What is the Fertility Awareness Method?
The Fertility Awareness Method (or FAM) is a sympto-thermal method of charting your cycles that allows you to identify accurately the days of your cycle that are fertile. This is achieved by charting 3 primary fertility signs, and a number of secondary signs as well. The 3 primary signs are: basal body temperature (temperature taken upon waking up every morning), cervical fluid (aka cervical mucus) and the cervix (it’s position, texture and opening).
You can use this knowledge either to avoid pregnancy (proven to be 99.6% effective as contraception) or use it to help you get pregnant. This method can be used safely while breastfeeding and can help you predict when your fertility will return after childbirth.
The biggest gift of FAM is that it is a window into your hormonal health – it allows you to have complete awareness of your fertility, and learn to glean an amazing amount of information from your charts. You can read more about what is involved in charting your cycles by reading this article I wrote. It contains everything you need to get started with charting today, including a FREE fertility chart for you to print.
FAM is completely natural, therefore there are no dangerous or unpleasant side effects. It is unobtrusive and does not interfere with love-making. Most couples find that practicing FAM enhances their relationship by fostering communication and intimacy.
It is important to note that FAM is not the same thing as the calendar or rhythm method – the two are often confused. The rhythm method (sometimes called the Standard Days Method) is based on the idea that by knowing what your previous cycles have been like, you can predict when you will be fertile in future cycles. This is a very ineffective form of charting, especially for contraception, as even the most regular women sometimes have an cycle that is different and ovulate sooner or later than they might expect. There are many things in our environment that can easily affect our cycles, such as stress, travel, health, environmental toxins, and the list goes on. FAM is different because it uses daily “readings” of your fertility to help you figure out whether or not you are fertile – there is ZERO guesswork involved
Who should learn the method?
FAM is absolutely unique in that it can be used throughout your life, from your first period to menopause. The method is beneficial for women of all ages and backgrounds, including teenagers, single women, pre-menopausal women, women dealing with infertility issues and women who are breastfeeding.
What will I gain from learning & practicing FAM?
The more I have learned about natural healing, nutrition, and herbal medicine, the more concerned I have become over the safety of many medical procedures & pharmaceuticals that are used routinely despite some serious and long-term side effects. This concerns me especially in the areas of endocrinology, fertility and pregnancy, where there are in fact so many natural, effective alternatives available to us.
The current medical system too often dis-empowers women, and real information regarding women’s health and gynecology can be difficult to come by. We are told that doctors know best, and we should put our care in their hands without ever asking questions. Pain and health concerns are too often dismissed and hidden with prescriptions or even surgery, instead of being acknowledged as the messengers that they really are.
FAM is an important tool in helping us regain confidence in ourselves, to trust our intuition and know our bodies inside & out. It can help us open the door to an ocean of knowledge that has, too often, been kept from us as we were growing up; intimate knowledge and acceptance of our sexuality, our gynecological & overall health, our emotional health, and our unique feminine spirit. Simply put, our womanhood! All these aspects of a woman’s life are closely connected, and through my work I aim to help you not only heal those bonds, but make them stronger than ever.
Most women are amazed at what they learn during my course and cannot believe that they were not taught this essential and empowering information earlier. Knowing our bodies, truly knowing ourselves inside and out is essential, and FAM is a door to our self-reliance.