[QUOTE=tinman]
Okay, before anybody gets the wrong idea, if you want to use NFP you have to pay more attention to the woman’s fertility signals than just dates. As I can attest personally!
Sperm can live for up to 5 days (and tend to result in girl babies when fertilization occurs so long after insemination because X sperm tend to greater longevity). So hello, day 9 isn’t enough of a buffer, particularly if ovulation occurs within the 12-14 day range from day 1 in the cycle.
Now, let me tell you how I conceived my last daughter, because it’s a classic case of me reading my signals wrong. If you’re easily grossed out, don’t read after this because it’s going to be TMI.
We were using condoms from day 2 following ovulation (which I can feel, as it’s very painful) until my period was over. I was checking cervical mucus for ‘fertile’ mucus (which is more watery, clear and stringy than at other times of the month) …until on day 14, when I ought to have ovulated, I had a tremendous abdominal pain that put me in bed for an hour. This was a ruptured ovarian cyst. I’ve had them many times in my life. However, I thought it must have been ovulation, just more painful than usual. I did notice that my CM did not turn to ‘non-fertile’ after that, but the day before my period was due, when we went to have sex, he said “Is it safe to be bare-nekkid?” and I said “I think so.”
Well, my period didn’t come. The reason it didn’t come is because the ovarian cyst had thrown my cycle off by 2 weeks, but I miscalculated, thinking the ruptured cyst was ovulation itself. So 2 weeks later, when by all rights I should have been safe, I was most fertile. If I had been charting my temperature, or paying attention to CM (I had noticed it still seemed fertile, but dismissed this because of the event on day 14) I would have realised we were not at all ‘safe’. So my period didn’t come. When it was a week late, I took a pregnancy test, but it was negative. Pregnancy tests don’t come positive on 7 DPO. Half a week later, however, I got a faintly positive test on what must have been the earliest possible day (10 DPO).
Dates alone don’t tell you enough. 9 days into the cycle is not necessarily safe. Heck, knowing what I know, I would never give myself less than a week’s buffer for ‘bare nekkid’ sex before ovulation is expected, because those damned little sperm are persistant. And I would use CM and basal body temperature to verify fertility or lack therof.
What I think happened to the OP (as to me) is a failure to understand NFP and fertility signals. Day 9 did not give an adequate buffer; then, some sperm escaped, the day-after pill didn’t work because (I presume) its effect is immediate, and would not be adequate if fertilisation occurred 5 days later. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong about that, I’ve never dealt directly with the Day-After pill myself.
I am a little curious, is this becoming a trend, to use the Day-After pill as part of routine contraception? Since it is after all an abortifacient (at the very earliest stages), at what points in the cycle are people using this hormonal treatment - or is it just after every instance of sex?
'nother time)
