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CCL sympto-thermal method: LTL and HTL - help

Hi everyone, and CCL teaching/experienced women in particular. I did the homestudy course by CCL back in 2007. I'm charting again after losing our son in labour in May. I'm trying to get up to speed on everything again as we're not actively trying to get pregnant at the moment. I loaned my manual to a friend who is non-Catholic and struggling with infertility as it may help her understand her cycle....but I'm confused by the LTL and the HTL - what, in a nut shell, is the LTL to indicate? What does the HTL indicate? I feel as thick as two planks, but truly I'm confused. I think my chart from last month was also just a muddle in general because my cycle isn't "normal" yet. It was phase 1 and then phast 2 for ages until my menses started yesterday. Help. Thank you, ladies!

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Permalink Reply by Kristin Detloff on August 15, 2009 at 12:26pm
Hi Karen,

First off I would HIGHLY suggest you get in contact personally with a teaching couple in your area. They should be more then willing to help you with chart reviews. Also if you are a current CCL member or update your membership for $35 for the year you can go to any current ccl class for free as a refresher. (since you already took the course) The closest couple to you that I could find on the website is:

http://www.ccli.org/
Raymond & Elizabeth Felderhoff
Everett, Washington
(425) 259-1656 rfelderhoff@ieee.org
Sno-King Counties Chapter Seattle Diocese
English

To answer your question the LTL stands for Low Temperature Level. When you are doing the sympto-thermal interpretation you look for 3 temps above the previous six in the area of your peak day. The HIGHEST of the "previous six" is your LTL or low temp level. Then you count up .4 degrees and that is your HTL or high temperature level. To interpret you look for three POST PEAK temperatures above the previous six with the THIRD temperature being at or above the HTL OR the cervix closed and hard for three days. IF those conditions are not met then you have to wait an additional day for another temperature above the LTL.

All this being said if you are having doubts about your memory of the method you need to do a refresher or get your book back etc and read over as there are many other factors that may come into play to change the above rule. If you are on medication, miss a temp or have an abnormal temp, lose your mucus sign reliability etc, there are different rules involved with interpreting the phase 2 to phase 3 transition. Also as this is your first cycle back in a while you may have some other variables to consider also, all of which can be handled best in person with an instructor. There is also a computer program CCL offers now called Cycle Pro which allows you to easily e-mail your charts back and forth with instructors etc. In addition CCL made some changes to the method you learned back in 2007 and it would be very beneficial for you to become updated on the new method. We have only taught and used the new method but I'm told it is simplified a bit from the old one.

Good luck to you! I hope you are able to slide back into charting easily and if not please don't hesitate to contact an instructor in person!

God Bless!

Kristin
Permalink Reply by Diana H. on August 15, 2009 at 2:52pm
Karen, what do you think of just doing Billings?
Permalink Reply by Diana H. on August 15, 2009 at 2:56pm
Does anyone just use Billings to avoid conception? Do people think it's unreliable to just use Billings? All of the temp. stuff just confuses me too, and I'm still waking up with a baby at night which supposedly makes Sympto-Thermal unreliable.
Permalink Reply by Kristin Detloff on August 15, 2009 at 4:09pm
We did Creighton Model when we first were married as that was what was available in our area. I assume it's somewhat similar to billings as it's also a mucus only method. But I realize there are probably also big differences. That being said I've LOVED now doing the sympto-thermal method as for me having the Temperature sign and optional cervix signs to back up what I'm seeing with Mucus gives me a higher confidence level. The one thing I hated about the mucus only was never KNOWING that you had a real peak day. What I mean is if I had stress earlier in the cycle that caused a "peak day" then I saw mucus again later I had to ask all those questions about if the first was stress or what was going on. For me personally I like having the temp to confirm that ovulation has actually occurred so I don't have to worry about whether or not I'm actually in phase three. (infertile post ovulation) That being said I know that the temp sign can be confusing for some women and a mucus only method may be more appropriate. I have NOTHING against any other NFP method, I just have found that for me personally I like having the cross checking that sympto-thermal allows...and I've been blessed with pretty obvious temperature patterns! :-)
Permalink Reply by Diana H. on August 15, 2009 at 7:40pm
It's nice to have someone who is so knowledgeable on here!
Permalink Reply by Karen Murphy Corr on August 16, 2009 at 8:29pm
How does Billings work?
Permalink Reply by Diana H. on August 16, 2009 at 9:13pm
It's just observing and recording mucus signs. Here's a good website about it:

http://www.woomb.org/bom/lit/teach/index.html
Permalink Reply by Karen Murphy Corr on August 17, 2009 at 12:21pm
Oh. Interesting. I'm recording those with the CCL method. I think because my husband isn't completely on board he's probably going to have more faith in the cross-checking of signs in the CCL method. Although, that said, am I the only woman who cannot figure out what's my cervix and what's the rest of me???? I feel like a complete numbskull. You'd think after five babies I'd have some idea. But then - LOL - maybe that's why I don't!
Permalink Reply by Karen Murphy Corr on August 16, 2009 at 8:28pm
Thank you, Kristin. My friend Ellie and her husband James are a teaching couple in Ontario; she just reviewed my chart last night! She's so nice. We hope to do a long distance sort of refresher with them. I bought the CyclePro computer program, actually. It is great. Thank you for your info. I'll read through later when my head is clear.
Permalink Reply by Kristin Detloff on August 16, 2009 at 9:54pm
Oh that's great! I think you'll really like cycle pro. As long as you are entering all the information correctly and blocking out any of the temps that are abnormal or missed etc, it does all the calculations for you regarding LTL, HTL, the start and end of phases 1, 2, and 3 depending on how you have the settings calculated. It's a great program and great for staying organized. Happy charting!
Permalink Reply by Karen Murphy Corr on August 17, 2009 at 12:18pm
Ohhhhh. I hadn't thought about not including abnormal temps. Hmm. I've input most of my old charts, too - but those were all as a breastfeeding mumma of a toddler. Till I got pregnant.

I do really like how Cycle Pro calculates everything but my charts are just all over the place. I could email you the last one if you want to see it. I recognize it's just been a really horrible couple of months. I'm often awake in the wee hours - I wake up and start thinking about our baby boy and his stillbirth and I can't sleep. So a lot of my temps are abnormal. I guess this will settle when my mind does. Ellie said looking at my charts that she doesn't think I've ovulated yet, but my body is getting ready to get back into cycles of fertility. I must be patient and try to relax.
Permalink Reply by Kristin Detloff on August 17, 2009 at 12:48pm
Sure! E-mail me at any time! I'll message you privately with my e-mail address!
One tip for temp taking if you are nursing or having difficulty sleeping is that there is some science to show that for most women the natural temperature rhythms have a consistent low point every night between 5am and 7 am and that even if you are up nursing at different points through the night or not being able to sleep etc you may find some consistency in your temps if you take them between those hours. It doesn't work for every woman, but it's worth a shot if it's not too disruptive of a temp time for you.

Oh and just incase you weren't aware you can mark missed temps as missed or abnormal just by clicking on the dot that represents that temp on your main charting page. If you click once I think it goes to an X to say it's there be we are excluding it...if you click again I believe the dot disappears all together.

I think it's totally within reason to think that the stress that is still lingering from the stillbirth is affecting your signs. Any kind of stress can do that but especially something that emotional and traumatic.

I look forward to hearing from you!

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