Latest / The Cyclical Doula Podcast: Fertility Awareness, Charting Cycles, and Reproductive Health Education / How to choose a Fertility Awareness Based Method
Transcript
- emmamma: Well, welcome back to the Cyclical Doula podcast. ⁓ this is the real raw charted life of a I am currently sitting here on the beach. while my daughter is at dance class, Alex, husband is home with my so just took, has hour and a half dance class. So the beach is like 15 minutes away from there. ⁓ So I just come Emmamma: Thanks so much for being here today on the cyclical doula podcast. If this episode resonated with you, the most powerful thing that you can do is to share it, send it to a friend, text it to your sister, forward it to that group chat. This is how conversations about our bodies start changing, quietly, organically, woman to woman. you are listening and thinking, ⁓ ⁓ want help applying this to my emmamma: ⁓ which I'm super excited about. And I hadn't been to this part of the beach that I'm on. So it's pretty cool. today I ⁓ to just share a little bit more about ⁓ ⁓ think is important when you're trying to decide what you want to use. like to a fertility awareness based method. and if it's like right season for you to do so. Emmamma: I offer free cycle clarity calls. It's a relaxed conversation over Zoom we talk through your goals, your charting practices, and kind of support that would actually make sense for you. can book one at emmamma.com / free. And if you already, make sure you're following or subscribe to the Cyclical Doula - podcast so that you don't miss future episodes. emmamma: ⁓ a few things come to mind. First being, like what, what even is a fertility awareness based method versus like just charting your, menstrual bleeds. Like what's the difference between that? So a fertility awareness based method is using ⁓ research has been about fertility biomarkers, like cervical fluid, ⁓ basal body ⁓ and urine Emmamma: And if you feel called to leave a rating or review, it genuinely helps more women find this work. So thank you. You deserve to understand body. You deserve to feel confident in your reproductive choices. And you ⁓ have to figure it out alone. I'll see you next week. Thanks for being here. emmamma: And being able to use that information to know when in a cycle you're fertile and when you're not. So before ovulation, sometimes there's a part of your cycle that you can be infertile like right at the beginning of a cycle, but it depends on the specific individual. And then there's a part of your cycle ⁓ that you potentially fertile, meaning like there could be signs that there is fertility. And then there's like the actual time that ovulation occurs, which is the only time that you can get pregnant. cervical fluid can keep sperm alive for multiple days up until then. that's something to keep in mind. And after ovulation, ⁓ you get pregnant for the rest of cycle. You might already have been pregnant, but you can't get more pregnant. And so with that, you're using different biomarkers to open and close that fertile window, depending on the method that you're using, depending upon what you're tracking, depending upon what you feel comfortable with. So ⁓ When we talk about tracking cycles, we mean from the start of one bleed to the next bleed, but only when we know the ovulation has taken place in that. If not, it's just one big long cycle. So that happens more often than we realize that a lot of people have big long cycle because they're not ovulating. those are some things to keep in mind. with that, depending upon ⁓ what feels for you, Some of these biomarkers might feel better to track than others. And so, a huge part of figuring out which method is going to work best for you is figuring out which biomarkers you're willing to track. ⁓ like I said, cervical fluid, any good ⁓ fertility based method or natural family planning is going to have you track cervical fluid. It might be in different ways, but that's going to be a key. some methods are going to have you look just ⁓ at cervical as the only biomarker. ⁓ those are going to be things like billings, creatine, those are going to be ⁓ looking at cervical fluid only. but the, you can track fluid in multiple different ways. So you can track it with sensation. which just means like general awareness of what you're feeling at and around the vaginal entrance. And then, ⁓ you can track like physical. ⁓ cervical fluid when you go to the bathroom, you can track cervical fluid just like some people track it on their underwear depending upon the specific method. then you also ⁓ track cervical fluid at the cervix itself. So some people, some methods use actual cervix checks, which you can also check the physical changes of the cervix as well. So that's an additional, a fire worker. Emmamma: Welcome to the Cyclical Doula podcast. I'm Emma, a certified fertility awareness educator, miscarriage doula and the founder of Emmamma emmamma: you check the cervical fluid at the cervix. And so those are all different ways you can track cervical fluid. And again, different methods are going to help you track that differently. ⁓ love that fertility knowledge collective protocol, which is one of the ones that I teach. We really don't have to do any like touching or stretching or we don't do cervical checks. Like it's ⁓ all based on So awareness ⁓ of what you're in the vagina and at the vulva and then just like anything you see visually. So things that are in the toilet when you wipe on your underwear, all of those things. So that's really, I prefer that aspect of it. I also SimtoPro and SimtoPro has you check to see like the stretch and the coloration and what it like, the tissue observation. ⁓ You can also check at the cervix. So there's all of those extra things. So again, like there's so many different ways that you can track these. this is why sometimes it comes down to like how well a method will work best for somebody because some methods going to have you just like have awareness of throughout the whole day and then write down what you feel ⁓ that's the fertile. Other times, like you're writing down how Emmamma: This space is for women who want to understand their bodies deeply, not just memorize information, but actually feel confident in interpreting their cycles. Here we talk about ovulation, hormones, cervical mucus, basal body temperature, and all that's messy in between emotional layers that come with being woman. We talk about trying to conceive, avoiding pregnancy ⁓ hormones. emmamma: how many times you experience something and way more specific about what you're seeing. multiple aspects to doing this and that's where it sometimes gets a little tricky. Emmamma: postpartum transitions, pregnancy loss, perimenopause, and everything in between. Because body literacy isn't just about charting. It's about the autonomy. It's about informed consent. It's about not outsourcing your reproductive decisions to guesswork or fear. Each week, you'll hear conversations with women's health professionals, ⁓ workers, ⁓ emmamma: So trying to figure out how you're willing to track cervical fluid is gonna be a good starting point. lots of methods out there are gonna have you use your own words or, I guess, few are gonna use your own words. Billings is gonna have you use your own words, Fertility Knowledge Collective is gonna have you use your own words to track cervical fluid. Emmamma: and researchers along with solo episodes where I teach practical skills you can apply to your own cycle right away. if you have ever felt like you should have learned this information sooner, if you have ever felt disconnected from your cycle, emmamma: And then there's other ones that have just a few amount of categories like FEMM and SymptoPro those have a few categories. And then there's ones that have a lot. So like Creighton has a lot of different categories for cervical fluid. Obviously, didn't mention all the methods in there. There's so many different organizations out there that have different methods. if you interested in ones, feel free to look into those and to see what the biomarkers are. So the next biomarker that I want to talk about is basal body temperature. So basal body temperature, when it's studied, we're looking at the, waking temperature. like our body's resting temperature, overnight and we want to take it as soon as we wake up so that we have that, knowledge of what this temperature is. That's, your body at rest. And with that, like standard is to take your temperature either. Emmamma: If you want to raise the next generation without shame around their bodies, you are in the right place. So grab your tea, open up your notes app, and let's build a cycle confidence together. emmamma: orally, vaginally, or rectally you first wake up and have that be at a consistent time each day. Now, each method that uses basal body temperature has different guidelines around what that looks like. SymptoPro you like an hour and a half window. Fertility Knowledge Collective ⁓ suggests that get as close to the same time as possible, but like look at what your deviations look like. Other methods are gonna just say like take it when you wake up regardless, is definitely the best thing to do if you happen to sleep in. And other methods ⁓ are be able to let you use wearables because they have ⁓ seen research that's coming out with those. so Fertility Knowledge Collective ⁓ it's with TempDrop, which is wearable on your arm. It takes multiple data points the night while you're sleeping and then uses some algorithm to average them give you that temperature. So that's an option for people who are in season that they don't feel like they can temp orally or vaginally or rectally, that they use a wearable. I would strongly suggest something like a temp drop over some of the other wearables, mostly just because been more research so far out there. if you're using it to avoid pregnancy, that's going to give you... more effectiveness because of the capacity of that. With that being said, some people have found that things like the Oura ring correlate really well to their oral temperatures. I will say I used to say that until this past cycle when I was traveling multiple time zones and I feel like I got no useful data with my ⁓ ring. And so ⁓ have like a general trend, but it's not exactly what I would want to use. reliability. ⁓ could have just been me in a weird cycle, but when was trying to use it as like my primary for this cycle, it did not feel reliable. So something consider if you're trying to avoid pregnancy. And ⁓ then, that's, think are kind of easier. I feel like for most people getting into the habit of taking your temperature daily seems really stressful, but it really comes down being much easier than we expect. Once you build that habit, you can get right into it and take it regularly. If you're somebody who looks at your phone first thing in the morning, put your thermometer on top of your phone. A friend of mine had suggested like scrunching your thermometer to your phone so you don't throw it across the room, which I think is a great plan. And go and just, again, just get in the habit. There's some basal body thermometers that are going to like Bluetooth to your phone so that it has the timestamp and the temperature on it, which can be helpful. That's the type that I use because I don't like writing it down first thing in the morning, ⁓ you can get a really just like basic basal thermometer from like the It's going to cost you like 10, $15 and it's going to the same thing. So that's something to consider. ⁓ You do need maintain your thermometer, whichever one you purchase. So ⁓ having batteries or charger, is going to be need to be on hand. And then lastly is urine testing. a lot of people choose not to do this based on the expense of urine testing strips. So the one to track is LH. And there's some around when to start testing that and how long to test that. ⁓ that's something to keep in mind. There are some really cool technology coming out like Mira and Initio ⁓ and ⁓ Proov all test all of these different things. Those testing strips are so much more expensive and that's something consider you don't really need that information in that detail. Things, methods like FEMM use LH testing strips and those can be really effective. And so there's certain guidelines about how to use that for the fertile window. And those are really good options. And so so other than like choosing which biomarkers you want for your method, the other thing that you're gonna need to think about is how you actually wanna learn and what kind of support you need going forward. So can learn. all these different methods books, from online courses that are pre-recorded, from a live course online, from in-person courses, ⁓ from in groups or working one-on-one or having some stuff ⁓ pre-recorded some stuff live and like all of these different things. ⁓ so have to think about how you learn best and what kind of support you need to learn best ⁓ and go from there. working with someone like me, like once you purchase a course, you have lifetime access. to me through messaging and then like also like we can schedule something additionally whenever you want. If you join my matriarch program, have weekly office hours so you can literally hop in whenever you want to ask a question and show me your chart and get feedback ⁓ also maybe learn something from somebody else. But ⁓ when some courses like you're gonna learn online and maybe email somebody once and that's it ⁓ and on how you learn like that might be really good. ⁓ sometimes that's not gonna feel enough. So that's something for sure to consider. And then the other thing is to consider is if you want to chart on paper or in an app and to make sure that the method that you choose is going to let you do which one you prefer. Some of the methods, specifically, don't use or the other. And so that's something to consider when you're making that choice. And then lastly, I think a huge part of this ⁓ a lot of people kind of come into is that they want ⁓ their method be religious based or do not. And so ⁓ that is I am certified in two different methods because SymptoPro is a Catholic organization. ⁓ and it has Catholic morals and values in their materials and in their recommendations. And then ⁓ Knowledge Collective Protocol is completely secular. So it has the same exact science information, but doesn't have those morals and values in the materials at all, which like your morals and values, whatever they are, can be within whatever information, but if that's going to be feeling better for one way or the other, that's something to really consider, especially if you're working with somebody who's not me cannot be able to reach people where they're at. So definitely something to consider that that's going to be influenced. recommendations, for most of these methods is going to be abstinence in the window when you're starting, ⁓ or at least as you're starting in general so that you can know your body the best. And then possibly if, again, like if you're, if you're in a that using other barrier methods are as good for you, can use something like condoms or withdrawal or other methods in ⁓ fertile window. If you're trying to, if you want, if you're avoiding pregnancy, but still want to use those days. And so that's something to consider as well what that would look like because then, for example, if you're using a condom in the fertile window, like that is literally only time that a condom's gonna fail. And so you're relying on that effectiveness of that particular barrier method or other form of contraception. So ⁓ something to consider as well as you're thinking about the effectiveness. Speaking about effectiveness. ⁓ Most of these methods are quite effective. And if you'd like some resources about that, feel free to look in the show notes. I'll try to link some resources there I that's it. As you're listening to this, what questions come up for you? What information do you need to know to make a decision about? charting what feels like the thing that swayed you one way or the other. I would love to know. So either ⁓ send a DM or write a comment on ⁓ one the blog posts on my website, things like that. I would love to know just to support you. And if there's other questions that come up as you're listening to this, feel free to reach out and I can do another episode about them. Hope you're having a great day ⁓ and I'll you next time.