Fertility Awareness: Why is it Important?

Fertility Awareness may seem like a new topic to many. I honestly didn’t come across it until I was struggling with conceiving a child. It can be confusing when you are first starting out or trying to research. Many people lump different tracking ways into what is called the Fertility Awareness Method. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infertility has become a global public health issue. Even with all the advances in reproductive technology with treatments such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF), there are still needs not being met to couples experiencing infertility. “Infertility is a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse.”… (WHO-ICMART glossary¹).

Normal, healthy cycles are considered to be between 24 and 36 days. The important part of a cycle is ovulation. General issues surrounding a normal menstrual cycle include short luteal cycles, anovulation, and overall short cycles. “Fertility awareness is the capacity of the woman to identify the occurrence or absence of ovulation’ (Vigil²). This is why it is so important to know your body and understand what is going on each month. It may seem cumbersome to track each and every month if you are not trying to get pregnant. However, by knowing your fertile and infertile days, you are able to pinpoint any issues when you are trying to conceive.

When tracking your fertile and infertile days, you are also able to know when you should be actively trying to achieve a pregnancy if that is your goal. If not, you know which days to be avoiding. Many people believe its about 14 days from the start of your next period. While this may be true for many, everyone varies and it is important to know your body!

Tracking for your fertility can teach you:

• When you are fertile
• Low progesterone: which can be seen on your chart with temping or through symptoms you are feeling after ovulation
• Determine an infection or underlying hormone issue such as PCOS
• Ovulation or anovulation (lack of ovulation)
• If you have limited fertility due to lack of cervical mucus, which can indicate a hormone imbalance
• If you do get pregnant, it can possibly help with any indicators of a possible miscarriage
• Accurate dates for pregnancy

If you are actively not trying to get pregnant, all of the benefits listed above can still benefit you. If you notice an issue with your chart or anything seems off, you are able to address it sooner rather than later. You are empowering yourself by knowing your body and what is your normal. When it is time for you to start trying to conceive, you will have this knowledge already. You will be ahead of the game and able to potentially head off any long-term issues associated with your fertility. 

If you wish to learn more about charting and charting for your fertility, please click here for my short presentation about it. In it, I discuss what methods you can use to track your fertility. There are many apps available now as well to help you. Do your research on them or try several at once to see what you like, what works best for you, and what is most accurate. Make sure you are able to enter more information than just your last cycle and how many days it was. This is a predictive style of fertility charting and will not help you accurately chart for any potential problems. 

Do you track your fertility? Have you seen any benefits for your own personal wellbeing from tracking fertility? 

In my experience, I learned I had low progesterone and sometimes struggled with ovulation or short luteal phases. Seeing it spelled out in front of me was a wake-up call when we were trying to conceive. I also experienced losses due to these issues. 

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• (1) WHO-ICMART revised glossary
• (2) REF: Vigil, Pilar; Blackwell, Leonard F.; Cortés, Manuel E., ‘The Importance of Fertility Awareness in the Assessment of a Woman’s Health’, The Linacre Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue no.4, 2012, pp. 426-450(25).