A question I get asked a lot is, “Why should I work with a fertility awareness educator when I can learn by reading a book?”
I want to tell you that working with a fertility awareness educator is invaluable. And I don’t say this because I’m an educator, rather, I’m an educator because I truly believe it’s important for people to have that support. Working with an educator has a ton of benefits that you just can’t get when learning on your own.
Many people take the pill (or other hormonal birth control) for many years and only stop when they want to get pregnant. Unfortunately this has the potential to lead to a lot of stress and potentially unnecessary and expensive fertility treatments.
The fact is that for many people it can take several months, and upwards of a year (or more), to get regular cycles and fertility back after stopping hormonal birth control. So, what should you expect when coming off the pill?
The pill was an amazing invention that changed society, took away the burden of biology from women, and furthered the feminist cause. Our society probably wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for the pill, and I am grateful for that.
But it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. There are some undeniable negative aspects of the pill and the industry surrounding it. So, what do I really think of the pill? How do I balance the good with the bad?
If you’ve been following my blog for a while you know I teach the Justisse Method of fertility awareness. Questions I get asked a lot are, how is this method different from others? What makes it unique? Or, why should I use this over any other method?
This post will explain all that and more!
It’s a common myth that ovulation happens on day 14 of the menstrual cycle, or 14 days before the next period. In reality each person is different, and ovulation could be anywhere from 9 to 16 days prior to the next period!
In fact, research has shown that miscalculating the fertile phase of the cycle is a big reason a lot of people are supposedly “infertile.” In reality they just got the days wrong!
There are tons of charting apps out there (over 100!) so how are you supposed to know which one is best to use? Many of them are based off the Rhythm Method (which doesn’t work), and lots are simply period predictors so not useful for actual fertility charting.
Lucky for us, a study just came out that reviewed tons of different apps and created a rating scale to compare them as birth control.
Having a healthy menstrual cycle is about far more than just how regular it is and how long it lasts.
And unfortunately, the vast majority of women don’t know what to look for to figure this out.
The common myth is that if your cycle is about 28 days and fairly regular, and if the pain isn’t unbearable or flow too heavy, that everything is fine. In reality, there’s a lot more to it.
Well, that is the question, isn’t it?!
There seems to be some debate, and I’ve heard it from my own clients, about whether or not it’s possible to practice fertility awareness for contraception accurately and effectively by using mucus only.
I have to tell you that temping is not intrinsically better than not temping! But there’s a big caveat here: it all depends on how you were trained.
There are so many apps, devices, and discussion groups floating around the interwebs these days that it’s enough to make a person wonder if they can really be successful with charting on their own. What app should you use? What discussion board will be most helpful? Can you really do it without some kind of device to back you up?
This is a question I often see asked in fertility awareness discussion boards online. “When did I ovulate?” they want to know.
The truth is, we’ll never know exactly when we ovulate unless we have an ultrasound scan of our ovaries every day — and who would want to do that?! So how do we know when we’re infertile after ovulation if we can’t actually pinpoint ovulation?