Timing dilemna

[swish]

Sorry another timing post!
After reading recent posts I want to give myself the best chance of getting pregnant as soon as I can as I don't realistically think I can keep up the diet strictly for months and months. Originally I was going to do 7 days abstain with 3 day cut off. I'm now wondering whether to dtd every day until the day before O. I'm worried about this as I read you should do the opposite of what you did before, we did this with ds1 but through O. Would it be better to abstain then dtd every day until day before? I'm going with the idea that timing is not the most important and generally just to avoid O. What are your opinions? Should i stick to my original plan or one of the other ideas. Hope that makes sense!! I want to do all my stressing now!!

[atomic sagebrush]

Have you read Minerva's Mommy blog on IG? She analyzed a ton of FF charts and if I remember right (I dont' have them in front of me right this second) that is exactly what she found the best girl sway was.

[kaseybaby]

Atomic, which did she say was the best? I am having timing dilemma as well.

[nuthinbutpink]

This is from her blog-

Cut-offs of at least two days are also effective according to my research. If someone is doing a cut-off, I think it is wisest to limit the cut-off to 2-3 days, since cut-offs of 2 days and 3 days had the highest effectiveness rates for girls (59.4% and 73.3% respectively, and there were 47 charts with 2 or 3 day cut-offs). 4 day cut-offs also favored girls in my study - but the number of charts with that pattern are very low (7 total), and so I don't trust that cut-offs that long are good for girls, especially when there is other information indicating that long cut-offs may favor boys.

The last popular girl timing method, frequent BD through ovulation was NOT supported by my research. I found absolutely no evidence that more BD favored girls, and the odds were pretty close to 50/50 no matter how frequent the BD was. I also had quite a lot of charts with frequent BD on them - 232. Obviously, I'm still not looking at thousands of charts with a particular pattern, but this is still a substantial number of charts. The ineffectiveness of frequent BD for swaying for a girl is one of the conclusions that is best supported by my study.

On the other hand, if the frequent BD avoided ovulation, it resulted in girls 56.9% of the time. There were 58 charts with this pattern. While frequent BD that avoids ovulation has the lowest effectiveness rate of these 3 timing methods, there are some extra benefits to this method - and it is the timing method I plan to use when I sway.

First of all, even though O+12 appears to be a very effective timing method, it works best for younger women. As women get older, their eggs don't live as long. I will be 35 when we start ttc, and so I have my doubts that any eggs I produce will live long enough to be fertilized after 12+ hours. I could be wrong, but I don't want to gamble for several months on a timing method that has a high probability of not working.

Second, cut-offs are also effective, but they have some drawbacks. If you don't have regular cycles it can be difficult to predict when it is going to be 2 or 3 days before you ovulate. My cycles are relatively regular - but I never know for sure which day I will ovulate, and it can vary quite a bit. The other problem is that the farther away from ovulation that you BD, the harder it is to get pregnant. Only 11.8% of the charts I looked at had a cut-off of 2 or more days. Cut-offs are NOT the ideal way to get pregnant quickly. For some people, getting pregnant quickly may not matter. But many of us, for one reason or another, don't feel like we have the leisure to spend months and years on ttc methods that have a low rate of success.

Frequent BD that avoids ovulation avoids these problems. Thanks to OPKs, it is usually much easier to predict 1 day before ovulation than 2 or 3 days. And if you BD up to 1 day before you ovulate, that increases your chances of getting pregnant. Swaying is hard work, and it is difficult to stick to for months without getting pregnant. For that reason, I think it is wisest to pick a swaying method that is effective but also increases the odds of conceiving.

[kaseybaby]

So then it seems from what she is saying, Deanna's plan would sway Pink slightly, if I am reading it correctly.

[kaseybaby]

Thanks for posting this, the stupid monkeys weren't let me read her blog.

[kaseybaby]

Also, when she says frequent BD with avoiding ovulation does she mean a one day cut off?

[swish]

Thank you, thank you!! That is REALLY helpful. I am decided I am going to dtd until I get a positive opt then I'm going to stop. If this doesn't work, the next month I'm going to also dtd on the day of pos opt. Relief!!! I feel very happy with that

[Preggypops]

Yea, I second the thanks for that, it has focused my on thoughts too.

[atomic sagebrush]

Also, when she says frequent BD with avoiding ovulation does she mean a one day cut off?

She found that stopping BD when there was EWCM swayed pink, even if it was only one day before.