From what I can remember...they rhythm method has to do with monitoring a woman's monthly reproductive cycle. Knowing when she is most fertile etc., etc.
Apparently you can impact the gender of your child by conceiving at the right time.
Need to read more on the subject as I know very little about it.
you mean determining when the ovulation takes place and also there is a specific temperature reading that is also noted
...that to me seems hard work
not to forget expensive, those ovulation kits cost around 14 bucks each and only a person who has loads of time in their hands would be going bout checking their temp every hour
Peacemaker, i wasnt going to say it earlier but i cant resist
Coitus interreptus...wouldnt that spoil the actual fun???????
plus wouldnt that also kinda interfere and make the man nervous as to withdraw at the right time
doesnt nervousness kinda hinder a man's performance
wouldnt the woman go bonkers thinking, what if he didnt withdraw at the right time?
there is sperm in the pre fluid thingie whatever its called
uff gotta refer to my booklet again these terms will make me freak out what the hell is that called now ..uff uff uff
Rhythm Method
For quite a long time, before all those fancy contraceptives were available, this method was used to avoid pregnancy, without fully knowing how it works. In 1960's after extensive research it was proved, and here is how it works.
First of all, it only works for women who have regular menstrual cycles. It will be very risky for those who don't.
Now, lets see, out of a typical 28 day period, a woman is typically out of action for 5-7 days. That means about 21-23 days when she can be sexually active.
Can she pregnant in any of those days?
No.
Typically, she can only become pregnant only in the 1-2 days when she is ovulating (the egg is ripe). In most women, this is between days 13-14 (counting from the first day of her period).
How long does a sperm take to travel before it fertilizes?
A female sperm typically takes two days and a male sperm takes 2-4 hours. Due to this, to avoid pregnancy, a sperm should not be released inside the woman's body from day 11 upto day 14 of the menstrual cycle.
The trick is to find which day the woman is ovulating (i.e. the day egg is ready for fertilization). There are several methods to find it, primarily, bcz the woman's nody temperature typically rises a few dot points during this fertile period (you need a special thermometer). There are some other non-conventional methods, plus some women just feel it when they are ovulating cz there are some typical pains in lower back associated with this.
Once the woman know the days when she is ovulating, avoid getting sperms two days BEFORE that day (here is where the concept of 'regular' cycle comes in). If a woman has irregular cycles, then this is no good.
You can see from above how risky it can be, especially if you ABSOLUTELY don't want any more kids.
So typically in olden times, a couple can have unprotected sex from day 7-11 (after the bleeding has stopped) and from days 14-28.
These days, first of all the reproductive cycle needs to be carefully monitored for 4-5 months before being reasonable assured as to what days are the most fertile. And then to be extra careful, a couple can have unprotected sex from day 7-9 and from days 16-28, with oral contraceptive from days 9-16 and. In the middle days either abstain, or oral contraceptive (AND coitus interreptus).
Coitus Interreptus....
Yes, it can spoil the fun AND it can be terrible risky, especially if this is the only method being used to avoid pregnancy.
Choosing the Sex of the Baby:
Most methods of choosing the sex of the baby rely on Rhythm method. Read all of the above and you will realize that due to different speeds of the male/female sperm, a couple can actually try to influence whether they want the male or the female sperm to fertilize. Also, the male/female sperm are opposite since one of them is Acidic and the other is Alkaline, if you drink lots of coke, chances are your body climate (especially in the ******l area) can become acidic, killing one type of sperm (I think male sperms are acidic, not sure). In which case, this is an additional way to influence which type of sperms you need and to try and create a climate where the other type is killed. This can be controlled through the foods being taken by the female and also be actually douching.
Another additional factor is the life of sperms. Typically if a couple has unprotected sex, without employing any means of determining the sex of the baby, guess what? It will be a girl. Why? You see, female sperms have longer life and longer duration of travel time. Typically a man releases equal number of male/female sperms.
Now lets take a typical example:
Suppose a woman ovulates on day #14. During sex on day #12, sperms are released. Male sperms reached the target first and there was no ripe egg. They die after a few hours. Female sperms are still travelling and haven't reached the target. On days #13, again the same story. On day #14 the couple again had sex. Now the egg is ready, but now there are typically more female sperms around the target than the male sperms. As soon as the first sperm fertilizes the egg, it is 'locked' and all other sperms outside just die. And so, odds are, it will be a girl.
Now, is it all making sense?
unless one is extremely desperate for a child of a certain sex, that all seems very boring to me
planned sex ..
boooooooooooooooooooooooooring
what happened to having fun and enjoying life?
Typically (now I am really beginning to hate this word) a couple starts seriously thinking about "Choosing the sex of the Baby" AFTER they have had 2-3 daughters, and they want a son, or vice versa. Till that time they can have as much fun as they want... and probably did (all girls, read above!) :)
There are many books available to explain this method. I just gave you a condensed version of the theory. Surprising as it may seem, it works really well. I have seen close to 100% success for those who honestly used it. But at the end, the sex of the baby is all in Allah's hands. Seriously.
I absolutely agree with Anchal on Coitus interreptus. I'm going as far as to say that one might as well masturbate than to go through Coitus interreptus (No Admin, I'm not joking). Personally, I find that torturous. Heck if you are gonna go that far then why not use condoms? But of course that depends on person to person, but most of my friends (both male and female) find Coitus interreptus completely undesirable.
There are probably a range in terms of side-effects of 10% to 100% for using various pills among women (don't take my word sceintifically, I sorta made up the statistics) and there are many pre-defined factors to consider for contraception.
Primarily couple needs to decide if it is going to be permanent or temporary. Once you have decided that then it is easier to decide upon which method(s) to use. I have met people who have used Rythm method effectively for 30 years of marriage, and I have seen cases where women did get accidently pregnant. To me, it's a primeval solution, and should not be used solely as Peacemaker said.
Well, the typical case will be a semi-permanent one. Where the couple will have all the kids they want, and they don't want any mroe, but at the same time they don't want to really permanently CLOSE it, in case they face some tragedy.
I have seen a case, where a mammu of a friend of mine (in Lahore) had five kids (ages 6 months to 11 years). On the way to the airport, the kids' car (driver driving it) had an accident and four kids died. The parents were in the other car. Imagine that. This was in 1993, and it was in the newspapers for a long time.
Peace maker, you seem to have quite a few questions on male contraception, I would sggst humbly to talk to not one but @least a couple of doctors for what's better for you or anyone involved. Don't rely on hearsay alone.
Personally, I would never go for vasectomy for me or my hubby, cuz it is sort of , no actually final. I am kindda scared of t/ finality of it maybe due to a true incident about a lady who had t/ vasectomy done and a few months later she lost all of her 4 kids in a horrible accident. Life and death are in God's hands, but still we do make our choices. Why not chk out other available safe & suitable contraceptives both for male & female??
I think t/ insertion of a loop thingie in t/ woman's body for a certain period of time is t/ best and safest so far after t/ pill, or for women who do not take to t/ pill kindly.
p.s. Isn't coitus interruptus and rythum method one and t/ same thing??
Rhythm method is a way to figure out when a woman has a higher probability to become pregnant.
Coitus interreptus is one of the several ways available to avoid fertilization.
Sorry guys I have been very busy but I would like to add some information here.
First, there is no contraception method that is 100% effective and 100% without “disadvantages”
Every method - none excluded - has advantages and disadvantages, and we still don’t know much about the long term effects of many methods.
But choices do exist. Each one of us can decide what our priorities are. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method, bar none. Other lifestyle choices are also involved, and will influence our choice of contraceptive method. The first step is to obtain complete information.
A distinction should be made between methods to prevent conception and those for spacing (distancing) the birth of children.
The so called “natural methods” are many, and are practised with success by a large number of people. They include, besides the rhythmn method which is highly unreliable, also the Billings and Ogino-Knaus methods which rely on body temperature and cervical mucus examination. Some of these are highly sophisticted, for example the computerised “persona” method (it uses a small hand held computer I believe using urine, but I’m not sure about it). I do know people who have used these methods with great success over the years. Not only does it permit you to avoid conception, but it also allows you to target the most fertile period and get pregnant - though I don’t know how reliable it is about choosing the sex of the child. This method, like most other “natural” methods, requires collaboration on the part of the husband. I believe that there are centres where they are taught and there are qualified teachers all over the world.
As a child spacing method, recent research has shown that demand breastfeeding is a reliable method for 6-12 months - This is known as the “Lactation Amenorrhea Method” and there are entire books dedicated to teh topic.
Then there are other contraceptives - the male condom and the female condom (new, but it exists), the coil or spiral or IUD (some are combined with hormones), the diaphragm (barrier method - still used extensively), plus several other variations of the barrier method (cervical cap, etc.)
Hormonal methods are the most recent addition to our list of contraceptives. There are several types of pills for women - the combined pill, the progesterone only pill, etc. and there are also different doses available. “Depo-provera” is the name of one of the injectable versions. The patch is the latest version of this.
Unfortunately the male pill is slow in coming. There is still a lot of talk and much diffidence about it.
Methods such as vasectomy and tubal ligation (called incorrectly on this thread as female vasectomy) are considered, for all intents and purposes, permanent and irreversible although there have been cases where they have been reversed.
Personally, I have great reservations about hormonal contraception. I do not trust the industry, who funds almost all the research in this field to tell me about the side effects. And they cannot have any way of knowing what the results will be in 30, 40, or 50 years’ time. That will take generations of women who have taken the pill before we know more. I do not want to be a guinea pig for contraceptive research. I am willing to take the responsibility for my health and make choices that I can understand as far as I am able to understand them. And I am willing to take a litte extra trouble to do so.
A fairly complete site is http://www2.kumc.edu/instruction/nursing/nrsg835/contraception.htm
I wonder why women (or men) want to have a a method they don’t have to think about? Although I don’t want to worry about it I do know that any choice I make has risks and advantages. We all know we have to take responsibility for our life choices and this is one of them. Neither men nor women are sex objects even if sex is an important - and enjoyable - part of our lives. Sex should be a responsible act as well. The responsibility belongs to teh man as well as the woman. By showing consideration and sharing responsibility the life of a couple can be enhanced.
[quote]
Originally posted by Peacemaker:
**
Choosing the Sex of the Baby:
Most methods of choosing the sex of the baby rely on Rhythm method. Read all of the above and you will realize that due to different speeds of the male/female sperm, a couple can actually try to influence whether they want the male or the female sperm to fertilize. Also, the male/female sperm are opposite since one of them is Acidic and the other is Alkaline, if you drink lots of coke, chances are your body climate (especially in the ******l area) can become acidic, killing one type of sperm (I think male sperms are acidic, not sure). In which case, this is an additional way to influence which type of sperms you need and to try and create a climate where the other type is killed. This can be controlled through the foods being taken by the female and also be actually douching.
Another additional factor is the life of sperms. Typically if a couple has unprotected sex, without employing any means of determining the sex of the baby, guess what? It will be a girl. Why? You see, female sperms have longer life and longer duration of travel time. Typically a man releases equal number of male/female sperms.
Now lets take a typical example:
Suppose a woman ovulates on day #14. During sex on day #12, sperms are released. Male sperms reached the target first and there was no ripe egg. They die after a few hours. Female sperms are still travelling and haven't reached the target. On days #13, again the same story. On day #14 the couple again had sex. Now the egg is ready, but now there are typically more female sperms around the target than the male sperms. As soon as the first sperm fertilizes the egg, it is 'locked' and all other sperms outside just die. And so, odds are, it will be a girl.
Now, is it all making sense?**
[/quote]
I don't know if I am misinformed, but I have never heard of anything like determining the sex of the baby!!!!!!!! it's just a random process!!!!!!
and you say that if a couple has unprotected sex the baby will be a girl. I am not sure if that is correct because if that's true there should be many more girls than boys on this planet, whereas the ratio is only 1.0:0.9
Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
statistically there are more boys born.... but there are more women on the planet. That is because more men die in unnatural deaths like accidents and stuff.
!!ﻮﻟ ﻪﺘﺳﺍﺭ ﻭﺩ ﻥﺭﺎﻫ
[quote]
Originally posted by Anchal:
**you mean determining when the ovulation takes place and also there is a specific temperature reading that is also noted
...that to me seems hard work
not to forget expensive, those ovulation kits cost around 14 bucks each and only a person who has loads of time in their hands would be going bout checking their temp every hour
**
[/quote]
Actually.....it may be hard work but for some people.....that might have trouble conceiving....it becomes necessary procedure.
I have a friend that lost a baby during delivery...after that she had a very difficult time getting pregnant again and the doctor recommended this method.
She used to wake up in the morning with her husband checking her temperature with a thermometer......
I read an interesting statistic in one of the magazines, yesterday.
In United States of America, each day, approximately 27,000 condoms burst or leak during sex.
So I guess its not as safe as we give it credit for.
Regarding the question by NeSCio. First, yes choosing the sex of the baby is not an exact process. Its just trying to increase the chances. Thats all.
Second, remember, an average man releases equal number of male and female sperms, but based on their relative life-spans and speed, there will be more female sperms around an ovulated eggs than a male sperm. However, which one fertilizes the egg is purely conicidental. Despite all the scientific facts that chances are about even as to whether it will be a boy or a girl.
The statistics can also go wrong because in two of the most populous places in the world (China and India) there is a heavy bias for trying to have a son. In China because of the one-child policy and in India for various social reasons. And in these two places, there are repeated reports that couples try to find out the sex of the baby and if it is a girl, late-period abortions are on the rise.
Many couples use the process of chosing the sex of the baby with great success, just because it is simple, natural and makes sense if you know some of the basic scientific facts about the process.
[This message has been edited by Peacemaker (edited May 14, 2001).]
Peacemaker,
The consequences of a pregnancy in an unmarried couple's case is different than that of a married couple. Similiarly, while married couples have additional, permanent and well-planned choices in terms of Vasectomy etc, unmarried couples usually don't have such choices for obvious reasons. For unmarried couples, most viable choices are those that involve temporary contraception, and condoms are the easiest method.
Unmarried couples ?!?!?! I was not talking about unmarried couples.
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/smile.gif
I just gave a statistic for use of condoms. Basically implying that if a couple does not want kids (married or unmarried) its best to supplement condoms by some other method of birth-control too… like pill or (atleast) being aware of the fertile days.
ps. However, just in case since you mentioned it, I do plan to give my do aanay in your ******* (yeah, I did all these stars myself) thread, when I have a bit of time.
Peacemaker,
No, I understand that you were not talking about unmarried couples. I thought that I'd point out to the different but equally important angle of dilemas of contraception and unplanned pragnancy. And I do believe that using condoms is the most common method of contraception among such couples.
As a matter of fact, I don't think you should have said 'Stay out if you are NOT married' in the title because then it leaves out those who are living a life of unmarried couplehood and the topic is equally important for them to discuss, share their experiences, and methods they adopt. Not to mention that it leaves out those who don't even fall into any of the above categories but may have questions or comments as the same.
But that's, of course, just a little nitpicking, otherwise I'm sure you didn't mean to exclude unmarried couples intentionally.
Hmmmm... good point. Although I had not imagined many folks here who are part of an unmarried sexual relationship. My mistake, no doubt.
Anyway, the reason I put that title, was an attempt to try to keep some of those members out who believe in trivalizing all issues and being inexperienced, try to either bring religion in here or to treat it as a sex post.
Basically all members (married or unmarried) are free to present their opinions, as long as those are consistent with the seriousness of the topic.
peacemeker,
after I read your points I had a look in all my genetics and cellbiology books, and none of them mention any difference between male and female sperms!!!!!!! in contrary they state that untill the very end of spermatogenesis male and female sperm are linked together so anything which is expressed in one cell can transverse to the other. once they are released nothing occurs in the sperm untill they have fertilized an egg, so I don't see how come a difference between these cells should exist....
perhaps you can tell me where you got this information.
Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.