F E R T I L I T Y   S T O R I E S:
3 0   y e a r   o l d   m a r r i e d   f a t h e r   o f   a   t w o   y e a r   o l d

At the end of the day, he reads his wife's thermometer, asks her about her cervical fluid, and records these on their chart. "I was dubious about the method at first," he said. "It took effort to learn, and we live in a society where we like to pop pills to take care of problems." But now he finds himself reaping benefits: "Most married people I know have animosity between them, sort of like the couple in the old TV show, 'The Honeymooners.' The method has helped me not to get into that kind of attitude. It's given me sensitivity to what's going on with Allison, biologically and emotionally. It's given us a kind of intimacy that goes beyond sexual intimacy. This way, we're making conscious decisions as fertile people. In the past I would've agreed that's the man's responsibility as much as the woman's; but I didn't really have the means for taking responsibility."

From charting his wife's fertility signals, he has also discovered a pattern to his interest in sex: it increases significantly during her fertile days. "I would never have noticed this if I hadn't been doing our record-keeping," he said.