O+12 is a timing method very popular amongst those trying for a baby girl, where you aim for intercourse about 12 hours after ovulation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6586497 (the ORIGINAL O+12 study)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=7427410&dopt=AbstractPlus (keep in mind that this study was done on women who took Clomid to induce ovulation, and as we all know, Clomid sways pink and timing may have nothing to do with it.)
https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum/showthread.php?1291-O-12-Part-1-The-History-of-O-12 (this explains the history of O+12 and explains a little about how it may or may not work)
HOW TO PREPARE FOR O+12
Being able to time ovulation down to the hour is the critical element for a successful O+12. If you’re not already tracking your ovulation on Fertility Friends, do so. http://www.fertilityfriend.com/
To do O+12, you will need either a fertility monitor and/or a basal body thermometer and opks (ovulation predictor kits).
You MUST practice three cycles in advance (or more) of your attempt, firstly so you are accustomed to charting your temperature, checking your cervix position, and familiar with the various types of cervical mucus. These are the “Three Primary Fertility Signs” referenced in the excellent book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler http://www.tcoyf.com/ and they will be the key to pinpointing when you ovulate. Also, it is very helpful to have the information from these first three cycles. If you don’t have three cycles to practice, DON’T do O+12, you may end up DTD too soon (boy timing) or too late (egg will be dead).
In addition to the TPFS, you should also use an ovulation monitor/OPKs, and the data from previous cycles to help you determine when exactly you ovulate. Ovulation pains can help but should not be relied upon.
TPFS #1 – WAKING (Basal Body) TEMPERATURE: Take your temperature first thing in the morning and track the information on Fertility Friend. However, if you are woken up a lot in the night, wake up a different hours every day, drink alcohol from time to time, regularly forget to take your temperature, or even are just really cozy under the covers one day or chilled another, your temps can be screwy. That’s why you need to chart, because you MUST observe your temperature trends on a day-to-day basis over a few months, and not just here and there, to truly understand what’s going on. Also, be aware that temps don’t warn you that you’re ABOUT to ovulate, they only warn you AFTER you already have. And, for a very small percentage of women, temping is ineffective (but you can still use CM and position to tell ovulation).
Before ovulation, women’s waking temps average between 97 and 97.7. After ovulation, your temps will sharply jump to 97.8 and higher and will stay that way throughout a pregnancy (you can tell if you’re pregnant just by your temperature staying high for 18 days after ovulation, and if your temps drop suddenly that is not a good sign even if you have gotten a BFP).
Please note – the temps jumping up indicates that ovulation HAS ALREADY OCCURED. You can’t rely on your temp shift to help pinpoint O+12 because by the time the temp goes up, the egg is most likely already dead by that point. That’s where OPK’s come in (more about that in a minute).
Some people may want to try taking a second temp in the evening to help pinpoint O sooner. This has advantages and disadvantages, because your temps will not be reliable in comparison to your morning temps. Keep the two sets of temps separate and don’t compare the two. They will follow similar but separate patterns and cannot be compared to one another.
TPFS #2 – CERVICAL MUCUS – As you get closer to ovulation you will observe that your cervical mucus begins to get wetter, thinner, and stretchy, like eggwhite. Each cycle will be different, but for all of us, every cycle, the closer we get to ovulation, the more fertile our mucus becomes. Here are links to a couple of amazing, but very graphic sites where you can see actual photos of the female cervix throughout the month and you can see the difference in mucus quality. http://www.gardenoffertility.com/cervix.shtml http://www.beautifulcervix.com/cervi…tos-of-cervix/
Immediately after estrogen peaks and begins to drop, your progesterone will start to rise (your body assumes with every cycle that you have become pregnant and raises progesterone as a result.) Your cervical fluid will change abruptly. The eggwhite mucus will be replaced by a drier, more creamy CM, and if it was creamy to start with (which is what you WANT to TTC pink), it may even be replaced by a sticky, dry mucus.
The downside of using CM to pinpoint O+12 is that if you are taking supplements, particularly antihistamines, you may not even HAVE any CM to check and you‘ll have to rely on the less-reliable sign of cervical texture to determine O+12. Also, if you are double-ovulating, you may completely miss your first egg because your estrogen will stay high until your second egg has been released. Your first egg may have died by then. Not good if you’re trying for twins.
TPFS #3 – CERVICAL POSITION AND TEXTURE – Throughout your cycle, it is natural for your cervix to move higher and lower in your vagina and to be softer/firmer. (see above links if you want to help envision what these changes look like) Prior to ovulation your cervix will be firm, low, closed, and nonwet, which helps keep any foreign substances from entering the uterus. Around ovulation, your cervix will “SHOW“, that means it will be soft, high, open and wet (thanks to TCOYF for this handy acronym.) in order to allow CM to flow through and pregnancy to occur. This is the least reliable of the primary fertility signs because many things can affect the way your cervix looks and feels. Intercourse, pressure from stool in the rectum, even swelling from checking your cervix too much can all make it harder to judge what is going on. WARNING – Make very sure your hands are scrupulously clean when you check your cervix.
IF you find that your CM and cervical texture do not change simultaneously, go off of the texture of your CM because that is easier to understand and is probably what sways anyway. This is where charting comes in handy because you’ll be able to look back at previous months and understand where in respect to your cycle your cervix/CM seem to change (although again, this COULD happen differently in any given month).
OPKS – These are little test sticks that detect LH (the hormone that makes the egg burst from the ovary)which surges prior to ovulation. You can buy them at many places online, drugstores, and even at the Dollar Store. Start using them about three days before you expect to ovulate and follow the directions on the package to use and read them. WARNING – unlike with pregnancy tests, you do not use FMU (first morning urine) for OPKs. You should test in early afternoon for best results because that’s when the level of LH in your urine is highest.
OVULATION MONITOR – You can use an ovulation monitor to help you determine when you ovulate. This is a post in and of itself so I will just mention it for now. The different brands work in a variety of ways so just go off the directions that come with your monitor.
USING PAST CYCLES TO UNDERSTAND FUTURE CYCLES – IF your cycles are very regular, you can use your past charts to determine when you typically O. This is terribly unreliable, but it can help sometimes when you have very little CM, and it DOES help you learn the ropes of your body – you’ll be able to make the correlation between CM and cervix texture and in retrospect, it will help you understand the pattern that your body seems to follow.
OVULATION PAINS – aka mittelschmerz. Charting and monitoring your past cycles can also help you understand the different types of o pains. You may feel achy and tender before ovulation, followed by a sharp pain, popping, or twinging sensation at ovulation when the egg is released, and then cramping after ovulation as the Fallopian tubes contract to move sperm towards the egg and the egg down to the uterus. O pains will be felt on one side only unless you are ovulating from both ovaries that month. Further complicating matters is the fact that many people have cramps and tenderness in their uterus during ovulation as well. Don’t rely on them, but they can be a helpful secondary sign.
HOW TO DO AN O+12 –
Once you get a positive OPK, that means you will ovulate within 8-48 hours. Research has shown that it’s on average 32 hours after your LH surge (but do not rely on this.) Begin to check your CM and cervix (ovulation pains can help pinpoint O if you feel them but are unreliable.) 12 hours after you ovulate, your cervix will go from soft to hard and your EWCM will change to creamy. That’s O+12! You now have 8 hours to DTD. (Eggs live a maximum of 24 hours and sperm take 4 hours to capacitate before they are capable of fertilization).
Also, you need to lower your husband’s sperm count by either abstaining for a minimum of 7 days and preferably longer – many who choose O+12 have their husbands abstain for the entire cycle – or by doing frequent release (and I mean FREQUENT – every day and preferably twice). You may even want to have him release once the morning of your attempt and DTD again later to further reduce sperm count.
Do NOT DTD again until you’re sure you’re no longer fertile. Use a condom until you have had three high temps on your chart.