Does natural birth control exist? A look at the Fertility Awareness method
In today's episode, we're going to talk about is there a natural way to prevent pregnancy.
But before we dive into that I wanted to cover some basics on female anatomy that I definitely wasn't taught in anatomy class or Sex Ed. Then we'll go over some common myths and misconceptions. Alright, let's start with a quick review of our hormone cycles. So the main hormones that I want to talk about are estrogen and progesterone. During menstruation at the beginning of our cycle is when our hormone levels are at their lowest. As we slowly move towards ovulation, our estrogen starts to rise. Our peak in estrogen is when we ovulate. After this peak, it starts to decline rapidly. After ovulation, progesterone starts to rise. When it hits its peak that's what triggers menstruation. Now when it comes to ovulation, the egg is released and is only viable for 24 to 48 hours. Usually, it's 24 but on the off chance that two eggs are released like in the case of identical twins or fraternal twins, it gets bumped up to 48 hours. That is the fertile window. That is only two days out of our cycle, something to keep in mind though is that sperm can live up to five days in cervical fluid. The cervical fluid is what helps keep the sperm alive and helps them reach the egg around the time of our ovulation. For those of you that don't know, cervical fluid is highly lotiony or watery consistency that happens around ovulation. It can also be described as egg whitey. This thicker fluid comes out of your cervix. So that means that your fertile window is only about a week long and if you don't conceive, the egg will be reabsorbed in the following days. A mucus plug will then form at the base of your cervix. This mucus plug prevents any sperm from passing the cervix. Not only that, but the cervical fluid will dry up, making your body more inhospitable to sperm. The change in the cervical fluid also changes your pH, which also contributes to the infertile phase of your cycle. This plug will then dissolve in the following cycle when estrogen starts to rise back up and your fertile window starts again.
Alright, so now that we've covered some of the basics, let's talk about the Fertility Awareness Method and what it is. The Fertility Awareness Method is a way for you to track what days you are fertile and what days you are infertile. The way to see if you're fertile or not on that day is through the three main fertile signs. The first one being your basal body temperature. This is your body temperature when you first wake up. Your resting metabolic rate. The second sign is cervical fluid. Like we talked about before, when it is a lotiony consistency around ovulation, it is prime cervical fluid to be able to achieve pregnancy. But more dry or sticky cervical fluid, like when it dries up and the pH balance becomes more acidic, would prevent pregnancy because it is inhospitable for sperm and they die off within a couple of hours. The last one is your cervix position. Your cervix does indeed change throughout your cycle. It shifts up and down. It also opens up a little during ovulation. To see if it is open you can feel it if you put your finger inside. After the egg is reabsorbed it close back up and that's around the time that the mucus plug forms. Now going back to the basal body temperature, the way that a Fertility Awareness chart would look is that you'll see when you're on your period that your temperatures are low. They will then slowly start to increase and then there is a shift. Sometimes it's a couple of degrees difference, sometimes it's more of a gradual shift. But as the progesterone starts to take over it is what signals to your body that you've already ovulated. This then signals to your uterine lining to shed at the end of your luteal phase. So an example or a practical way of looking at this is say you know you have already ovulated because either you saw the shift while you were tracking your basal body temperatures. Or you also felt it since sometimes mid cycle there can be either cramps or even a little bit of spotting as the egg is being released. You also will notice that your cervical fluid that was more consistent during ovulation has started to dry up. If you really wanted to make sure you can check your cervix and see that it is closed again. Now the cervix positioning isn't necessary to be able to use the fertility awareness method. It's kind of like bonus data basically because all of this is just that, data. With it you can see that ok, you're in your infertile phase now. Since usually ovulation occurs within the same days for each individual. Luteal phases follow a similar pattern as well. So you are able to recognize these patterns in your own cycle.
This cycle went a little longer since I ovulated on day 21. (The temp shift occurs after you ovulate)
Alright, so knowing this we'll go over some common misconceptions. The first one I want to talk about is that you can get pregnant while on your period. Now, this depends on your own cycle. You can start to get cervical fluid a few days after you start your period, but you wouldn't know that because you're still bleeding and can't see it. And if you tend to ovulate early then it could l
ead to conception because remember that sperm can live up to five days. But each individual ovulates around the same time in your cycle. So if after charting for a few cycles you see that you always ovulate later on, say around day 18 then you know you are in the safe zone around that time.
Another common misconception is that you can get pregnant at any time. This was one that was drilled into me back in Sex Ed in middle school. That you can get pregnant at any time and that's not the case like we talked about earlier. It is physically and biologically impossible to get pregnant at any time in your cycle. Your fertile window accounts for roughly 25% of your cycle, factoring in the two days the egg is viable, five days the sperm is alive for, and also adding in some buffer days to be on the safe side. That adds up to 10 days out of your cycle that you are fertile.
Let's talk about how effective the Fertility Awareness Method is. Something to know is that it does sometimes get confused with the Rhythm method. You've seen the Rhythm method if you've ever used a period tracking app or look at a charting app. It will guess when you should be ovulating. And if you notice the date it's set is around day 14. That's because there is an assumption that all women ovulate on day 14 which is definitely not the case. For instance, I personally usually ovulate around day 18-19. But if I am feeling more stressed or more anxious than usual, that rising cortisol will push back ovulation. Which will throw off the rest of the cycle as well. That's because your luteal phase is a set date after ovulation. Ranging usually from 12-18. So to say that all women ovulate on day 14 is wrong. What's good about the Fertility Awareness Method is that it doesn't try to predict when you'll be ovulating. Instead, you keep track of your fertile signs on a day to day basis to see if you are fertile or not on that day.
Now when it comes to the efficacy of the Fertility Awareness Method is depending on what you do in your fertile window. For instance, if you abstain completely in your fertile window then the efficacy of the method would be almost 100% because there is no chance of getting pregnant if you don't have sex in your fertile window. Now if say you use a barrier method like condoms, the efficacy would be depending on what method you use. So the efficacy of the condoms because that is what you're using as a barrier method to prevent pregnancy in your fertile window. And if you want to be extra careful, you can use something like a spermicide with a condom or diaphragm with a condom or use two condoms at the same time. But if you know that pregnancy is not for you, then you can just abstain during your fertile window to prevent pregnancy. I think that's probably what I love the most about the Fertility Awareness Method is that you're fully in control and you fully understand what goes on with your body.
I've been using the Fertility Awareness Method now for, I want to say like 6 or 7 months now and it's completely changed how I view my cycles and my period. I was aware of how my cycles work before but not this in depth as I do now. For instance, I no longer get pregnancy scares because I can see when I ovulated and if it was delayed because it tends to be delayed when I get overworked or overstressed and that will push back my cycle. Or for instance, I recently got the first shot for the vaccine preovulation and I wrote it down in my chart. I knew that it could mess with my cycle because there are some studies currently going on that it does indeed affect your cycles by either delaying your period or having it be heavier than usual. These changes make sense because your immune system is being activated and that is giving your body a stress response which could delay ovulation. Which was what happened to me. I think I was delayed for about five days so I knew then my period would be four to five days later based on that which it was.
My chart after I got my vaccine
Now a good resource if you do want more information on the Fertility Awareness Method is a book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. It's a very big book and it goes over everything you can think of when it comes to cycles and the Fertility Awareness Method. It not only useful for natural birth control, or if you want to get pregnant, but it also helps you see how your hormone levels are. For instance, going back to the example of the previous cycle when I had the vaccine. I also notice that the temperature shift that we were referring to earlier the spike in temperature on the second half of the cycle, after ovulation didn't happen. Or it went up a little bit to show that ovulated or I try to ovulate. I don't think actually ovulated in that cycle because the progesterone levels were too low. And that's something else that you can look at is if you are actually ovulating or not. Because if you're not ovulating that means you might not have enough progesterone in your system. And progesterone is necessary, as well as ovulation itself for your bone health, heart health, and prevention of breast cancer. So you definitely want to make sure your body has enough progesterone. But yeah, in this cycle I didn't have enough progesterone to actually ovulate, so it was an anovulatory cycle and you can tell because there was the spike in temperatures, and then it just kind of dropped right back down. So that's how I knew I needed to do something about it and I ended up buying some vitex because it's good for progesterone production. That's a good way to be able to track your cycle and see exactly if any hormone imbalances are going on in that cycle. Or if you're going through all the changes that your cycle should be going through. Another really good resource that I binge on her episodes a lot, is the Fertility Friday Podcast. It is a podcast fully dedicated to the Fertility Awareness Method.
As I mentioned earlier, I've been charting for about six to seven months now and I do eventually want to become a fertility awareness educator, but to be able to use Fertility Awareness for birth control, I do recommend charting for a few cycles just so you get the hang of it. Not only that, but you can also start to see in your own personal cycle when your own fertile window is. Because every cycle and every individual person is different. And if you're not fully comfortable with it, then you can always work with a Fertility Awareness Educator. It's good to have someone else look at your charts as well just to make sure that you understand the methods correctly because there are a few rules when it comes to using the Fertility Awareness method as birth control. Like I mentioned before, having a couple of buffer days in there, remembering what type of cervical fluid means; What does it mean if it's sticky, watery, dry? Which is why I do recommend Taking Charge of Your Fertility as a reference book because it does show different examples of different charts and what they mean.
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