Tiny Feet - Natural Fertility Wellness

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MYF 55 | How to Track Your Menstrual Cycle for Fertility with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack

Kristin Cornett

Welcome to Episode 55!

In episode 55, we interview Fertility Awareness Educator, host of the Fertility Friday Podcast, and author of The Fifth Vital sign, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack, about how to track your menstrual cycle for fertility. We know a lot of you out there might have some hangups and misconceptions about fertility awareness, so Lisa is going to share some her vast knowledge about charting and hopefully help you all feel a little more comfortable with getting in touch with your body in this way. In this episode, you're going to learn:

  • Why it’s worth giving fertility awareness a try and what you can learn about your body through cycle tracking

  • Why having a regular menstrual cycle WITH monthly ovulation is an important indicator of health and wellness

  • How hormonal birth control actually works and why it can be problematic for cycle health and fertility

  • Misconceptions about fertility awareness and why it’s really not the time-consuming, painful process you might think it is

  • The logistics of tracking your cervical mucus and basal body temperature and what these parameters can tell you about your fertility

  • How you can use Lisa’s book, The Fifth Vital Sign, and her companion charting workbook to get started with tracking with your cycle

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Show Notes:

5:15        Lisa’s background and how she got started helping women learn and implement fertility awareness

9:00        How you can benefit from tracking your cycle and why it’s totally worth giving it a try

11:25     Why it’s important for women to ovulate and experience their own natural hormones

14:45     Birth control does NOT “regulate your menstrual cycle” and you don’t actually get a real period on BC

17:20     How hormonal birth control works in the body – it’s basically chemically induced menopause

19:15     Long-term consequences of being on birth control that can persist long after you stop taking it

Testosterone levels

21:20     Changes in ovarian size and volume and how long it can take to recover

23:50     Studies on long-term impact on menstrual cycle parameters and time to pregnancy in women coming off birth control

28:15     How far in advance we should be planning to come off birth control before trying to conceive

30:20     Lisa’s thoughts on IUDs (progestin-only and copper) and how these devices work

36:15     Common misconceptions and objections that come up about fertility awareness

40:45     Proper procedure for tracking your basal body temperature and getting accurate results

44:30     What information you get from measuring basal body temperature throughout your cycle

48:30     Using temperature to understand the length of your luteal phase

51:20     How your pre-ovulatory temperatures can give you important insight into your health

52:10     The “rules” to use for confirming ovulation based on basal body temperature and cervical mucus

55:20     Kristin’s personal thoughts on paper charting (as someone who was initially resistant to charting)

56:15     Lisa’s new charting workbook – how she designed it and how to use it

63:45     Why we need to protect our right to get pregnant when we want to as much as our right to not get pregnant when we don’t want to

69:50     Wrap-up