Can I have some feedback on my sway so far please? Abstaining or frequent release?

[GeCon]

Hi,

I have read the thread about abstaining and frequent release, but am still undecided what to go for.

I am thinking of these things for the sway: Girl Diet, Cut off, Vitex for me, Liquorice Root for DH, Hot Showers and repHresh.

Also is it correct that for TTC pink you are looking at BD'ing in the morning? If so, what sort of time span are we talking about?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[carmella_marie]

I am going to do a compressed frequent release since I can't get DH to commit to DTD every day or a long abstain. I am going to have him relieve himself and then relieve himself again as soon as he is able and then the third time that same day he will go inside me. I think we are going to do an O+12, just because my son was a shettles opposite--5 day cut off. You may want to add something like baby aspirin or cranberry and some moderate levels of aspertame to help drop your CM pH. Saw Palmetto is supposed to help with lowering testosterone (but I am still deciding whether or not I want to use it) BDing in the morning is supposed to be lower sperm count I think? Or maybe it is that in the evening there is better sperm quality that sways blue... I don't remember.

[rainbowflower]

we've been doing compressed frequent release from when we got a pos OPK.


Things to think about:

Are your cycles regular?
Is your DH over 35? (if so abstinance is not recommended)
Is your DH capable of abstaining? (some men have night-time accidents in their sleep if they have to go too long without releasing... and some men get too frustrated)
Could your DH release every day?
How frequently did he release when you conceived any existing children? if he already released daily perhaps you would need to try releasing twice daily

both have their advantages and disadvantages

with regular BD (i.e. not regular releasing and discarding) you up the chance of pregnancy a lot, especially if doing a cut off, but can raise pH although you could use douching/rephresh to sort that
with regular release and perhaps just one attempt you get the lower sperm count benefits but not the pH rise, and also less chance of conceiving
abstaining gives you only one shot so less chance of pregnancy, but is probably less stressful and wouldn't raise either of your testosterone levels
frequent release only every 24hrs might not be enough for some couples to lower sperm count enough
if your cycles are irregular it can be exhausting to release daily with no end in sight
personally I believe compressed frequent release and abstaining are best for lowering sperm count
if not using a cut off compressed frequent release might be easiest as you can just release and discard when you get a pos OPK and then DTD as soon as you can after that. sperm count will be significantly lowered, testosterone won't be raised, and less stressful overall. Better chance of conceiving that way too.

I must point out that with a 3+ day cut off you only have a 10% chance of conceiving each cycle even without swaying, so swaying could lower this further. If you want to conceive faster you should aim to get more BD attempts in before OV.

hope that's some food for thought!

[rainbowflower]

I don't think BDing in the morning sways more especially if you are already lowering sperm count somehow

[GeCon]

This is the part, where I am really not sure yet.

Are your cycles regular? - No, not yet. Still BF and will start Vitex and am using CBFM and BBT.
Is your DH over 35? (if so abstinance is not recommended) --> He is 39. Why is it not recommended for over 35's? Our LO was conceived when OH was 37 and he was pretty much conceived the second cycle.
Is your DH capable of abstaining? (some men have night-time accidents in their sleep if they have to go too long without releasing... and some men get too frustrated) --> I think he'd be okay.
Could your DH release every day? --> I think so.
How frequently did he release when you conceived any existing children? if he already released daily perhaps you would need to try releasing twice daily. --> We BD'ed pretty much once a day leading up to and after O when conceiving DS. OH had his sperm tested before we conceived LO and we were told that his sperm count is high (45 million). Should I take this into consideration?

Also I read something about abstaining and birth defects. What is this about?

[rainbowflower]

if your DH is over 35, abstinence can cause an increase in birth defects - the sperm can become more damaged the older they are. There's a study somewhere but I don't have a link to it...
I think you should take the sperm count factor in, perhaps he'd need to release twice a day for your attempts

[GeCon]

I really don't know what to do. I obviously don't want to risk baby's health by abstaining. What options have I got then? How many times a day would we need to BD leading up to the cut off? I also read about only BD once per attempt. I just don't know...

[rainbowflower]

when are you actually starting to TTC? just that if you really want to use a cut-off you need to be able to predict when OV will be, so you'd need to chart too and cycles can be more irregular after stopping the pill

in your position, I'd wait until I got a pos OPK and then release and discard at least once (if not twice within a short period of time) and then make your attempt within 8hrs of the previous release if you can. Then it would likely still be a day or two until OV so you'd still get a small cut off. It also wouldn't feel like a marathon that way, and wouldn't matter if your cycles were irregular. You'd also have a decent chance of pregnancy, and one attempt wouldn't raise pH or testosterone levels

[GeCon]

That makes sense, rainbowflower. I am charting and am hoping that the Clearblue Fertility Monitor will help with predicting O. This month is our practice run to see if and when O takes place plus to do the diet and hopefully next cycle, we'll give it a go. So only BD once when making the attempt? What about J&D? I wasn't going to bother with it as I am planning on using rePHresh.

[angiesscripts]

Rainbowflower can you tell me how exactly you are doing compressed release? I'm confused on it, but it sounds like it would be a great solution for us. How many days of abstinance before starting compressed release? How many times total, and times per day releasing before your actual attempt? Thanks so much!

[rainbowflower]

GC - we've actually been having a few DTD attempts, but I've had a weird cycle after previously having more stable cycles and initially planned just the one. How old is your LO? have you had a natural non-pill AF so far? I read that most sperm leave the V and enter the cervix within 5-15mins after ejaculation, so I J&D after 10mins

AS - np, it's mainly based on this study: http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/71/1/135.full.pdf+html which showed that a release 8hrs after a previous release halves the total semen ejaculated, and within that amount the sperm concentration was also reduced -i.e. total sperm ejaculated was drastically lowered. For us we planned to DTD during the night when our DS was in bed so DH released last thing at night before bed, and then I'd wake him when I took my temp and we'd BD in the morning. We always aimed to DTD within 12hrs of our previous attempt. If you really wanted to lower things further you could do two releases before using the 3rd batch for your attempt. I think the sooner you BD after a previous release, the lower things will be... but IMO you don't want to lower them too much as we do still want to get pregnant!

[zanacal]

I just wanted to add that I'm convinced that lowering sperm count is important but not at all convinced that timing (ie. cut-off/O+12) makes any difference - and like Rainbow said you don't want to lower sperm count so much that you don't get pregnant. This is why we chose to do frequent release (twice each day for around 10 days) and compressed frequent release (3 times within 24 hours) with only one attempt at the end of this - but our attempt was on O day so we timed DTD with our lowered sperm count for maximum chances of pregnancy.

My DH has semen with a very high pH so I did a J&D and I did it immediately after he'd finished - just got straight up and went for a wee and wiped up.

[atomic sagebrush]

Hi,

I have read the thread about abstaining and frequent release, but am still undecided what to go for.

I am thinking of these things for the sway: Girl Diet, Cut off, Vitex for me, Liquorice Root for DH, Hot Showers and repHresh.

Also is it correct that for TTC pink you are looking at BD'ing in the morning? If so, what sort of time span are we talking about?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

:agree: girl diet, cutoff, vitex, FR, hot showers, RepHresh all great.

I looked into the whole Bd in morning vs. evening and it turns out that the difference in testosterone and as a result, sperm count, so minor as to be basically irrelevant (one study actually found the opposite to be true so who even knows.). I think everyone should just BD when it is convenient for their life and schedule because of all the things we do to sway, what time of day you BD is prob. pretty unimportant.

[atomic sagebrush]

we've been doing compressed frequent release from when we got a pos OPK.


Things to think about:

Are your cycles regular?
Is your DH over 35? (if so abstinance is not recommended)
Is your DH capable of abstaining? (some men have night-time accidents in their sleep if they have to go too long without releasing... and some men get too frustrated)
Could your DH release every day?
How frequently did he release when you conceived any existing children? if he already released daily perhaps you would need to try releasing twice daily

both have their advantages and disadvantages

with regular BD (i.e. not regular releasing and discarding) you up the chance of pregnancy a lot, especially if doing a cut off, but can raise pH although you could use douching/rephresh to sort that
with regular release and perhaps just one attempt you get the lower sperm count benefits but not the pH rise, and also less chance of conceiving
abstaining gives you only one shot so less chance of pregnancy, but is probably less stressful and wouldn't raise either of your testosterone levels
frequent release only every 24hrs might not be enough for some couples to lower sperm count enough
if your cycles are irregular it can be exhausting to release daily with no end in sight
personally I believe compressed frequent release and abstaining are best for lowering sperm count
if not using a cut off compressed frequent release might be easiest as you can just release and discard when you get a pos OPK and then DTD as soon as you can after that. sperm count will be significantly lowered, testosterone won't be raised, and less stressful overall. Better chance of conceiving that way too.

I must point out that with a 3+ day cut off you only have a 10% chance of conceiving each cycle even without swaying, so swaying could lower this further. If you want to conceive faster you should aim to get more BD attempts in before OV.

hope that's some food for thought!

rainbow I think this is BRILLIANT! Is there any way you can repost this onto the frequency thread??? Or I can with your permission.

[atomic sagebrush]

when are you actually starting to TTC? just that if you really want to use a cut-off you need to be able to predict when OV will be, so you'd need to chart too and cycles can be more irregular after stopping the pill

in your position, I'd wait until I got a pos OPK and then release and discard at least once (if not twice within a short period of time) and then make your attempt within 8hrs of the previous release if you can. Then it would likely still be a day or two until OV so you'd still get a small cut off. It also wouldn't feel like a marathon that way, and wouldn't matter if your cycles were irregular. You'd also have a decent chance of pregnancy, and one attempt wouldn't raise pH or testosterone levels

:agree: I think this is a fine plan and pretty much exactly what I would do as well.

[atomic sagebrush]

I just wanted to add that I'm convinced that lowering sperm count is important but not at all convinced that timing (ie. cut-off/O+12) makes any difference - and like Rainbow said you don't want to lower sperm count so much that you don't get pregnant. This is why we chose to do frequent release (twice each day for around 10 days) and compressed frequent release (3 times within 24 hours) with only one attempt at the end of this - but our attempt was on O day so we timed DTD with our lowered sperm count for maximum chances of pregnancy.

My DH has semen with a very high pH so I did a J&D and I did it immediately after he'd finished - just got straight up and went for a wee and wiped up.

:agree: totally! Thanks so much everyone for giving such great responses.

[rainbowflower]

rainbow I think this is BRILLIANT! Is there any way you can repost this onto the frequency thread??? Or I can with your permission.

Please feel free to! I'm having temporary laptop issues and its in for repair so can't easily do that from my phone

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk

[atomic sagebrush]

I'll do that then, thanks! Hope your laptop is back up and running soon!!