This week is Pride Week in my hometown of Vancouver, so I want to take this chance to explain my feelings about equality and inclusion, and also relate this back to fertility awareness.
I believe we should all be free to love and form relationships with whoever we want, and that it’s up to each individual to live their life in the way that makes them happiest and most fulfilled.
When it comes to fertility awareness and body literacy, I strongly believe this is for everybody, regardless of gender, sex, or orientation. Understanding how your body works is such an important part of self-empowerment, and I believe that all people should have access to this information.
Language is powerful.
While I understand the majority of menstruators are women, I also understand that not all menstruators are women, and not all women menstruate.
Working in the field of fertility is a difficult place to be when trying to be inclusive, because it’s so easy to talk about men and women on a binary scale, and the vast majority of my clients will be cisgendered women (that is women born biologically female who identify as the female gender).
Please know that I am happy to work with all menstruators and to help you become more empowered and knowledgeable about your body regardless of your gender identity.
What about lesbians?
As you probably know from reading my blog, fertility awareness is about far more than just birth control! Even if a menstruator is not in a relationship with a male where she could get pregnant, understanding her body, knowing when her period is due, and having the ability to improve her hormonal health are all very important things that she can benefit from.
What about gay men?
This one may confuse you the most. How could gay men possibly benefit from learning about fertility awareness? First of all, if these were transmen then they may be menstruating, so absolutely they could benefit.
When it comes to cisgender males (that’s men who are both born biologically male and identify with the male gender) fertility awareness could still have some use. For example, if they are looking into surrogacy for having their own children, their egg donor and/or surrogate mother could absolutely benefit. It would allow them to have the best hormonal health possible before pregnancy, and also to time insemination for the most fertile time in the cycle.
Regardless of what language I use, please know that whoever you are, whatever your sex, gender, sexual orientation, or even religion, politics, race, or culture, I think that body literacy is absolutely essential to self-empowerment and I would be happy to help you learn more about your body and to help you achieve your hormonal health goals.
Happy Pride everyone!
Want to learn more about fertility awareness? Contact me and we can get started.