The symptothermal method, also known as the Roetzer method, is the most reliable method of natural family planning. It combines Temperature-, Calendar– and Cervical Mucus Method. In this process, various bodily signals and parameters are analyzed according to established rules.
With the symptothermal method, you observe and record various signs of your fertility. These include, for example, changes in cervical mucus, the cervix, and body temperature throughout your cycle. By combining the observation, recording, and evaluation of these symptoms, you have a “double check.” With practice and a lot of discipline, you can accurately determine your fertile and infertile days.
After ovulation, your core body temperature rises by 0.25–0.5 °C due to the simultaneous release of the hormone progesterone. If your temperature remains elevated for 3 days, you can be sure that ovulation has occurred and your fertile window has passed. To detect this change in temperature, you should take your temperature every morning right after waking up. The most reliable method is to measure your vaginal temperature directly at the body’s core. Record these values in a cycle chart or an app. To avoid skewing the results, you should always take your temperature at the same time each day. You should also have slept for roughly the same number of hours and maintain a fairly regular lifestyle. Stress, exercise, travel, shift work, and alcohol consumption can easily skew the results.
Since you can only tell when ovulation is over by measuring your basal body temperature, but you are already fertile 5 days before ovulation, it is important to monitor another physical sign in addition to your temperature—ideally, changes in your cervical mucus. Cervical mucus changes throughout your cycle. The closer you get to ovulation, the more estrogen is produced, and the amount and consistency of cervical mucus change progressively. The discharge first becomes creamy/whitish (not fertile) and changes to thin/watery (fertile) and finally to egg-white-like, transparent/thinner and stretchy between the thumb and index finger (very fertile).
If monitoring your cervical mucus indicates that you are in your fertile window, you must abstain from sex during this time or use a barrier method of contraception. If your temperature chart shows that your readings have been in the high phase for at least 3 days and the quality of your cervical mucus has changed, you can be sure that your fertile window is over and you no longer need to abstain.
*Guideline on Contraception the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGGG). 2004.
When used perfectly and consistently, the symptothermal method has a Pearl Index of 0.4, which is similar to that of the pill. However, there is a significant gap between perfect and typical use of this method, where the Pearl Index drops to 24.
To use this method safely, you must complete an NFP course, thoroughly understand the complex NFP guidelines, and read practical guides so that you can learn the symptothermal method correctly and use it safely.
In particular, taking a daily temperature at the same time and under the same conditions, as well as interpreting cervical mucus, pose significant challenges for many women and result in the symptothermal method not being used successfully.
After ovulation, your core body temperature rises by 0.25–0.5 °C due to the simultaneous release of the hormone progesterone. If your temperature remains elevated for 3 days, you can be sure that ovulation has occurred and your fertile window has passed. To detect the change in temperature, you should measure your core body temperature every morning immediately after waking up and record it in a cycle chart or an app. To avoid skewing the results, you should always take your temperature at the same time, have slept for roughly the same number of hours, and maintain a fairly regular lifestyle. Stress, exercise, travel, shift work, and alcohol consumption can easily skew the measurement results.
Since basal body temperature tracking only lets you know once ovulation is over, but you’re already fertile 5 days before ovulation, it’s important to monitor another physical sign in addition to your temperature—ideally, changes in your cervical mucus. Cervical mucus changes throughout your cycle. The closer you get to ovulation, the more estrogen is produced, and the amount and consistency of cervical mucus change progressively. The discharge first becomes creamy/whitish (not fertile) and changes to thin/watery (fertile) and finally to egg-white-like, transparent/thinner and stretchy between the thumb and index finger (very fertile).
If monitoring your cervical mucus indicates that you are in your fertile window, you must abstain from sex during this time or use a barrier method of contraception. If your temperature chart shows that your readings have been in the high phase for at least 3 days and the quality of your cervical mucus has changed, you can be sure that your fertile window is over and you no longer need to abstain.
With OvulaRing, you can bridge the gap between perfect and typical use of the symptothermal method. OvulaRing simply takes care of temperature measurement and analysis for you, providing optimal support as you use the symptothermal method. OvulaRing ensures objective temperature measurement, as application errors are eliminated through continuous, automatic measurement. Furthermore, thanks to the large number of measurement points, factors such as poor sleep quality, stress, illness, shift work, etc., do not affect measurement accuracy. You can completely relax, as daily morning measurements at the same time are not necessary!
The temperature data is automatically transferred to the app or web-based software and displayed as a cycle chart. This eliminates the need to manually enter individual temperature readings into a cycle chart. In the OvulaRing cycle diary, you can also track changes in cervical mucus as well as the condition of the cervix document in detail and thus keep track of.
During your first OvulaRing cycle, you can already track your temperature and look back to see if you ovulated and when your fertile window was. During this cycle, OvulaRing learns your individual fertility patterns for the next cycle. Starting with OvulaRing cycle 2, after syncing your temperature data, the app will show your daily probability of conception as low, medium, or high. If you want to support natural contraception as part of natural family planning, you should check OvulaRing daily during the first phase of your cycle until the app indicates that your fertile window is over. Until that point, you must use mechanical contraceptives such as condoms or a diaphragm. After 3 recorded OvulaRing cycles with ovulation, the software can usually provide a forecast for ovulation and the fertile phase in the following cycle, so you can plan even better.*
* If the timing of ovulation varies by more than 8 days across consecutive cycles, it is not possible to make a reliable prediction for the next cycle. However, this does not affect the calculation of the daily probability of conception, which is why OvulaRing can provide accurate predictions even with irregular cycles.
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