for a natural family planning/ fertility awarness method- check out "Taking Charge of Your Fertility". It uses actual symptoms, like basal body temperature, cervical mucus, and cervical position, that can be measured to figure out when you are fertile. Also, www.fertilityfriend.com provides free lessons on charting and can help you keep track of your data.
Lastly- prego is a sauce- not a condition.
Ditto all this. I just looked at the website, and compared it with my chart. If I had trusted their beads last cycle, there would have been a decent chance I would be pregnant right now based on my ovulation date. If I weren't charting, I wouldn't know that I ovulate late in my cycle.
A few years back when I was looking into BC I knew I didn't want any hormones and I almost went for Cycle Beads. Their website makes it look so easy and effective. Then I educated myself about fertility awareness and I now I would NEVER trust Cycle Beads. They are basically the Rhythm Method (which is NOT reliable) but with little cute props. The whole thing relies on counting days which basically means that you're using your past cycles to predict the future. And NO part of your body can predict the future.
If you really want to use Fertility Awareness pick up Taking Charge of Your Fertility and read it. You can very easily track fertility (and see the day you ovulate as well as the fertile time leading up to it) if you track basal body temperature, cervical fluid and cervical position. It can be a little overwhelming when you're first learning it, but once you get it down it's basically second nature. I am happily child free and never want kids EVER and I absolutely trust fertility awareness. My DH and I have been using it for 4 years without even one pregnancy scare. You just have to ALWAYS follow the rules. Oh and the extra bonus - your temp plummets the day you are going to get your period so you're never surprised by it!
Best of luck!
Thank you!!! That was very helpful!
Sorry if this offended you by me putting my question in the wrong board!
Wow.
As some of the pp said I would highly reccommend reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility and trying out the Fertility awareness method. I have been doing it for 2 1/2 years and it has been wonderful and baby free
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Try not to listen to the negative posts. It is one of the reasons I almost never post anything on this board. As far as I'm concerned, I learned about FAM on this board and it has improved my sex life since I am not on hormonal BC anymore.
Good luck and PM me if you have any questions about FAM.
I appreciate your response!
I am pulling up Taking Charge of Your Fertility, right now. 2 1/2 years is impressive! 
I agree, I NEVER post on here unless I 1. have a good recipe or 2. have a question I don't feel comfortable asking my married friends! It's just frustrating because if they don't have anything nice to say, they shouldn't say anything at all! My question didn't hurt anyone!
I may be PM'ing you soon! I want to try this out..
They are these beads that tell you when you should be ovulating so you can either plan a pregnancy or avoid a pregnancy. They look like a necklace. (If you wanna look at them the site is cyclebeads.com)
I agree. Some people don't understand that 'Sex and Romance' includes fertility and all. Don't feel bad for posting it!
I don't have experience with the cycle beads, but I do use the Clear Blue Ovulation monitor. It monitors levels of hormone in your urine to determine "Low" "High" and "Peak" levels of fertility. It's a little pricey (~$130 on Amazon plus the cost of "pee sticks" each month).
It has been a blessing in the past. My cycle is normally 28 days like clockwork. A couple months ago I was pretty stressed and my cycle was 32 and 34 days two months in a row. If I had been relying solely on the calendar or bead method, I may have accidentally thought I was ok to have sex. We are using it for NFP right now, but when we do try to conceive, we will be able to use it for that as well. I love gadgets that have duel purposes!
GL!
Make a pregnancy ticker
How much are the "pee sticks?" And how often do you check it? I've never heard of the Clear Blue Ovulation Monitor. Thank you for the info!
There are 30 test sticks in a box, and the box costs ~$30 on Amazon. You can buy the monitor and test sticks at Walgreens, etc but it costs a little more. It will typically ask you for 10 sticks a month, so you should only need to buy a box every 3 months (side: if your period is irregular and the monitor doesn't detect a surge in hormones, it may ask you for more).
Here's the website that can give you more info:
http://www.clearblueeasy.com/clearblue-easy-fertility-monitor.php