Moontide Body Literacy:
Empowering Reproductive and Sexual Health Tools for Everyone.
What is the Fertility Awareness Method?
Knowledge at your fingertips.
The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) is a sympto-thermal approach to tracking hormones throughout a cycle, which can let each individual know when they are fertile and when they are not. Remember high school health teachers that scared us into thinking that pregnancy was possible everyday? Not so. Turns out that by having a daily practice of charting cervical fluid, basal body temperature, and cervix changes, it's very possible to know when conception is possible, and when it's not! That means you can make empowered choices about your sexual and reproductive health.
Wait, is this the Rhythm Method?
No, it's sure not. The rhythm method is based on a calculation, using your former cycles to predict the future. The sympto-thermal method is about daily observations in your body right now, not a prediction.
The Rhythm Method and other prediction-based methods are included in the statistics for the overall effectiveness of fertility awareness based methods, which is why you might see FAM as only "74% effective" while at your doctor's office. Sympto-thermal observation based methods can be as effective as hormonal birth control, if practiced correctly. Sympto-Thermal FAM has been shown to be as effective as hormonal contraceptive, when practiced correctly.
What about Cycle Tracking Apps?
While Apps can be helpful for storing information, most apps that promote themselves as cycle trackers are basically high-tech versions of the rhythm method. They use your past data to predict for you when you'll be fertile, and sometimes they use others' data as part of their algorithm. You can still use an app to chart effectively if you choose to interpret the data for yourself. Read Your Body is the only app that I reccommend, as it does not make any calculations or predictions for you, and it has a template that works with the specific method of FAM that I teach. Good ol' pen and paper work, too.
Is FAM Religious?
Some fertility awareness based methods are religious, like the Creighton Model.
The sympto-thermal method I teach is not affiliated with any religion.
The method I teach is open to people of any and all belief systems, genders, and sexualities.
WHY PRACTICE FAM?
contraception
Effective contraception without the potential side effects of hormonal birth control
Conception Support
Trying to conceive and want support around optimal timing and hormonal wellness
Hormone Balancing
Support for underlying hormonal imbalances, or mysterious health issues like PCOS, irregular periods, painful periods, and thyroid deficiency
Body Literacy
The empowerment of being able to read your body's signs and signals; knowing your cycle; and making informed choices
READY TO LEARN?
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