fertility friend or TCOYF software?

[mokey4]

Hey everyone, I'm new here. In fact, I've just read through most of Taking Charge of Your Fertility, and I'm on my 2nd day of charting. I think it will take me a couple of months to really figure out what the different kinds of cervical fluid look like, and get used to taking my temp first thing

Comments

[christirose]

1. I used to use Fertility Friend but, got put off by it. All the TTC language was annoying me. To be honest, I’ve never tried Ovusoft (Mac user here). Now I just use Pocket Excel on my cell phone. I trust my own interpretations and I find the instant convenience hard to beat.
2. The most important thing about a thermometer - more important than decimal places (well it should have at least tenths) and the “basal” label - is how accurate it is and how much you trust that accuracy because you’re looking for a temp shift of a half degree (farenheit) or maybe even less. That said, I have noticed, most basal thermometers have a margin of error of around ±0.1 to ±0.2 and fever thermometers have a margin of error of around ±0.2 to ±0.3 (all anecdotal from checking manufacturer websites and packaging, maybe someday, I’ll compile a chart of all this). Anyways, I use a BD Flex. TCoYF recommends the BD Basal but, eh, I like the flex better. I like the BD Basal’s color though, LOL.
3. Every woman is different. For me, time of day means very little in terms of getting consistent temps. It’s recommended that temps need to be taken after at least 3½ hours of sleep but I found that mine were all jumpy until I started getting at least 5 hours of sleep. Also, it helped to try to get the deepest sleep possible and sleeping with an eye mask stabilized my temps even more. Lastly, keep in mind that “basal” means resting, and ideally someone would take your temp for you in the middle of your sleep or before you wake up. Without that, I just aimed for developing habits to get closest to that resting temp. With those habits, so far my temps have been not jumpy even though I sleep in on weekends and holidays. ;-)