Discover the eight key benefits to the simple act of charting your menstrual cycle.
Anyone who has been using a Fertility Awareness Based Method for long enough, knows that the simple practise of charting your menstrual cycle delivers boundless benefits when it comes to your health, your relationship and your lifestyle.
Fertility Awareness Based Methods allow women to accurately identify their fertile window by tracking primary fertility biomarkers such as cervical fluid, basal body temperature and urinary hormone levels. There are three main types of modern Fertility Awareness Based Methods, and they are:
- Symptothermal Methods
- Symptohormonal Methods, and
- Cervical Mucus-only Methods.
If all of this is news to you, you might want to read about how the Symptothermal Method works HERE.
Regardless of which Fertility Awareness Based Method you choose to use, the benefits are numerous and life changing – so much so that many women who discover Fertility Awareness go on to enthusiastically raise awareness about these benefits among their friends, family and community!
Below you’ll find a list of some of the major benefits to practising a Fertility Awareness Based Method.
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SAFE: FABM’s come with no side effects. You don’t need to worry about blood clots, depression, nutritional deficiencies, increased cancer risks, copper toxicity, osteoporosis, uterine perforation and more (the list goes on!)
AFFORDABLE: All you need is a basal body temp thermometer and (if you can afford it) at least three cycles of instruction from a qualified Fertility Awareness Educator. Some FABM’s rely solely on cervical fluid observations, meaning you wouldn’t even require a BBT thermometer.
HIGHLY EFFECTIVE: The Symptothermal Method (specifically the Sensiplan protocol) was the subject of a prospective longitudinal study that followed 900 women over 17,638 menstrual cycles to arrive at a 99.6% perfect-use efficacy and a 98.2% typical-use efficacy. These women were working closely with an instructor – which goes to show with the right support and high levels of motivation, a 99.6% efficacy is well within your reach.
HEALTHY: Using a Fertility Awareness Based Method means that you are able to visually pinpoint signs of hormonal imbalance on your charts. Hormonal health is complex, and it can be tough to get things functioning optimally sometimes. Charting can help to identify anovulation, delayed ovulation, short luteal phase, insufficient cervical fluid, PCOS, low progesterone, early miscarriage, irregular bleeding, vaginal infections, cervical anomalies, PMS or PMDD and more!
EMPOWERING: Developing body literacy through education is an incredible source of empowerment. When you understand the nuances of the menstrual cycle, and how your own patterns of hormonal fluctuation affect you both physically and mentally, you are able to start optimising your life! You can harness the power of your own cycle to maximise your output in terms of social life, career progression, nutritional requirements, self-care schedule, physical exercise, creativity, relationship and more – all based on the different physical and emotional states of your menstrual cycle.
EQUAL RESPONSIBILITY: You no longer have to suppress your entire HPO axis and sex hormones to be sexually on-call 24/7. Your partner takes equal responsibility in the outcome of any sexual activity. Communication improves as you need to openly discuss your pregnancy intentions and/or non-intentions. Your partner develops an increased understanding of your menstrual cycle and a respect for your natural fluctuations in fertility.
BARRIER BACKUP: When using a FABM you are able to objectively decide whether or not you require a form of emergency contraception should you experience a barrier failure (condom breakage/diaphragm slippage etc). How? By knowing whether or not you were in your fertile window when the accident occurred.
EASIER CONCEPTION: FABM’s are just as effective for women who are tying to conceive as it is for those who are trying to avoid pregnancy. Using the Symptothermal Method you are able to pinpoint your fertile window with 98.2% – 99.6% efficacy. This means you are giving yourself the best possible chances of conception and hopefully avoiding months of stress and confusion due to ill-timed intercourse. And when you do conceive, using a FABM means you can better avoid miscalculated conception and due dates!
So there we have it. As contraceptive benefits go, this is a pretty impressive list! Have you found any other benefits to practising a Fertility Awareness Based Method? If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Jess X
