Tips for Learning the Billings Method
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Do not wait until menstruation before you start to enter your fertility symptoms. You can usefully begin recording your symptoms no matter at what stage in your cycle of fertility.
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Read the sections entitled Personal Requirements for Using billingsMentor, Sensation and Appearance in the help manual.
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Enter (or at least make a record of) your symptoms each evening.
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Be prepared to wait up to three weeks before you receive significant feedback about your fertility. The delay is partly dependent on where you are in your cycle when you begin charting. Similar advice applies to women who are breastfeeding, or who are having irregular fertility patterns.
Five Steps to Learning the Billings Method and Fertility Awareness
If you are not confident in describing your fertility symptoms, or you have been advised, you should request assistance using the Send Message button in the main menu.
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Study the bar chart display. Note the four levels for the height of the vertical bar. Depending on your symptoms and where you are in your cycle, you may have to wait at least three weeks after beginning to enter your symptoms before the bar chart displays the lower levels.
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If there is a Peak day, note the changing symptoms up to the Peak day and on the day after the Peak.
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Refer to the Rules of the Billings Method and the Basic Infertile Pattern. Note how each Rule can be associated with a level of the bar chart. If the numbers 1, 2 or 3 appear on a bar of the chart they refer to the wait days identified in Rule 3 and in the Peak rule.
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Click on the bar for any day. Relate the advice given for avoiding a pregnancy to the Rules of the Billings Method.
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Read the help section on Chart Type and note the meaning of the 5 colours used on the bar chart. Study the use of the colours on your bar chart and the occurrences of your basic infertile pattern.
