The Health Insights Hidden in Your Cycle
So many people start a fertility awareness practice to better understand their bodies and health - and if this is you, then there is no better way than learning a method that you can interpret yourself! This is because when you learn a sympto-thermal method (using basal body temperature and cervical fluid) you’re not getting a device or subscription. You’re not getting fun facts about the menstrual cycle or generic information from an app. You’re getting real time data about YOUR menstrual cycle daily! So what exactly can you learn from a fertility awareness method?
Are you ovulating? This is the first one on the list, because it is SO important! Of course ovulation is important if you’re trying to conceive (there’s no baby if there’s no egg to fertilize) but even if you don’t want a baby, ovulation is crucial for our health. The reason for this is twofold - ovulation is both supportive of health and a sign of health. Let’s break that down. First of all, ovulation is necessary for hormonal balance because while our ovaries produce estrogen, progesterone is mostly produced by the corpus luteum - which forms from the casing around the egg after ovulation. Progesterone plays an extremely important role in our bodies, balancing out the actions of estrogen and protecting our heart and bone health.
Ovulation is also a sign of health - and if you’re not ovulating you really want to know! Think of it this way, our bodies want to reproduce, but only if it believes that we will be able to carry out a pregnancy and keep our baby safe. If we are under too much stress, if our health isn’t in top shape, it will likely impact ovulation. This won’t always cause a complete absence of ovulation, but it can definitely have a big impact. Also, if you do have a condition that is causing you not to ovulate, it will be important to work with a healthcare provider to treat that so it doesn’t have larger impacts on your health.
You might be wondering - wouldn’t you know if you ovulate if you have regular periods? Often this is the case, but not always. The only way to confirm ovulation on your own (without getting a really well timed ultrasound) is to learn to chart your cycle!Do you have a healthy balance of estrogen and progesterone? Charting your cycle will also help you to identify the length of each phase of your cycle. It gives you information that is far beyond cycle length. Like I said earlier, having a healthy balance between your estrogen and progesterone is so health supportive, and can keep certain symptoms in check. Many signs of imbalanced hormones can be seen on a chart by a trained and certified fertility awareness educator.
How is your body responding to your life? If you chart long enough, you will essentially have a record of your life and health over years if not decades. While the goal is always to feel better regardless of what is on your chart, it is so helpful to have an objective record that you can look back on. Your cycle doesn’t lie, and a record of your chart can provide feedback about how your body is responding to lifestyle changes, medications, herbs or supplements, stress, travel, illness and more.
And finally - what beliefs do you hold about your body? Last but not least, your charts can teach you a lot about what attitudes you have towards your body and your health. When you look at your chart, do you want it to be textbook perfect? Are you assuming that there is something wrong with your cycle? Are you able to find gratitude and wonder? Or does it feel like your chart is causing more anxiety? You’re not alone - our healthcare system is always looking for something wrong with us as opposed to what is right with us. We’re kind of conditioned to believe that our bodies, and especially our reproductive systems, are ticking time bombs just waiting for the right time to make something go wrong. Fertility awareness can be your opportunity to practice shifting these thoughts and beliefs one step at a time.
If you’re having concerns about your charts and cycle health, keep in mind that not all charts are going to be picture perfect - we’re only human and our cycle charts will reflect that. Working with a certified fertility awareness educator can help you to identify what is normal versus what is concerning. We are specially trained and spend a ton of time looking at charts, so please ask!
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