How important is charting, really?

Sorry in advance if this is a silly question! If you read through past posts on charting it becomes very clear that people are putting A LOT of time into charting their cycles. What I don't understand is, why can't people just BD every time they see possible fertile CM within their cycles? This sound very simplistic, I know, but can someone explain why charting is so helpful when you could just BD according to CM (without charting).
More BDing around middle of cycle and with accordance to fertile CM, I say, would result in more pg! (or not??? you tell me).
I need to be convinced that charting is worth while before I try it.
Go on, convince me! :D

Hi Beth,

I found that my CM was a bit erratic and didn't seem all that profuse in the middle of the month.

We were TTC for 3 years all up, after me having been on the pill constantly for 15 years. When I came off the pill, my cycle was as regular as clockwork in terms of days, but in terms of CM and ovulation, I had no idea what was going on at all.

I eventually used OPK's and charting as well as observing my CM and it showed that my CM was not profuse enough at the time of ovulation, but I could definately pin-point my ovulation based on temps and OPK's.

The other reason I found charting to be of a benefit for me as it gave ME some control back, rather than just hoping & keeping my fingers crossed for a lucky shag, IYKWIM?

Either way, once I got into the habit of taking my temp every morning, it was no time or effort at all, & FF makes it so very easy.

And charting got me pregnant twice......first go after starting charting took 3 months, second time only 2 months...........(in conjunction with OPK's).

Hi Beth,
This is my first month charting and I have found it very useful in helping me know when I O. I wasn't confident just going by EWCM, and more out of curiosity than anything I decided to give it a go.

The whole process literally takes me about 3 minutes everyday, from taking my temp to putting the details in FF during the day. It takes a lot of the guess work out of TTC and I will probably continue to do it until we finally conceive. DH knows I am doing this and doesn't have a problem, but I do it all discreetly so it doesn't take the 'fun' out of the process IYKWIM! ;)

I've just started charting, this is my second cycle. It only takes a minute in the morning and another minute later in the day to enter it into FF so its not alot of time.
I'm quite an impatient person and I think that having to wait a long time for a BFP would kill me so I'd like to be as in control as possible. Also if you have anovulatory cycles charting can help you to pinpoint them quicky and do something about it. I think that if any fertilty issues arise your Dr would be more likely to start investigating them if you could show that you have been BD near ovulation with no results for a while.
To concieve Yasin I only used EWCM and I got lucky very quickly but I think that if I had known about charting then I might have used it.
I think that the downside with charting is that it makes the TWW more drawn out because every day when you log onto FF you can see how many DPO you are so you're more aware of how many days until you can test. Maybe other people who aren't impatient control freaks don't have this issue.

Put me in the impatient control freak category Dachlo!!!

I found charting was really helpful as well cos I just wasn't confident that we were BDing at the right time. It took us 26 months to conceive Alexzander & I was only charting in the last 6 of those. Like the others said it's not real time consuming at all & it gives you more control over what's going on - not that you can control what you're body is doing, just that you can control how much you know at any one time if that makes sense at all.

Beth,

For me charting helps because I am fortunate enough to have heaps of CM but some days I can get confused. Sometimes I find it hard to pinpoint O so with taking my Temp daily, and noting when I have a tummy twinge I can figure it out.
I guess it depends if you are not conceiving easily then charting can help you know that at least you are BDing at the right time. It may seem to be a chore if you are at it every other day when you only need be a few days in the cycle during O time. The other times it's for fun!

Suga - A FEW YEARS! God, I dread the though of doing it for a few months let alone a few years!!!! Very keen of you.
I suppose I don't really want to know what's going on and let nature takes it course when TTC, but if having difficulty conceiving then I can totally understand the value of charting (as I said above).
There are a lot of control freaks out there in the land of BB aren't there!.

I loved charting and I love making lists so charting was easy for me!

I charted so I knew exactly when I was most fertile and I wanted the egg and sperm to be fresh and at their optimum. Old eggs and sperm are sometimes viable but can lead to MC.

Bethany for us, we were trying in the middle of each cycle (as the general concensus is to fall preg) for over a year with no results, I decided to start taking temp & using OPK's, as we already have a 6yr old...
The very first month we fell preg & I knew because m y temp wasn't dropping even though I really could not test for a week or so, but you can tell by what your chart tells you, so we knew, unfortunately about 6 wks later I began bleeding & lost the baby, I started takling temp as soon as I stopped bleeding so in a few months time we would be ready to try again, but my temp never dropped again & I did not get a preiod again, so we then fell preg immediately after...
I don't think we are control freaks I think we are realising that things are not as easy as some people have found it to fall preg & so the reason we start searching about pregnancy & then happen across this site?
For me Charting & taking temp was great coz it meant I knew what was going on & I could understand my body & cycle better!

My cycle is on the long side (?36 days) but I don't ovulate till around CD 23 or 24 so just going at it in the middle of my cycle wouldn't do much good for me.

I also get a lot of fertile CM - for about 2 weeks before I O so if were to BD everytime I had fertile CM then by the time I was actually ovulating - at the end of that two weeks - we would probably have worn ourselves out! ;)

To me it just makes sense to temp daily. It's not like you're trying to read into it - it is simply a record of you temperature that gives you detailed information on your fertility and menstrual cycle.

It takes about a minute each day and without it I would have simply assumed that I ovulated in the middle of my cycle like the "average" woman does which is far from true.

Anyway - the choice is yours - either way good luck on your journey!!! :p