Rating: 
Summary: VERY helpful
Review: After having been on the pill for several years, my husband and I were ready to have children. We decided it would be best to give my body a chance to regulate its cycles before we jumped into trying to conceive. This book kept us pregnancy free for 4 months and on the first serious attempt to get pregnant, we conceived! I'm now 8 weeks pregnant and my husband and I have become great promoters of this book among our friends. I was also able to use the book to give myself an indication of how well my body was rebounding from being on the pill. I HIGHLY recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Your Fertility Signals
Review: After several years of being on "the pill", I was sick of the side effects. We had purchased "Your Fertility Signals" years ago, but had not read the book in it's entirety. Four months ago I read the book and shared varying parts with my husband, who was eary of seeking alternatives, however after both of us learned to participate in monitoring my fertility signals he bought in to the program! We recently completed our fourth month of pregnancy free naturally!
Rating:
Summary: Best book for achieving conception
Review: An excellent overview of human fertility cycles. Very concise and clear-cut, it can be read in one sitting. The charts provided in the back allow a woman to understand her own fertility. This was an invaluable tool for planning my own two pregnancies. I've also lent this book out to several friends who all conceived successfully after reading it. I recommend it highly to anyone trying to make a baby!
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Summary: Merryl Winstein wrote this book for me...
Review: At the time, I had been married 3 years, and my husband and I didn't use any form of birth control. We were trying to conceive and I wasn't getting pregnant. Little did I know, after seeing my Gynecologist (who thought that I probably had endometreosis or PID) there was nothing wrong with me. Thank God I didn't have further testing. I had a conversation one day with our office transcriptionist, who informed me of how she had gotten pregnant. She promoted Merryl's book to me, and she promised to lend it to me to read. I was happy to accept this book from her, which later I found out had exchanged many hands (with success I might add). It only took 2 months for me to get pregnant, I had no complications at all. When our first child was 6 months old, I found out that I was pregnant with our 2nd child. Our second child also had no complications. So thanks to Merryl we are the proud parents of two beautiful, wonderful, intelligent children. I would advise potential parents to try this out and see, but enjoy the whole process. I'll never forget how this book changed my life.
Rating:
Summary: It Works!
Review: I can tell you that I am one of the success stories from using this book. As artificial birth control is against our religion, I needed to learn, so I checked this book out of the library. I learned the method from this book, and consequently never spent a day of my marriage using artificial birth control. We have spent THREE YEARS successfully avoiding pregnancy, and are now applying the concepts to become pregnant.
This book is written in basic language, not crammed full of medical jargon. You can pretty much read it in one sitting, and understand it. I bought this book as a reference, and still use it from time to time, if I need to check up on the guidelines.
And for those who say that natural family planning results in a huge restriction on intimacy, I will tell you that I am one of those women who has LONG fertile phases, and many annovulatory cycles. Calculating my charts over the last three years, my fertile vs non-fertile time is pretty much equal. This means a lot of abstinence, but it can be done! My husband and I both agree that it has enriched our marriage. It keeps those lines of communication open, and we know that we still love each other, even when abstaining during the fertile phase. Instead of birth control being only the woman's responsibility, it becomes the couple's. Yes, the onus is still on the woman to check her signals, but the man has to be cooperative for the method to work.
The abstinence can be difficult at times, but think of it this way: you get a honeymoon to look forward to every cycle! It keeps those fires burning. All the couples that we know who are on the Pill are down to maybe once or twice a month, and that's after less years together than our three. We are still just as active as when we were first married, because that mandatory abstinence period ensures that you can't take your partner for granted. Not only that, but many of these couples on the Pill have unplanned children, and we don't have any "accidents". Hmm . . . and yet they tell us that we don't know what we're doing, and that natural birth control doesn't work.
This is a wonderful book for setting people free from society's negativity towards fertility. We don't need harmful pills to control what is a normal, healthy condition. Instead, we celebrate and respect fertility, and learn to control ourselves.
Only one caveat: As a Catholic, even "barrier methods" are forbidden. The author noted that one could use barrier methods if temporarily unsure about fertility, or if one didn't want to abstain, but did say that pregnancy can still result. Other Catholics and possibly other religions would have to ignore that bit of advice from the book, but other than that, this is a great resource.
Rating:
Summary: This book is excellent!
Review: I found this book extremely informative. The format is straight forward and easy to understand. I gave me a complete understanding of the process of conception. We used the natural fertility signals discussed in the book to conceive both our children. We were successful the first cycle we tried in both cases! This book is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to achieve or avoid pregnancy.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy to understand and use--for avoiding & achieving!
Review: I had already gone through the very tedious process of studying NFP from the huge study manual in order to learn about my fertility signals. I ended up adapting the information I had gathered from the huge behemoth NFP manual and several other NFP resources and coming up with what worked best for me. It turns out I was using the Fetility Awareness Method (which this book teaches) without even knowing it. If only I had found this simple little volume first!! :) It is a great way to review and has simple drawings to help certain things stick in your mind. My husband and I used FAM for 9 months to avoid pregnancy, and then used it to achieve pregnancy in only 2 cycles. We are now 7 months pregnant. I would highly recommend this volume to anyone who cannot afford to take an NFP course outside the home and doesn't have the wherewithall the read the several hundred page NFP study manual.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to understand and use--for avoiding & achieving!
Review: I had already gone through the very tedious process of studying NFP from the huge study manual in order to learn about my fertility signals. I ended up adapting the information I had gathered from the huge behemoth NFP manual and several other NFP resources and coming up with what worked best for me. It turns out I was using the Fetility Awareness Method (which this book teaches) without even knowing it. If only I had found this simple little volume first!! :) It is a great way to review and has simple drawings to help certain things stick in your mind. My husband and I used FAM for 9 months to avoid pregnancy, and then used it to achieve pregnancy in only 2 cycles. We are now 7 months pregnant. I would highly recommend this volume to anyone who cannot afford to take an NFP course outside the home and doesn't have the wherewithall the read the several hundred page NFP study manual.
Rating:
Summary: It gives a full picture of conception and in HUMAN language!
Review: I really recomend reading if your planning or avoiding pregnancy and I would even recomend it as basic sexual education for the stable couple. It is wonderfull to be able to understand my body so much better and I got pregnant at the first try, following my charts, and aiming for a boy...we got him! An he's sooooo cute. And also the contraceptive advise is great... I dont take the pill well and it allows for some freedom and some extra special dates with my husband, without risk of pregnancy
Rating:
Summary: Much recommended
Review: I recommended this book to a good friend of mine who'd been struggling to conceive (she has a very irregular cycle); it worked for her and has since worked for several of her friends, too. Interestingly enough, a friend recommended the book to me in the first place, as well! The information is basic, and the author doesn't write in a complicated manner. I think someone with a sixth-grade education could read the book and use it effectively. Which is good - regardless of our educational backgrounds, I think every woman should know how her body works. There are more 'complex' versions out there, and classes etc. as well - which can also be helpful in addition to this book. But the single most helpful option I found, was Winstein's book. I continue to recommend it to friends who are struggling to get pregnant, and to friends who are looking for other options for family planning. I used the book for natural family planning, so that I did not have to use chemical or artificial birth control options; when we were ready to start a family, we succeeded the very first month. I have every confidence that this book will be informative, regardless of whether the purchaser is hoping to avoid or embrace pregnancy. I think Winstein had to walk a fine line while writing this book, in terms of religious issues etc. and managed to do so in a way which allowed her book to be unbiased, open, and helpful regardless of what the readers' backgrounds or goals might be.
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