Customer Reviews

Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control and Pregnancy Achievement

5 star:		(434)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book after 4 unsuccessful months of trying, which was after 3 months of waiting after having 2 miscarriages. Since I'd gotten pregnant right away with my first child, I figured there might be something I needed to learn and I couldn't have been more right. This book is an absolute must for anyone, whether you're trying to get pregnant or not. I learned more about my body in the day and a half it took me to read the book than I ever did in any of the sex ed classes in school. After 4 months of what we thought was perfect timing and no success, we thought there might be a problem. I bought the book to learn about detecting ovulation and potential fertility problems. I got pregnant the first cycle I charted because of the knowledge I gained about ovulation and its signals. I learned through charting that I ovulated on Day 21 rather than Day 14. I was also able to determine I was pregnant without even taking a test! I'm so thrilled about the knowledge I've gained by reading this book and I feel much more in tune with my body now that I am pregnant. I urge any woman to get this book if you are at all interested in your body, pregnancy achievement, or pregnancy avoidance. This book is very well written in plain English that is easy to understand. The illustrations, color photographs, and numerous charting patterns were especially helpful to me. I can't say enough about this book!

After over 4 months of trying to get pregnant, a good friend of mine recommended this book. She told me that if nothing else I would feel more knowledgeable about my body, its cycles, and what it was telling me when. So I ordered it. It is so well written that I found myself looking forward to reading it. It is incredibly informative and easy to understand. And I immediately knew from reading it what my husband and I were doing wrong (we were a little late in my cycle each month). Thanks to the charting I knew that having a mild flu with fever delayed my cycle's ovulation date *and* I knew when to keep going before ovulation. I'm happy to write that thanks to my first cycle of charting I'm now 3 weeks pregnant. I very very highly recommend this book. It helped me to relax and, literally, go with my body's flow. (I wish there were one this good for during pregnancy!!) THANKS TONI!!!!

This is not just a guide to getting pregnant. It is about knowing your body without being embarassed. It is quite liberating to read this book and then be able to recognize exactly where you are in your fertility cycle. Too often, women are made to feel guilty or shamed about even looking at our bodies. It's beyond imagination for some women to examine themselves or to ask questions about what exactly their bodies do. Weschler helps break this barrier and shows us why it's critical to overcome the societal embarassment or reluctance.

She makes a very good point: why is it that men are fertile all of the time, that women are fertile for just 5 days a month, yet the majority of birth control involves a woman taking a drug 30 days a month, or inserting a contraceptive device before every sexual encounter? Forget about the burden being placed on women (as long as we bear the children we will be ultimately responsible). Think about the ridiculousness of taking powerful hormonal drugs every day or having to use contraception when you're not even fertile! The drug and contraceptive industries are having a field day!

This book has three very distinct values:

1. An essential part of every adolescent girl's education about her changing body. This book will do more than almost anything else in preparing her for responsible sexual encounters, and will help her self esteem by getting rid of her trepidation about her body.

2. Tool for avoiding pregnancy.

3. Tool for achieving pregnancy.

It boils down to three basic fertility signs: basal temperature, cervical fluid, and height of cervix. Once you read the book and become accomplished at tracking each of the three signs, you can put away the thermometer. Weschler urges you to track the basal temperature faithfully for several months. But, especially if you're using the method as birth control, you can judge by the other two signs and safely avoid pregnancy. And it takes absolutely no extra effort or monitoring.

Most of us have heard the jokes about natural family planning. Weschler discusses those criticisms and shows why this book is different and reliable.

"Taking Charge of Your Fertility" will ease your mind and give you the confidence of being certain when you are fertile or not fertile.

This book is absolutely wonderful. My sister sent it to me. I stopped birth control pills in March and with the charting of my cycles, purposely avoided conceiving. July was the first month I actually tried to get pregnant and I did...on the first month! I knew I was pregnant before I "missed my period" and before I took a test. My sister read it before me, and while off the pill, avoided pregnancy for over a year. The first month she decided to try to achieve pregnancy, she too, conceived...first month! We are both expecting in the spring...2 1/2 weeks apart.

I have sent this book to several friends and recommend it to everyone. It is such an important learning tool for all women, whether they are thinking of pregnancy or not. I learned so much about my body. It is just an incredible book and method. It is such a shame that doctors do not recommend fertility awareness to women. BUY THIS BOOK...you will LOVE it!!!

My husband and I had been trying to get pregnant for six months when I heard about this book through a website. I purchased the book on amazon.com and started charting my cycles right away. Within two months my husband and I realized our fertility problems were nothing more than timing. We got pregnant on the second month of charting. Our son's due date is in December. I have recommended this book to so many people. There is so much information in it that you just never learned in school. Above everything else I realized it is normal not to be "normal". This book saved us the agony of fertility testing and unnecessary stress. For the first time we felt in control! I showed my charts to my doctor and he was extremely impressed with accuracy and teachings of the book. My sister-in-law is now using the book as a guide for her fertility problems. She is currently taking Clomid to overcome a medical condition. "Taking Charge" is helping her to keep track of her cycles and gives her a guideline to help deal with the unsympathetic doctors!

This book should be required reading for all women, and every OB/GYN. For years I've noticed signs during my cycle that I knew must be associated with ovulation, yet I couldn't quite put it all together. I had actually thought at certain times that there might be something wrong with me! Weschler describes in detail what these signs are and what they mean (including amazingly thorough color photos). After all, these are not usually things that women talk about with each other, and certainly not things we learn in school. Weschler blows the lid off any level of embarrassment by thoroughly explaining how detailed observation is the key to understanding ovulation. She provides what seems like hundreds of waking temperature charts, which further illustrate how each woman is different and yet perfectly normal.

Perhaps the best aspect of this book is that it focuses primarily on fertility than infertility, although adequate explanation is given to the latter. Most other books I've reviewed have placed greater focus on infertility, thus often scaring women into thinking there may be something wrong that may very well be not. This book is inspirational and very positive in that respect, and is titled appropriately -- you really do take charge of your fertility after reading it. I was amazed that my OB/GYN knew nothing about this book, and she dismissed many of the observations I had made about my cycle, observations that as Weschler explains are the key to understanding when you ovulate.

Most OB/GYN's tell you to wait 6 months into trying before they'll pay attention to your concerns. This book blows the lid off of that mentality. Why should you wait any amount of time to determine how well your cycle is functioning? For women in their 30's, a 6 month wait can be valuable time well wasted in a narrowing window of opportunity. I can't stress enough how valuable this book is. Let it be the first resource you turn to in starting to plan for a family.

Two years ago this book, combined with A Woman Doctor's Guide to Miscarriage by Lynn Friedman, helped me carry my baby to term. I had been having short cycles prior to getting pregnant after my first child and did not know why until I read this book after my second miscarriage. Using her methods and information, I determined that I probably had low progesterone. As for treatment, the Friedman book suggested that progesterone cream was too hard to use since it is only effective when used 48 hours after ovualtion/conception, which most people can't determine. Thanks to Weschler's book, however, I had the confidence to tell my doctor that I would know when I was about to ovulate and when it was complete, so he gave me the go ahead to try the cream. Voila! A beautiful baby girl! I would never have found both of these books if not for Amazon where I did my research and read the recommendations of others. I have been meaning to write this review for ages! Thanks to Toni Weschler, Lynn Friedman, and Amazon!

This was one of several books I purchased while trying to conceive. And while it has a wealth of valuable information regarding pregnancy achievement, the main thing that struck me about this book was how much it had to teach me about my cycle. It explained the reasoning behind things I thought I knew, but never understood the "why" of. It also shed light on a whole host of "side effects" due to the changing hormones during a woman's complete cycle, putting to rest some of the concerns I had been having about my own body.

This book was easy to read and easy to understand. I followed the conception section with successful results and plan to use the book's Fertility Awareness Method of birth control in the future (no more chemicals and artificial hormones!) The best part of the book is really the confidence it gives you in easily and clearly reading your body's signals, and trusting what they're telling you. Great resource for getting pregnant, or making sure you don't!

After having experienced a miscarriage at 4 months for no apparent cause, my husband and I were somewhat reluctant to start trying again. However, after reading Toni Weschler's book and understanding very clearly how a women's body changes and how her hormones must interact to keep a fetus from miscarrying, we decided to try for a baby again. Toni advices that a women must take accurate recordings of her temperature, her cervical fluid, and (optionally) check the opening of her cervix. I did all of these things even though I though it really was going to be somewhat bothersome. After a few days, however,I found myself looking forward to finding out what my body was doing.Toni provides color photos (!) and examples of every kind of chart imaginable.

Surprisingly, I found out that when I started charting, that my ovulation was earlier than usual. As such, my husband and I decided to try for a baby on the days recommended by Toni. The good news is that we're pregnant and that I now understand that my hormones are naturally at the appropriate levels for me to continue this pregnancy to term. Though it doesn't explain why I miscarried the first time, it does rule out a deficiency of any of the important hormones which could cause a miscarriage. I strongly recommend this book to all women who really want to understand their reproductive health.

I and my husband have been trying to conceive since more than a year ago. I came across references to this book, while looking up information on "getting pregnant" on the web. I think This was the best possible book I could have invested in. I am so much more aware of what is happening to my body. After using this book's techniques, it took us over 8 months to get pregnant, but without this book, we would be investing in expensive "ovulation predictor kits" and still have no clue as to what's happening. With this book, I knew exactly when I was ovulating, and we could time ourselves perfectly. Also, I knew I had conceived in as few as 15 days after conceiving. The "home pregnancy test" just confirmed what I already knew! It is amazing how accurately it describes in layman terms, the phases through which a women's body goes through monthly and how to detect them. I recommend it even to women who not planning to conceive right now, just to know what's going on during their normal cycle and to use natural birth control.