Yes, I did say that I would post this yesterday but I am just getting to it now! This is something I am super excited to talk about as I have been 'officially' tracking my cycle now for 2 months but I have been taking my basal body temperature (bbt) since December 2018 when I decided to stop taking the pill. I originally started using the Natural Cycles app which predicts ovulation and your period by past data that it collects which was amazing and worked perfectly for me at the beginning! However, once I started getting more interested in my health and began reading more health books I decided I wanted a deeper understanding beyond my BBT, I also wanted to understand the other signs such as tracking my cervical fluid, my cervix position, when my mood shifted, when my endometriosis pains started during my menstrual cycle, and when my anxiety got worse. This was just something that isn't available with Natural Cycles so beginning to track it every day on a sheet of paper has been the next best option for me.
I use the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) which no, is not the rhythm method as it is also 99.6% effective when used properly. The distinct difference is that the rhythm method does not believe in any barriers during ovulation, so nothing that can prevent pregnancy. This could be condoms, the withdraw method, the morning after pill, or even an abortion if you did become pregnant. In FAM, you understand your cycle and know your signs so that when you do come closer to ovulation you get to decide how you want protect yourself, or if you are trying to get pregnant, you know the best time to have unprotected sex, or if you are learning about your body you are finding out whether or not you are truly ovulating! But I also want to make it clear that tracking your cycle, doesn't have to be for either wanting to conceive or not, plenty of women do it to just learn about their bodies and it's behaviours, and what it is trying to tell them!
I know that there are several types of FAM methods however, I have decided to stick to taking my BBT and checking my cervical fluid because these are the most convenient and I haven't exactly nailed how to check my cervical positioning (aka: still practicing). Every morning I wake up at 5am and I take my temperature using my basal body thermometer. Once I have the recorded temperature, I actually go back to sleep. A lot of people go a head and put the temperature on their physical chart or in their app, but I know that my thermometer actually saves the temperature so when I am officially ready to wake up later I just record it then. I check my cervical fluid throughout the day and just watch for signs of becoming wet and creamy. Essentially, after your period you may experience a few dry days which is entirely normal! My dry days usually range from 3-4 days but then slowly things begin to get wet and creamier. This is how I know I am approaching ovulation and need to get some protection going if I decided to have sex. But then I really know that I am very close to ovulation when the egg white cervical fluid comes about. This is literally what it sounds like, it looks and feels like raw egg white. This is because it is the most viable cervical fluid for sperm to live in to reach an egg. So when you are getting ready to ovulate, your body knows that needs to begin releasing this distinct cervical fluid because if sperm were to come in contact with it, it has a better chance of surviving to reach the egg when it is officially released from the follicle in your ovary. AMAZING! I also know now that my cycle isn't 28 days like everyone things, I actually ovulate between day 16-18 and have my period between days 27-29. Guess what, a full menstrual cycle (from period-end of follicular phase) can actually range from 21-45 days!
I would say that learning to track my cycle has taught me so much and I am still learning every single day! But I love knowing that I am not adding synthetic hormones to my body and that I am letting it do what it is meant to do. The first time I heard of this method was from Femmehead, on her youtube channel. I believe I typed in, "Why I decided to quit the pill" and surprisingly enough there are a great deal of youtube channels talking about girls negative experiences with the birth control pill and that they decided to stop taking it. Dr. Jolene Brighten quoted that more than half of girls and women on hormonal birth control are on it for other reasons than it's intended use, for BIRTH CONTROL. I was on it because my cramps were causing me to miss school and swim team practice. I had a lot of friends that did it for acne or excessive bleeding. This is sadly common; I truly believe that any issue that we are dealing with isn't, "it just is what it is and there is nothing more to it." No! This is not true and I am a prime example, my cramps that they thought were just bad cramps has been endometriosis all these years. My friend who suffered from acne and irregular cycles, hers turned out to PCOS. There are a variety of reasons and causes for our menstrual cycle issues we just need better access to support ourselves while we are out there trying to find a healthcare professional to investigate them.
I'm so glad that I have access to this information and that I am able to learn this and use this method for myself. No doctor ever told me about this because those in medical school don't learn about these methods. What I have found is that this is mostly due to the fact that a natural birth control doesn't bring in money, but hormonal birth control like the pill, the IUD, the Depo-shot, bring in money to large pharmaceutical companies.
If you are interested in learning more I would highly recommend buying, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler. It is almost everyones introduction into FAM and then maybe taking a course. I am currently taking, Chart Your Cycle, with Femmehead and have already learned so much that was harder for me to gather from the book. There are also a range of instructors on Instagram that would love to educate women about charting their cycles and learning to love and take care of their bodies.
Thanks for reading!
Xoxo,
Moonli
Brighten. Dr. Jolene. (2019) Beyond the Pill. New York City, NY: HarperOne.
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