Recently I’ve begun charting my cycle, and it has to be one of the most empowering things I’ve done. It gives me insight on what my body is up to, so I know when I’m ovulating, once I’ve ovulated, and when I’m in my luteal phase. Charting is the foundation for natural birth control, but charting can be beneficial whether you are sexually active or not. It can provide insight with fertility issues, hormone imbalance, or as I mentioned earlier, to simply feel more connected to your body. If you do plan to chart for the purpose of natural birth control, there’s slightly more vigilance needed in terms of interpreting your chart, but many women swear by the method, and when done correctly it is believed to be 99.3% effective. I’ve done lots and lots of research on this topic, so I thought it would be great to compile a guide on how I use the method.
Firstly, I’d like to say that when I talked to my doctor about wanting to try FAM (fertility awareness method - the fertility world is filled with acronyms, so I will do my best to explain them as they’re mentioned) she told me right away that it wasn’t reliable, that temperatures can be effected by anything, and that you can ovulate at anytime of the month. There is truth to what she was saying, but this is why it is recommended that you chart for at least three cycles before relying on this method for birth control, so you can see if this is the right method for you. If you are TTA (trying to avoid pregnancy), then you will use a barrier method on fertile days (ie. condoms) and if you feel more comfortable, using FAM alongside withdrawal is quite common. In fact if you are very TTA, I would recommend still practicing withdrawal even on infertile days just to lean on the side of caution. I would also recommend Tory Weltcher’s book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, which is the go to guide for women when it comes to FAM.
OK SO LET’S BREAK IT DOWN
Basically a cycle is made up of fertile and infertile days and FAM is what allows you to determine what day is what. It is not the rhythm method, how long your cycle was last month will have no effect on the current cycle. Instead FAM deals with day to day observations so you know what your body is up to. FAM is based on three signs your body gives you: your basal body temperature (BBT), cervical mucus (CM) and cervical position (CP). The cervical position is not necessary if you use the first two, personally I don’t check my cervical position so I won’t be able to speak on that, but it is notable that it is another fertility sign.
TRACKING YOUR BASAL BODY TEMPERATURE:
- you will need a basal body thermometer, not just a regular thermometer. I made this mistake in the beginning and just bought a regular thermometer, but a basil body thermometer provides a temperature reading to the 100th of a degree (i.e. 36.14) and the more accurate, the better (I bought one a Shoppers Drugmart in the family planning isle for around $20)
- take your temperature first thing when you wake up, before even getting out of bed, at the same time each morning - this is important to ensure consistency and accuracy
- you will need at least four hours sleep or else your temperature might not be accurate, but still take note of it anyways, signifying you had less than five hours sleep (taking note of any sleep disturbances is a good idea)
- when you experience a temperate shift that is at least 2/10ths of a degree higher than your last highest temperature, and this shift lasts for at least three consecutive days, it is an indication that ovulation has occurred (this is due to the surge in the hormone progesterone, which causes a slight rise in your temperature)
- things that can alter your temperature include illness (i.e. a fever, if you have a fever I would recommend treating those days as fertile and be very careful when confirming ovulation, wait until you see continued raised temperatures at least three days separate from the days you had a fever), drinking (alcohol can cause a raise in temperature) and lack of sleep (as mentioned earlier)
TRACKING YOUR CERVICAL MUCUS:
- your cervical mucus will show it’s own pattern and is a very important fertility sign
- checking can be as easy as observing your toilet paper when you use the washroom, sometimes throughout the day you can even feel a gushing or wet sensation
- types of cervical mucus include
DRY: the absence of cervical mucus
STICKY/TACKY: crumbly opaque looking
CREAMY: a lotion like texture and look
EGG WHITE: looks just like it’s name, transparent and stretchy (most fertile CM)
WET: almost like a watery sensation (most fertile CM)
- a cycle most likely has a couple of dry days following menstruation, then sticky, creamy, egg white, watery (egg white and watery are the fertile signs to suggest you are ovulating or are about to ovulate), and then about a week and a half of dry days leading up to your period
- it is important to note that all cervical mucus is considered to be fertile plus three days after, so if your last day of cervical mucus is on cycle day 18 (CD 18), it is not until CD 21 that you are considered infertile, granted you experienced a temperature shift as well
- however, some women, including myself, rarely experience dry days. Instead I will always see a little bit of sticky cervical mucus even on infertile days. I found the answer to this when I was researching another method called The Billings Method, which solely observes cervical mucus without taking temperatures to determine fertility status. Basically, following your period, a plug of mucus begins to form in the cervix which gradually beings to fall apart (i.e. from creamy, to egg white, etc.) due to the changes in hormones. Sometimes parts of the plug disintegrates, which result in sticky, tacky like mucus and these days which would be dry for some women, can still be considered infertile if you fall in this category. BUT this is why charting many cycles first is important so that you can understand your own body’s pattern.
SO HOW DO WE PUT THIS IN PRACTICE?
This method is based on the idea that sperm can live in the body for up to 5 days, and that an egg can live for 12-24 hours, therefore describing six days out of the month as fertile. Listed are the four rules to make this method effective:
FIRST 3 DAY RULE: if your period is 25 days or longer, the first three days of your cycle can be considered infertile
DRY DAY RULE: when you are dry you are considered infertile, but once CM is present you are considered fertile
TEMP SHIFT RULE: once you experience temperate rise and have three consecutive temperature readings in that range, you are considered infertile
PEAK DAY RULE: once you experience your peak day (peak day is the last day of egg white or watery CM), on the fourth evening you are considered infertile as long as the temperature shift is present
However, how exactly does one know when their fertility window begins exactly? In hind sight, I can determine once I have ovulated, but since I experience sticky CM throughout, it’s much more difficult for me to distinguish. So that being said, six days maybe the length of time a women can conceive, but it is not enough time for me to feel like I have accurately labeled my fertility window. To further explain, by CD 11, I start to see creamy CM and I can confirm ovulation by CD 23, therefore that is a window of 12 days that I could be fertile. This is a photo from the Kindara website (an amazing app that I use to track my cycle) compared to a previous cycle of mine.
Kindara example:
My personal chart:
(The purple line is called a cover line, a line which separates your preovulatory temps from postovulatory temps. The first temperature read that is above the cover line is considered the first day of your temperature shift.)
The Kindara example is an absolute ideal cycle, however mine doesn’t look like that. I know my window of protected sex would be much longer, but this is why I stress that it is very important to track your cycle before you start using this method as birth control, so that you are aware of your own body’s cycle. During that cycle, I would have abstained or used a barrier method from CD 8 - CD 23.
I’ve learned so much about my body since I’ve started charting. Even with my very first cycle, I felt such excitement as my temperature began to shift and I thought to myself, wow! my temperature totally did rise! Another great tool this provides is I can almost predict my period to the day. Because the luteal phase lasts between 10 and 16 days (for me it’s around 14), once I know I’ve ovulated I can count 14 days and predict when my period will come.
I hope that this guide is helpful to you and your journey, and as I said earlier, if not for birth control, this is an amazing tool to simply shed insight on your body’s activities. Our cycles are beautiful reflections of nature, and I encourage all women to take a peek at that reflection.
Happy charting!
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