Tantric Orgasm for Women (22 page)

How the Sympto-Thermal Cross-Check Works

A woman’s monthly cycle, starting with the first day of her menstrual period as day one, will continue with some six infertile days and then enter into the fertile phase until after ovulation. Ovulation will occur near the middle of the cycle, but there is considerable variation in the exact timing of ovulation from one woman to another. With careful observation, over time a woman can become familiar with the pattern of her cycle and know when to expect ovulation each month. To be safe, she must consider herself fertile for several days preceding and following ovulation. However, by observing her waking body temperature and her cervical mucus, a woman can confirm ovulation and know when she has entered the second, absolutely infertile phase of her cycle.

Determining the Peak Day

To determine the beginning of the postovulation infertile phase, a woman first must learn to spot the
peak day:
this is
the day of her most fertile cervi
cal fluid.
The most fertile fluid, or mucus, looks and feels like clear, slippery, uncooked egg whites. It is very elastic and can be stretched into a long string between finger and thumb without breaking—in contrast to the sticky, opaque infertile mucus that breaks immediately when thumb and forefinger are pulled apart. Once a woman has observed fertile mucus, she can pinpoint her peak day of fertility by noting the first day that the mucus quality changes drastically and begins to dry out—that is, the peak day can only be identified for sure by mucus changes the day after. That last day of slippery mucus should be considered the peak day.

A woman must observe the quality of her cervical fluid until she can identify it precisely. It might take her several cycles to really become familiar
with her own peak symptoms. Each month she will record her peak day in her
personal calendar or note it in the special chart provided in the manual. Her peak day may be the ovulation day. This is especially probable if she has on that day what some 10 percent of all women can feel—a few spasms of penetrating ache in the belly. This ache occurs on the side of the abdomen where the ovulating ovary lies.

According to scientific studies done by ultrasound tests with women who do not feel this kind of ache, there remains a 10 to 20 percent chance that ovulation occurs up to three days before or three days after the peak day. The minimal fertility window must take account of these six days of possible fertility. Because the egg lives for approximately eighteen hours after ovulation, and because sperm cells can survive for up to five or six days in the cervical crypts and folds, the fertility window generally extends to a minimum of eight days. Irregular cycles require extra vigilance.

Once the woman has spotted her peak day and noted it in her personal calendar or her cycle chart, she counts
until the evening of the third day
to fix the most probable end of her
fertility. For example, let’s say Wednesday is the peak day. She counts Thursday
as the first day (it is also the day of her peak-day verification) and Friday as
the second. She may expect infertility to begin the evening of the third day—Saturday evening in this example. How can she be absolutely sure about this forecast? By using the second sign, the temperature, as verification on Saturday morning.

Confirming Ovulation with Temperature

When practicing the sympto-thermal method a woman learns to observe her waking body temperature as a cross-check to her cervical mucus observations of fertility. To get an accurate reading of her waking temperature, she should take her temperature right after she wakes up in the morning. (It’s okay go to the bathroom before taking the temperature or even to make tantric love
while
taking it, but excessive activity should be avoided before getting
a reading.) For the first (estrogen-dominated) part of her cycle, a woman’s
waking body temperature will be slightly lower than her temperature after
ovulation. Once ovulation has occurred, the waking temperature will rise
slightly, due to a higher proportion of the hormone progesterone in the woman’s
body. So a woman can confirm the occurrence of ovulation by noticing when her waking temperature goes up. When a woman has observed three elevated waking temperatures—at least 0.2°C higher—following at least
six
of the lower temperatures, she will know that she has entered the infertile phase of her cycle and that she will remain infertile until her next menstruation, when her new cycle begins.
Only an adequate temperature rise can certify that the ovulation process is completely finished and that the absolutely infertile (progesterone) phase of the cycle has been established. (Such minute changes in temperature can be read only by special thermometers known as basal body temperature thermometers. The Bioself indicator [see page 208 for contact information for the Director of the Bioself company] is a most convenient and reliable tool for measuring temperature changes relative to the ovulation cycle.)

Exceptions

Occasionally the third high temperature may occur one or two days before the peak-day forecast would suggest (Thursday or Friday rather than Saturday, in our example here); in other words, the temperature rises before the peak day. (The Bioself indicator shows green too early.) It is then the viscosity of the cervical fluid that indicates Saturday evening as the beginning of the infertile phase. This cross-check determines the end of fertility fixed by the peak plus three days. This exception is very rare.

The following exception is more common. It is not risky, but it does extend the the fertile phase.

Let’s continue with the same example. This time, the temperature does not rise immediately after the peak day, so that, on Saturday morning, the third high temperature is still not there. (The Bioself indicator shows red.) On Sunday morning, however, the fourth day after peak, the third high temperature is confirmed (the Bioself indicator shows green); thus, the absolute infertile days start Sunday evening, the fourth day after peak day.

The principle of cross-checking at work in these two exceptions, as everywhere, is this:
You always have to respect the fertility sign that comes last.

What if the Bioself indicator still does not show green on Sunday or Monday morning? This means that ovulation
did not occur
and that the woman can expect another ovulation development with a
second peak day
. A woman can have two or more peak days especially when under stress. It is always the
last
peak that begins the count to the second, postovulatory phase. However, if the last peak day is not followed by the temperature rise before the next bleeding, the woman has had an anovulatory cycle.

In such situations, the woman fortunately can apply a general rule:

From the fourth evening after the peak day, whatever happens to the temperature curve (the Bioself indicator will continuously show red), the woman can consider herself as
relatively
infertile, as she is in the beginning of her cycle. The couple can safely have unprotected sex in the evening of every dry day while the woman daily keeps an eye on any potential new ovulation activity, indicated by the start of cervical fluid secretion. If the cycle remains anovulatory until the next bleeding, the woman might have an ovulation hidden by this bleeding. Only the temperature rise can confirm or refute this supposition.

Is Cross-Checking Always Needed?

Cross checking is only needed to screen out the exceptions noted earlier in this section. Once the woman really masters all fertility signs, according to her experience and her needs (provided her cycles remain strictly within the same pattern), she may concentrate on a single-sign approach: only the cervical fluid observation or only the temperature observation. But in doing this she may diminish the contraceptive safety provided by the cross-checking.

This, in a nutshell, is all a woman needs to know if she wants
her sexuality to make friends with her fertility. The Sympto-Thermal Method also works during breast-feeding and perimenopause; it has its place in all types of cycles, during all gynecological ages. Using the Bioself indicator is the easiest way to learn and to manage this method.