Tending Our Cycles

1. Observation of bodily signs. Bodily signs include evidence-based biomarkers like cervical mucus, basal body temperature, and optionally, cervical position.

2. Recording your observations. You bodily signs are recorded as data in a chart (on paper or using the Read Your Body app on your phone), a process commonly referred to as menstrual cycle charting or cycle mapping.

3. Interpreting patterns. By analyzing the patterns in your chart, you can determine:

   • your fertile days each cycle. You can then avoid pregnancy with a barrier method or abstinence, or know when your infertile days are so you can safely practice unprotected sex.

   • if and when you’re ovulating (or not ovulating). Ovulation is a key indicator of health! This is important for those who want to get pregnant or those looking to regain natural cycles after birth control.

   • what’s going on with your estrogen in the follicular phase and progesterone in the luteal phase. This can help to explain heavy or irregular cycles!

   • how long your luteal phase is. This is important for those who want to get pregnant or those looking to regain natural cycles after birth control.

   • if you have an underlying hormonal imbalance, such as hypothyroidism, PCOS, hypothalamic amenorrhea, etc.

FAM invites us to learn the intricacy and nuances of our own bodies through its participatory nature.

By engaging in the practices of FAM, we learn to observe, chart, and interpret our unique biomarkers — our body’s language — on a daily basis. Overtime, we can discern the patterns and nuances of our unique hormonal rhythms, how and why our periods manifest in the way they do, and understand the cyclic nature of our emotional bodies. We may also then take the objective data on our charts and use that to help us make an informed and empowered decision about our reproductive, sexual, and overall hormonal health. This is how FAM cultivates body literacy and more embodied and nourished menstrual cycles.

FABMs (fertility awareness-based methods) is an umbrella term that encompasses different categories of methods. Examples are Symptothermal, Symptohormonal, and Cervical Mucus-only Methods.

Sympto stands for “symptoms” and refers to the physical symptom of cervical mucus (also known as cervical fluid). Thermal refers to basal body temperature (BBT). Cervical mucus and BBT are the main bodily signs that are observed in the Symptothermal Method. Cervical position is a third bodily sign that is optional.

The Symptothermal Method is what you'll be learning in the mentorship.

A clinical trial conducted in 2007 (based on 900 women over the course of 17,638 menstrual cycles over 20 years) has shown that the SymptoThermal method of FAM has a:

👉🏽 perfect use effectiveness rate of up to 99.6%in preventing pregnancy and a

👉🏽 perfect use failure rate of just 0.6%.

Compare that to the 0.3% perfect use failure rate* of the pill!

When used correctly, FAM can be just as effective as the pill! You can significantly decrease your failure rate by working with a certified Fertility Awareness Educator or FAM Practitioner to accurately chart your cycles.

*Contraception failure rate is the percentage of couples who experience an accidental pregnancy during one year of use. It is expressed as perfect use and typical use.

FAM can be used as a tool to increase your chances of conception because it allows you to track your physical signs of ovulation, also known as your “fertility biomarkers” — cervical mucus, basal body temperature (BBT), and optionally your cervical position.

Observing and charting these fertility biomarkers can help you assess vital aspects of your fertility such as:

💫 determining when your fertile window begins and ends, so you can time conception accurately

💫 when and if you ovulate (ovulation is needed for fertilization to happen). we can then examine possible root causes if you are not having ovulatory cycles.

💫 assessing your overall hormonal health. We can see what’s going on with your thyroid, estrogen, and progesterone hormones. Hormonal imbalances are often obstacles to fertility.

💫 deepening your hormonal and body literacy and connection to your body

A vital sign is a bodily response you can measure to see how your body is functioning. The four most commonly used vital signs are heart rate, body temperature, respiratory rate, and blood pressure.

Your menstrual cycle is not simply about fertility. It is your fifth vital sign that responds to stress and illness and relays information back to you about your overall health. When you're healthy, your period will arrive smoothly, regularly, and without symptoms. And when you're unhealthy in some way, whether you have the cold/flu or have some serious underlying health condition, your cycle will tell the story. This is your “fifth vital sign” in action!