Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) for Birth Control, Conceiving, and Beyond

I've labeled this post as "media recommendations" but also as "other recommendations" because, beyond recommending this particular book, I am recommending getting educated about fertility awareness.

I hope this is not a taboo topic to post about on a blog. Because I think it is something that should be shared. (Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law for sharing it with me and to whoever shared it with her before that.) I also think it is something that is not shared nearly often enough. In the "marriage intimacy preparation" course I took from BYU's Student Health Center, for example, the physician teaching the class barely mentioned this option while going over her "birth control" chart. On the other hand, probably a solid 30 minutes were spent talking about the pill. Now, granted, the newlywed years may not be the most ideal time for practicing FAM as a method of birth control, but I think this represents a common attitude among medical professionals. What is the message there? That this FAM is too complicated for the average patient to understand? Requires too much self-control? Does anyone else find that just a little bit insulting? But I digress.

FAM as Birth Conrol


Let's get this straight I am NOT recommending FAM as a method of birth control for everyone; obviously, it will not be a good fit for many people, and even those for whom it is will probably only practice it during certain times in their lives (for example, it may not be the best method for women who are partially-breast feeding). What I AM recommending is discovering what it actually is and then considering it as a birth control option -especially if you are sensitive to hormonal birth control methods like I am. (Even on the "mild symptom" Nuva Ring, I was starting to get used to near-constant hunger cravings and a daily bout with nausea in the late afternoons.)

Not to go into too much detail, but there is nothing mysterious, hoodo voodoo, or pseudoscience about fertility awareness. Actually, it is a perfectly logical idea: learn how to tell when you are fertile and then adjust your love life accordingly. Did you know that the woman is actually only fertile for a couple of days each cycle (her egg only stays alive for a day or so)? But taking the man's fertility into account (he is always fertile and his sperm can stay alive for about 5 days), that totals 1-2 weeks of combined fertility. Amazingly, our bodies will let us know when we are in that fertile zone. If we know what to look for.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that you can be as conservative as you want to be with this method. Follow the rules exactly, and you're covered. However, during months when your body isn't sending as clear of signals (anovulatory cycles, for instance) or anytime you don't feel 100% confident, take extra precautions. (During the first 5 days of my period is an example of a time when I feel 100% confident. Another time is a couple of days after I have charted a clear ovulatory temperature shift.)

And finally, I like that the man can be a more active participant in this method (Dave actually writes my temperatures down in my chart most mornings).

FAM to Conceive


When we were trying to get pregnant with Peter, I had a pretty strong inkling that we'd conceived long before I got the positive test result. That's because I was acutely aware of when I had ovulated. If we were struggling to get pregnant, or we just wanted to maximize our chances for a particular month, it would make perfect sense to start with fertility awareness.

FAM for General Body Awareness


I like trying to figure out what my body is doing. I like knowing where I am at -hormonal-ly- in my cycle. Am I more hungry, tired, or anxious at different points in my cycle? Am I ovulating normally? For example, there were a few months last winter when I was suffering with some insomnia/anxiety and my charting was all over the place (I think I had some anovulatory months). Anyway, it was another indication to me that something was "off" with my body. I think this book lists some other great benefits, but (confession) I never finished the last few chapters. Not because the book was intimidating though. Weschler makes it all very user-friendly and throws in plenty of humor for good measure.


I didn't give many details, but this blog post (random blog I ran across when searching for the picture) seemed to do a good job at dispelling several myths.


http://brightonwoman.blogspot.com/2009/03/fertility-awareness-method-fam.html

Daylily Days

Finally. That long-awaited, joyful time has come. No, not the holiday season. But what I call the Logan Daylily Season. Almost anywhere you look in the city you will see their bright colors --apartment complexes, residential streets, business landscaping. If the Logan area had an official flower, it would have to be the daylily. Low-maintenance, tidy, green, leafy bushes all summer long, and, for one glorious month, a deluge of blossoms like those pictured above.

To explain, the individual blossoms do not last for weeks. The blossoms -befitting their name- only open their  petals to the world for one day before closing -to make room for the next day's array of blooms. I couldn't help feeling sad when I learned this (the summer we moved into our already-landscaped-with-daylilies-condo), but soon realized that, with so many buds per stem, we would not be lacking in the daylily department.

I wanted my pictures to show the flowers at their zenith - the week or so when the most blossoms are open at once -but think I was a bit late. They'll now be tapering off until only one or two buds remain per stem (a great time for finally being able to use them as cut flowers, however). It still makes me a little sad though, on days when I don't get out to admire their display, that I missed an entire composition of changing colors, angles, and proportions. I think there's something symbolic there for me -something about how quickly the grand days of summer always seem to go.

Scrubs Love

I'm a little ashamed to admit -and probably should be more ashamed than I actually am- but I think this is my favorite TV show. Ever. It was only last summer that I finished Season Eight, but just the other night Dave and I went back to Season One to start re-watching episodes. I actually get cravings for this show. I could do without most of the sexual humor (most of which I cringe through), and I'm especially bugged by all the J.D./Elliot casual sleeping around. But still, how does a show that regularly features floating-head-doctor daydream sequences (and there's a lot more ridiculousness where that came from) manage to feel so darn real? So full of heart?

How many other comedies could pull off a storyline as heavy the Doctor-Cox-fails-to-save-three-patients-and-his-friends-have-to-pull-him-out-of-a-drunken-stupor one--while still making you laugh out loud every couple of minutes? There is this delicate, magical balance of the funny with the sad, the mundane with the profound, and Scrubs makes it all look so easy. Unlike 30 Rock or Malcolm in the Middle (comedies I've also been enjoying lately) Scrubs usually leaves me with something meaty to chew on. You know, questions like: What are the ethics of modern health care? What does it mean to be a mentor? A friend? What's the best way to deal with death? Change? Lots of medical dramas ask these same types of questions, but I think it's the subtlety, warmth, and humor with which Scrubs does it that is so effective.

It's a show that evolves. Characters and relationships develop believably. Take doctor Kelso. Yes, he is the penny-pinching, cantankerous chief of medicine, but a flat character he most definitely is not, or at least does not remain so for long; by the end of the series, Bob Kelso is one of the show's most sympathetic characters (watch some of the episodes after he has retired if you don't believe me -or the episode told from his point of view). 

The writing is creative and often unexpected. There's an episode done as a musical, an episode told from the eyes of relatively minor characters, an episode which follows a day's chain of events and then goes back and follows them again as they might have occurred. There's the gut-wrenching twist endings, sweet surprise endings, and everything in between. There is none of the formulaic script-writing of House, none of the forced wittiness of Gilmore Girls.

The acting is spot-on --with lots of fun guest-star appearances too (see Micheal J. Fox as an OCD doctor, Dick Van Dyke as one of Doctor Kelso's old friends, Brendan Frasier as Doctor Cox's brother-in-law). But it's really the details that bring everything together for me. The soundtrack, the elaborate day-dreams, the little quirks that make you love the characters, the careful way that events come together. The rough-around-the-edges sincerity. The unabashed goofiness. The heart. And, of course, The Janitor. :)