Tips for Getting Started in Fertility Awareness with Brooke Noble
Want to track your cycles? Start here.
Learning fertility awareness is a great way to understand your body and your health on a deeper level. While I believe all women can benefit from understanding their fertility, it is important to ensure that it’s a good fit for their health goals, desires, and lifestyle. If you’ve been interested in fertility awareness, here are a few things to consider before getting started:
1. Consider your “why.” Fertility awareness is ideal for women who are interested in learning more about their bodies, who may be struggling with period or hormone symptoms, who are looking to optimize their fertility, or who want to use a hormone-free birth control method. While this is a great option for many, it is also an investment of time and involves a learning curve. It also involves the consistent tracking of several markers and is a “user dependent” system, meaning that the efficiency of fertility awareness is usually determined by your ability to understand and incorporate the rules of your chosen method. Before getting started in fertility awareness, make sure that you are clear on your reasons for wanting to learn the method and willing to navigate the incorporation of new habits into your lifestyle.
2. Find the method that works best for you. Did you know that there are several different types of fertility awareness methods available to choose from? This is helpful because no two women are alike, and one method may resonate more with you than another. While there’s not one universal fertility awareness tracking method, most of them use one or a combination of the three main fertile signs: cervical mucus, body temperature, and cervical position. Some methods incorporate tracking hormones in the urine via dipsticks or other tracking devices. My favorite place to learn about these methods is the Facts About Fertility website. Check out this webpage to learn more.
3. Get support. I may be biased, but I do believe that the support of a fertility awareness educator or coach can be invaluable during the learning process. No two women’s cycles are identical and often questions can come up about specific charting scenarios. It’s helpful to have the support of an instructor to assist you through this process as you set up the foundation for charting moving forward. A good coach will equip you with tools to successfully chart long-term. In addition, however you choose to get started, having the support of other like-minded people who are also using fertility awareness can be a great help. Happy charting! :)
Brooke is a FAMM Practitioner in-training and she teaches the sympto-thermal method of fertility awareness in her work with clients. You can find her at coachingfrombrooke.com.
Disclaimer: All content from Coaching From Brooke LLC including text, images, audio, video, course material, or other formats was created for informational and educational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should not be treated as such.