Fertility Awareness and Body Literacy Education
About Fertility Awareness
Despite its name, the Fertility Awareness Method is not just a tool to help you get pregnant. It is a self care and awareness practice that involves observing your bio markers, tracking them in a cycle chart, and learning how to interpret them no matter what your intentions are. The result is a deeper understanding of your cycle and the ability to make informed choices about your health and fertility.
Fertility Awareness Methods can be used for:
Natural birth control, avoiding pregnancy without taking hormones
Preparing the body for conception and mindfully conceiving
Navigating life transitions such as coming off hormonal birth control, making changes to your health, postpartum, or menopause
Learning more about your health and menstrual cycle
Connecting more deeply with your body
My goal as an educator is to change the narrative around women’s health. So often, the response to education around cycle health is “why didn’t I learn this sooner?” Learning to listen to the body and understand what it’s doing and why can make a world of a difference in our relationship with ourselves. Instead of living in bodies full of mystery, discomfort, and embarrassing symptoms, we can instead learn to nurture, honor, and even celebrate our bodies for all of the incredible things that it is capable of.
The method that I teach was created by Sarah Bly at The Well School of Body Literacy, and emphasizes body and menstrual cycle positivity, body autonomy, the ability to make informed choices, and our connection with the natural world. Connecting with our bodies in this intimate way is an amazing opportunity and gateway into being able to know and love ourselves more deeply, which is the root of all things wellness!
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How to Learn
Introductory Course
This option is for both or new and experienced charters. This six week course will cover everything you need to know to chart your cycle and practice fertility awareness as well as cycle related self care tools.
Click here to fill out an interest form.
Individual Consultations
This option is for people who would like more support with their charting practice. During this one hour meeting, we can discuss any concerns or questions you may have about your practice, as well as support interpreting your charts.
Click here to sign up.
Email Support Membership
This option is best for people who are already comfortable with their practice, but would like ongoing support. This will provide unlimited access to me via email for help interpreting your chart.
Please contact me directly if you are interested in this option
Is this the rhythm method?
No! While it is based on the same concepts as the rhythm method - that anyone who cycles is only fertile for an average of six days per cycle - it is quite different than the rhythm method. Fertility Awareness methods rely on cues that your body is giving you on a day to day basis, as opposed to calculations, averages, and assumptions. This makes them much more reliable and effective than the rhythm method because it accounts for normal and healthy variation among cycles and cycling people.
Can I use it if my cycles are irregular?
Absolutely yes! Fertility Awareness actually plays a very important role in the lives of those with irregular cycles, because it provides a window into what your body is doing throughout your cycle. This allows you to know when your period is coming and if it is truly “late.” Having irregular cycles myself, supporting people with variation in their cycle lengths is a specialty that I offer.
Is there evidence supporting Fertility Awareness Methods?
Yes and no. While admittedly there is a lack of solid research behind the methods, there is one very well done study that shows that Fertility Awareness Methods can be as effective as 98% when properly implemented. Click here to read the study yourself. These methods are also based on known facts about the menstrual cycle and human reproduction such as the circumstances under which sperm can stay alive, when the egg is available for fertilization, and what needs to happen in the body in order for ovulation and fertilization to occur. You can learn all of this and more in my six week class.
What is involved?
The Well’s method is a sympto-thermal method. This means that it uses observations of cervical fluid (fluid that is produced in the cervix and is observed at the vulva) and basal body temperature (your temperature taken as soon as you wake up in the morning), as well as other optional secondary fertility signs. These signs are put onto a chart, that when interpreted properly gives a picture of what our bodies and hormones are doing throughout the menstrual cycle. Learning to track these signs takes time, but as it becomes second nature, the overall practice takes about 5-10 minutes per day.