What is Fertility Awareness Method (FAM)?
FAM is a reliable method of tracking fertility that can be used in preventing or attempting to achieve pregnancy, in addition to providing a deeper understanding of gynecological health. It is also so much more than that. Your body has an amazing monthly rhythm of hormones that translates into signals that you can pick-up on in order to understand your fertility status as well as the health and balance of your hormones. The main measures that are used are a daily morning temperature taken even before your feet hit the floor, as well as cervical fluid and cervical position.
Understanding your monthly cycle
The first half of your menstrual cycle is from the first day of your menses until ovulation, which is around day 14. This is called the follicular phase. During this time, estrogen is high and the morning temperature should be lower (generally below 98.0F). The second half of your cycle is higher in progesterone, which causes the morning temperature to be at least a few tenths of a degree higher that the first half. This second phase is called the luteal phase and spans from approximately day 15 until the day before your menses returns. If these daily morning temperatures are charted throughout the month, there should be a clear shift where the morning temperature rises, which indicates ovulation. Commonly, the whole cycle will be around 28 days and the luteal phase should last at least 14 days. If your cycle is much longer or shorter than 28 days or luteal phases that are less than 11 days it could mean that there is some degree of hormone imbalance. Tracking this information shows you exactly what is going on with YOUR body each month and that is priceless!
Something you were not taught in sex-ed class: you can really only get pregnant about 6 days each month, which means there isn’t really any need for birth control for the rest of the month. FAM helps you understand which of those days are your fertile days so you can either avoid having sex or use some form of non-hormonal birth control during that time.
