What is Fertility Awareness?

In this blog, I’ll cover the who, what, when, where, why, and now what of fertility awareness. We’re only gonna skim the surface, but know that this is a beautiful world of getting to know your female body and understand its wisdom on a deeper level. And dudes - if you’re reading this - it’s good information for you, too, so stick around.

WHO

Fertility awareness is for any person who has a menstrual cycle. This includes young women who have just started their cycle (menarche), middle age, and even older women in perimenopause. While I think the information is helpful for everyone, it is not able to be utilized by women who are on hormone-based contraceptives, such as the pill or hormone-based IUD, as these interfere with the body’s natural cycle. Many women interested in fertility awareness are looking to transition off the pill or prepare for conception. Other women are looking to understand their bodies better or get rid of unpleasant symptoms. I’ll get into that further in the “why” section of this blog. It’s important to know that you do not need to have a “perfect cycle” or a regular cycle to do fertility awareness. Many women who have irregular cycles due to underlying conditions can also successfully incorporate fertility awareness into their lives.

WHAT

So what actually IS fertility awareness? It is simply the process of collecting data to understand which days we are fertile and infertile throughout our hormone cycle. Did you know that as women, we are not fertile - or able to get pregnant - 100% of the time? Unlike men, who produce sperm daily and are normally continuously fertile, women only have a portion of their cycle where they are able to get pregnant. Women have a multiphase hormone cycle that may last anywhere from 24-35 days, or longer or shorter. This includes four unique phases called menstruation (bleeding), follicular, ovulation, and luteal phases. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of those here, but just know that our bodies’ signals change from phase to phase, and that is what allows us to track our fertility.

What are those special signals, you may ask? While there’s not one universal fertility awareness tracking method, most of them use a combination of signs which may include: cervical mucus observations, body temperature, urine dipsticks, cervical position, and more. You can read about all of the different fertility awareness methods HERE.

As a fertility awareness coach, I teach a sympto-hermal method which focuses on the signs of cervical mucus observations and body temperature with optional LH strips. Learning this method of fertility awareness involves learning and incorporating the tracking skills necessary to chart our signs of fertility consistently. This information gives us a snapshot of our hormone cycle: which days we are fertile, which days we are not fertile, and any abnormal characteristics of our cycle that may need to be addressed. Based on that, we can make decisions about trying to become pregnant, avoid pregnancy, or optimize our health and hormone balance.

WHEN

Fertility awareness happens consistently. It is truly a lifestyle shift that involves getting to know your body on a deeper level. One you learn these skills, you will have this empowering knowledge for life. Every day, you will track your observations and interpret them. While it is a learning curve at first, most women learn to chart in 2 to 3 cycles with the help of a trained coach or instructor. It will get easier and become intuitive with time. I personally spend about 5 minutes each day in the form of data collection: taking my temperature with my Tempdrop device, observing cervical mucus, and inputting my observations into an app on my phone. That’s it. I don’t need any fancy supplies except for a temperature-taking device, like a basal body thermometer or a Tempdrop band, and my phone.

WHERE

Fertility awareness happens everywhere, all the time. You take your knowledge of fertility awareness with you wherever you go, whether that’s at home, at work, on vacation, or elsewhere. The more practice you have, the more comfortable you’ll become with the process. You may have to plan ahead and navigate around trips or unusual circumstances, but most challenges can be worked around as your daily habits start to incorporate fertility awareness.

WHY

Women come to fertility awareness for different reasons and from all sorts of backgrounds. Many fertility awareness methods stem from the Catholic tradition, which traditionally promotes natural family planning over hormone-based contraceptives for ethical and moral convictions.

Some women want to learn fertility awareness to optimize their chances of conception. Other women want to learn fertility awareness because they have a wonky cycle or bothersome (or even debilitating) symptoms ranging from PMS to bad cramps they want to address. Amazingly, a woman’s cycle can be used as a “vital sign” to assess her health, as it gives her valuable information about her health and hormones. The four phases of the cycle I mentioned earlier tend to mimic the energies of the four seasons we experience throughout the year. For example, the follicular and ovulatory phases tend to mirror the high-energy seasons of spring and summer, with luteal and menstruation more closely aligned to the quiet, reflective nature of fall and winter. By tuning into our body’s different signals during each phase, we can live more closely aligned with the natural ebb and flow of energy and needs that we experience throughout our cycles.

Fertility awareness is a great option for natural birth control for women who want to avoid other forms of contraception, whether that’s for ethical or health reasons or both. Unfortunately, in my experience, fertility awareness is not something regularly promoted or encouraged in conventional medicine, as doctors are not routinely trained in this knowledge. I believe this does a disservice to women, because women are often not fully educated on the side effects or mechanism of action of hormone-based contraceptives before being prescribed them. That being said, I’m not completely against hormone-based contraceptives. I just believe women should have the whole picture AND alternatives to consider to make a fully informed decision before started on this route. That’s a conversation for another day, but nonetheless, fertility awareness can be a highly effective form of birth control when learned and implemented correctly.

How effective is fertility awareness?

The honest answer is: it depends on the method. Fertility awareness isn't one single method. It's an umbrella term for several approaches that track different signs, from calendar-based methods that estimate the fertile window, to methods that follow cervical fluid, temperature, or both. How well each one works varies widely, and so does the quality of the research behind them. Methods that cross-check more than one fertility sign tend to be the most effective. In one of the largest studies on the symptothermal method, published in 2007, fewer than 1 in 100 couples who avoided unprotected sex during the fertile window had an unintended pregnancy over a year, about 99.4% effective. Across all participants, the rate was about 1.8 in 100. (source)

How I teach it

My teaching approach begins with what we know about fertility physiology. Pregnancy is only possible during a few days of each cycle. By charting your temperature and cervical mucus observations together, you can see when your fertile window opens and confirm when ovulation has passed. Using two signs to cross-check each other is what makes the symptothermal method so reliable.

From that foundation, I teach a custom, evidence-based symptothermal method, drawing on the rules of well-studied approaches and tailored to your cycle and goals.

• Learn with support, so your questions get answered early and confidence grows.

• Take your time, charting several cycles with feedback before relying on the method to avoid pregnancy.

• Know where you are on the intention scale. How strictly you follow the rules often depends on how strongly you want to avoid pregnancy. Knowing where you fall, from firmly avoiding to open to a pregnancy, and revisiting it as life changes helps you choose an approach that fits your goals.

• Get on the same page with your partner, so following the rules is a team effort.

My goal is to give you accurate information and real skills, so you can make the choice that fits your life.

NOW WHAT?

Whew! That was a lot of info I packed in one post. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, you are not alone. There are lots of resources out there to help you get started on your own journey of fertility awareness. Not all are created equally or presented the same. It’s important to pick an instructor or charting format that resonates and works well with your lifestyle. As a great starting point, check out the this blog post which outlines the different methods of fertility awareness.

If you have questions or would like to connect, send me an email at hello@coachingfrombrooke.com. I'd love to hear from you!