The Creighton model fertility awareness method

How to use the method:

Every time you use the bathroom you will observe the sensations and appearance of your cervical mucus as you wipe, on the toilet paper, and in your fingers to determine if you are fertile.

The first step of to note the sensation you feel when you wipe. There are three different sensations, dry, smooth, and lubricative. Dry is where the toilet paper seems to stick and pull as you wipe. Smooth is just like it sounds, the paper glides smoothly by doesn't feel slippery. Lubricative is where it feels slippery as you wipe as if there is a layer of butter. You will make this observation and a form concrete decision before you look at the paper this is very important, so you don't change your mind once you see the paper.

The next step is to make observations about the appearance of the mucus on the paper. Those observations are labeled dry, damp, wet, or shiny. Dry means the paper is dry pretty simple. Damp is where there is a very small bit of mucus that reflects light but only when light us directly hitting it otherwise the paper will just look wet. Wet is where the visible mucus is shiny only in the highlights (peak points) where the light hits. Shiny means the mucus is shiny all over no matter how the light hits it.

The last observation is about the appearance of the mucus in your fingers and the consistency of it. To determine this, you will perform what is called a finger test. This means there is enough to pinch it off the toilet paper with your thumb and pointer and perform a stretch test with it you will be looking for how stretchy it is and the opacity the description you will use are sticky, tacky, or stretchy for stretch and white, cloudy, and clear for opacity. Sticky means it stretches up to a 1/4 inch (about 5 mm or .5 cm), tacky means it stretches from a 1/4 inch to about 3/4 of an inch (about .5 cm to 1.5 cm), stretch means it stretches up to an inch or more (2 cm or more). White means the mucus is fully opaque and you cannot see through it, cloudy means there is some white mucus but also some clear stuff, but you can't completely see through it, lastly clear means the mucus is completely transparent and clear.

You will also want to take note of how frequently you notice the most fertile observation of each day since that is the one you will mark on your chart. You will mark if you've seen it 1 time, 2 times, 3 times or all day. If you see the same observation more that 3 times it is considered all day.

You then use these observations to with a key to determine your fertility for that day. This the helps you decide whether to abstain or pursue intimacy with your spouse depending on whether or not you're trying to achieve or avoid pregnancy.

The Key:

Dry - 0

Smooth - 2

Damp - 2

Cloudy - C

Clear - K

Wet - 2W

Shiny - 4

Sticky - 6

Tacky - 8

Stretchy - 10

Lubricative - L

Sex - |

Peak day - P

Day count - 1,2, or 3

1 time - 1×

2 times - 2×

3 times - 3×

4+ times/All Day - AD

Determining a fertile day:

Anything 6 and up is considered fertile likewise of you sense lubrication while wiping that is also considered fertile. With this method you also consider your menstruation to be fertile and record mucus patterns on any day that is light or very light bleeding. Bleeding days are recorded on a scale using heavy, medium, light, and very light. The other days that are considered fertile with this method is the 3 days after your last day of fertile mucus even if they are dry this is called your day count post peak. The last day of fertile mucus is called your peak day. All other days are considered non-fertile days. The last day of mucus is called your peak day and is suspected to be when you ovulate.

Charting:

If you go through one of their educators, they will give you a chart to fill in as well as teaching to help you learn the method and interpret the chart, but you can also just chart this in a notebook or through an app I'll leave linked below. If you use a charting method like they do, you will mark your menstruation with red, infertile days are green and fertile days are a gray/white color with a baby stamp. You will then use the key to mark the symbols for what you noticed to determine whether or not you are fertile that day.

Who this method works best for:

This method works great for both preventing or achieving pregnancy for all couples. There is no prior history necessary and it's fairly early to learn. You don't need a regular cycle nor to you need a consistent routine for this method to work because you're not using your basal body temperature (although the necessity for that is debatable). When using this method to try to achieve pregnant they recommend having sex on the days with the most fertile mucus both in quantity and quality since this likely indicates the closest to your ovulation. I will mention however if your cycle is a bit irregular you may have a lot of "fertile" days where you aren't actually approaching ovulation and thus might not have very many opportunities for sex with your husband. This method will still work but that is something to consider, and other methods might be better for you. They recommend in their book to take your first cycle or 2 however to learn the method and abstain from intimacy during that time so this will also be easiest and best to establish before your marriage or during a time when you're not concerned with weather or not you become pregnant (i.e. you already are pregnant or you're trying to conceive) however you can still do this after your married but in a time when you don't want to become pregnant.

This was the method I started with which worked pretty well until I decided on another method to give me a better more accurate fertility window since my body is not regular. Give this method a try if you're in need of a fertility awareness method.