Ep. 158: The 3 biggest mistakes when using fertility awareness methods

I’ve been in the fertility awareness field for 8 years as a Certified FertilityCare Practitioner and I know exactly what makes a fertility awareness client successful — and what causes them the most problems. I’ve thought back over my years of teaching and narrowed it down to the 3 biggest mistakes you could make when using a fertility awareness method. If you’re new to fertility awareness or an old pro looking to be more successful with it, this episode is for you! 

NOTE: This episode is appropriate for all audiences. 

Episode Links: 

• Client Story: Ep. 141 - Healing after Birth Control 
• How to use fertility monitors with fertility awareness: Ep. 114 - Listen Now

Transcript

Caitlin (00:24)
Welcome back to the Woven Well podcast. If you're new here, I'm a certified fertility care practitioner who works in the realm of fertility awareness methods and natural restorative women's healthcare. So I've been in this field for eight years, a little bit more, and I'm pretty sure that at this point I've seen about everything. That experience has given me some insight into what makes a fertility awareness client be extremely successful and what causes them to have the most problems.

If you're going to go through the steps of learning a standardized system of fertility awareness, it's because you want it to be successful. You don't just do it for laughs. You do it for the valuable information that it provides to you, the practical application as you're planning a family, and course, the ability to feel informed and empowered as it relates to your cycle. To help you be as successful as possible, it's important to avoid the biggest mistakes.

I've thought back over my years of teaching and narrowed it down to the three biggest mistakes you could make when using a fertility awareness method. Not necessarily the most common, but most definitely the biggest. So here we go. Mistake number one, you do it most of the time. So the key to fertility awareness is consistency. If you use it some days, but not others, or you do it most of the time, but not all the time,

You're not going to get what you want out of it.

Listen, I get that this is the hardest part of using a fertility awareness method in the first place. We hear all these rumors about it being ineffective. We read things about the calendar method and how many couples conceive while using it, the rhythm method, all those that you hear about that are so long ago, okay? But the modern evidence-based fertility awareness methods we're using now are not the methods of old.

Current methods are up to 99.5 % effective at avoiding pregnancy. That's crazy good. There is not a 100 % method for avoiding pregnancy, but you have to commit to it. So if you want that 99.5 % effectiveness, you've got to commit. This is where it pays off big time to have a knowledgeable guide to sup-

you as you learn. should not be on your own trying to figure it out. Fertility awareness methods involve tracking your own reproductive biomarkers in order to understand where you are in a cycle and whether you're fertile or infertile so that you can make informed decisions. And this requires paying attention to those biomarkers every day. And most of us don't grow up doing that. So it's an adjustment. It's something totally new that you're starting.

And there are entire sections of Barnes & Noble dedicated to starting new habits. It's not necessarily an easy thing to do, but obviously there's so much interest in it that it's worthwhile. So getting the support you need in the beginning will set you up for long-term success. I, as a certified fertility care practitioner, want you to be successful.

So I'm going to do everything within my power to make sure that you feel confident and you're going to be able to use this for the rest of your reproductive life. Why just get a book and try to learn it and feel stressed out when you could have that kind of support. Now, once you make it a habit, you're golden. Okay. Once you're using it and you are used to doing it, it becomes just a normal part of your life that you barely have to think about. The key is that you are actually thinking about it every day.

It's just not something that you're stressing over anymore. You're calmly and confidently implementing it into your decision-making. And that's the goal. We want you to feel at peace. And don't just take it from me. Check out some of our previous podcast episodes from Woven clients who were surprised by how easy it was once they got started. I love that. I love hearing that. That's always the goal.

So just look for client stories in the podcast title. Now, the thing about fertility awareness methods is that they can be used however you choose. So if you wanted to be someone aware of where you were in the cycle and have a general idea of whether you may be fertile, then you could absolutely choose to approach it with that more casual perspective. But don't expect it to be nearly as effective, especially for avoiding pregnancy.

It's just too easy for more days to pass than you realize or for massive hormonal shifts to occur without catching them when you approach it in this way. Okay, so the first biggest mistake in fertility awareness method use is only doing it most of the time. Number two, this one may actually surprise you. The second biggest mistake in using fertility awareness methods is relying too heavily on technology.

Now, we are in THE age of technological advancement. We can't even keep up with all the new tech being thrown at us. At least, I can't. And some of it is specifically geared toward fertility. There are FDA-approved fertility tracking apps you can download, AI-powered fertility predictors, and at-home hormone monitors that tell you the exact level of FSH, LH, estradiol, progesterone,

They can tell you what's in your urine right this second. There is so much available to us that never has been before. And it's very exciting. But it will never be as simple and as effective as understanding your own particular reproductive biomarkers. There is a time and place for something like at-home hormone trackers. They are not evil. I am not against them. I actually think they can be very helpful, especially when you're unable to go get blood work.

but your physician needs a more quantitative look at your hormone levels. There's actually a podcast episode about that if you want to hear what my take is on hormone monitors like Inito or Mira. But these are not the best choice for actual family planning. why not? I mean, they seem like they would be amazing for family planning, but this is what I've seen in clients that I've worked with in the last few years.

Those who come in already using a monitor like Inito or Mira have a harder time trusting their own observations and what they may reveal. They treat the monitor as this like gold standard and the method as more of a second rate alternative. Yet it's often their own reproductive biomarkers that show the start of that window of fertility, not the monitor, which picks it up hours or a day later.

Instead, think it's really important to learn to trust your signs. It's your body, it's your ability to be in tune with it, and that matters so much. Gain an appreciation for what your body can and does do, and then build that instinct as to your hormonal health and your fertility. Nothing can replace that relationship with your own design. And you can keep it with you for as long as you have periods. It's free to use. You don't have to

take it anywhere. You don't need any tech whatsoever. Nothing can take the place of that. Trust it. Hone it. It's worth it. The other problem I see is using a hormone monitor that provides all these quantitative results, but then you have no idea how to actually interpret them. So the fanciest tech with more data points than you could ever dream still has to be interpreted.

And yes, AI will do more and more of that if we allow it, but even AI anticipates regular or standard cycles. And guess what? Most women looking for answers in hormone monitors are doing so because they don't have regular cycles and they don't know why. So tech has a place. It's a great thing. We have more available to us now than ever before.

but don't rely on it so much that you never really learn or trust your own body signals. It's a big mistake. Real quick, before we get to the third mistake, if you appreciate this podcast and the content we produce here, will you take just a moment to give us a five-star review on whatever platform you're listening

with?

It's hard to express just how much this impacts our show's ability to make it into the algorithm and be suggested to listeners like yourself who are looking for natural fertility solutions that honor their faith. It would mean the world to us. Thanks for thinking about doing it. All right, finally, the third biggest mistake you can make when using a fertility awareness method. You never pair it with a restorative, reproductive medical professional trained in utilizing it.

There are specialized fields that know how to use a woman's own reproductive biomarkers to diagnose and treat underlying conditions. The last 15-30 years have seen a huge increase in the amount of research being done on restorative ways to treat reproductive health issues. Approaches like NaPro technology, fertility education and medical management, and neo-fertility study are reproductive biomarkers

and how to know which diagnoses to investigate and how to treat them holistically and effectively. They've been able to develop really solid protocols for treatment while still honoring the individual person and their needs.

This is restorative care—restoring the body to its most optimal functioning if at all possible, instead of bypassing or suppressing the body's function altogether. Fertility awareness methods, especially one like the Creighton Model system, are a wealth of data about your hormonal and reproductive health. Every single observation gives us another piece of the puzzle into the big picture. Every single day gives us insight. I'm really not exaggerating here.

Both the big picture and the individual details are valuable and can be used by trained medical professionals. So to do all of that work and have all that

not get that individualized treatment, well, I think that's a big mistake. I can't speak for all the methods, but I do know that the Creighton Model system is perfect for this.

In fact, I was just talking with a nurse practitioner the other day about how to help her patients. And I mentioned that if there is a complex reproductive case, there is no better alternative than Creighton as a fertility awareness method. And I really do believe that. You don't need regular cycles or perfectly balanced hormones or easy cycles to use Creighton. You can have any type of cycle. You may not even be cycling. Creighton is the way to go.

With NAPRO and Creighton charting, you can identify the cause of irregular cycles, things like PCOS, thyroid issues, even if it's simply suboptimal. Low progesterone, chronic endometritis, endometriosis suspicions, insulin resistance, early pregnancy loss. There are so many things that we can see when these two partner together.

Of course, this is critical for those using it for family planning, and especially those who hope to conceive a pregnancy. The best time to identify reproductive health issues is before they cause problems. In an ideal world, we'd love to identify and treat some of those issues that cause early pregnancy loss so that you're less likely to experience that pain. But we've got to get in on the front side of this to really

Identify, diagnose, and treat those issues before it becomes a point of pain in our lives. It's also helpful when you're trying to conceive and it's just not happening. With a traditional OB-GYN, they'll tell you to try for a year before they'll offer you a few rounds of Clomid or Letrozole and then send you directly to an IVF clinic. Don't believe me? Ask any woman who has struggled with this in the last five years. What was her journey?

What options was she given? This is just the norm in women's healthcare right now, but that is changing and we are a part of it. I'm so glad to be. Your choice to use a fertility awareness method shows that you're engaged and invested in your reproductive health. You value how your body works and you wanna work with it, not against it.

You want to feel the best you possibly can. You want your cycles to be healthy and as prepared for pregnancy as possible whenever that time may come. To miss out on utilizing that method to get those results feels like a big mistake. As a certified fertility care practitioner, I am just as invested in your use of Creighton, a fertility awareness method, as you are. I want you to be successful. And that's the minimum, okay?

I want you to get amazing healthcare, heal and restore your body and leave transformed by this process. I want you to feel empowered, confident and peaceful. And that's what we're here for.

to simply learn more by attending an introductory session.

Check out the show notes for the link to register and learn more about what I think is the best model of fertility awareness, the Creighton model system. As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.