Fertility Awareness Method – Avoiding Pregnancy

Occasionally I write posts that I worry will be too ‘alternative’ or ‘out there’, but all I ask is that you read them with an open mind and you might just be surprised. I’ve had messages from many moon cup sceptics who have been convinced to give them a try after reading my post about how they changed my life, so I’m hoping this may have the same effect on a few of you.

Fertility Awareness Method

I have been using the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM – also sometimes known as Natural Family Planning) for over a year now, and it really is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my body. Previously I’ve spent over 10 years on the contraceptive pill and then had a Mirena coil fitted, and I know that those options are not for me. I don’t like the idea of putting extra hormones into my body, and relying on these methods meant I knew next to nothing about my own cycle and my own body. When I began reading about FAM, and about temping and learning to read cervical mucous – I was really intrigued, and really impressed at how incredible a woman’s body really is.

What Fertility Awareness Method Is

The Fertility Awareness Method involves charting multiple fertility signals daily, and interpreting this data to understand when your body is ovulating and therefore fertile. It can be used both whilst trying to conceive (TTC) and trying to avoid pregnancy (TTA), although it really is essential that you learn how to properly read these signals before you rely on it as a method of contraception.

Using either a paper chart or one of the various apps available you chart your basal body temperature (BBT) each morning, as well as your cervical mucous and often your cervical position and any other symptoms you experience during your cycle. This chart will then allow you to accurately pinpoint when your body ovulates, and therefore work out when you are fertile (and should abstain/use another form of contraception) and when you are no longer fertile and safe to continue sex as normal with no risk of pregnancy.

What Fertility Awareness Method Isn’t

Whenever I mention this to friends they often immediately assume I mean the rhythm method, which is definitely NOT what FAM is. The rhythm method basically involves you averaging out the length of your previous cycles and using this information to guess when you might ovulate. This, in my opinion, is a risky way to avoid pregnancy and not something that is found to be particularly successful. It doesn’t take into account early or late ovulation which means you could end up being caught out if your periods are even slightly irregular.

How Fertility Awareness Method Works

I find FAM fascinating, because I love understanding how my cycle works and what’s going on within my own body. I’m certainly not an expert on the subject so I really urge you to do some further reading before you try it for yourself (I’ll link to some great resources below) but here’s a quick over view of how it works.

Firstly it’s important to understand that there are actually only a limited amount of days each cycle that you can get pregnant, which isn’t something I had any idea of for most of my teenage years. Once your body ovulates the egg can be fertilised for around 12-48 hours, and this is the point at which your body could conceive. Due to sperm being able to survive for up to about a week your fertile window is usually just over a week long. Once this time has passed (as long as you have confirmed ovulation reliably) you will be infertile and free to have unprotected sex.

During ovulation your BBT will rise due to the progesterone levels, referred to as a temperature shift, and it will stay at a higher point for your entire luteal phase (until your period arrives). By recording your temperature every morning you will see this shift in temperatures and be able to confirm that your body has ovulated.

Your cervical mucous will also change considerably both before and after ovulation, and once you learn to read this you can really get an idea of where in your cycle you are. I’ll leave the detail out on this one for now, because I don’t want to put anyone off – but it’s not as gross as it might sound.

Benefits of Fertility Awareness Method

There are so many benefits to this method, especially compared with other contraception options out there like the pill. What I really love about Fertility Awareness Method is how much I’ve learnt about my body; how much I’ve learnt abut fertility and about my cycle, and how empowered I feel by knowing exactly what’s going on. Here are just a few other reasons why I love using FAM:

  • Hormone free
  • No side effects
  • Effective – up to 99% efficacy with perfect use (condoms are 98%)
  • A greater understanding of your body and your cycle
  • Able to immediately switch from TTA to TTC
  • Limited need for condoms – during fertile period only, unless abstaining

Drawbacks of Fertility Awareness Method

As with anything there are of course drawbacks to the method. In my opinion these are overshadowed by the benefits but here are a few:

  • Requires research and learning – this really is essential and in the beginning it can be a lot to get your head around. Having said that, once you’ve understood the method it becomes pretty simple to continue with
  • Temping every morning – it’s really important that you take your temperature at rest, as soon as you wake up. This can be tricky, especially with children and if you’re up often in the night you could find you experience deviating temperatures when you get less sleep than you usually would
  • No STD protection – obviously FAM does not protect you from sexually transmitted diseases
  • You must either abstain or use another method of contraception during the fertile period

How to Get Started With Fertility Awareness Method

The key things you’ll need once you understand the method are a BBT thermometer that gives your temperature to two decimals (this is really important) and a way to chart your fertility signals. You can use a paper charting method or you can use one of the apps now available. I highly recommend using Kindara, which also gives great instructions by breaking FAM down into 4 basic rules, and will help you to understand the method more, but there are other free apps out there also.

Further Research

I have deliberately left out a lot of the science and the detail of FAM, because I’m not an expert and it’s really important to research and understand the method for yourself. If this has peaked your interest at all then I would strongly encourage you to do some more reading and maybe give it a go. Taking Charge of Your Fertility is a brilliant book, and is known as the FAM bible for a lot of users. There’s also a great FAM Facebook group which provides great support and great resources to get your head around understanding your chart.

Natural Cycles

You may have heard of Natural Cycles, a new app on the market which has been certified as a method of contraception. The idea behind Natural Cycles is very similar to FAM, but the app does all the calculating and analysing of the data for you. I have been using the app for three months now, so check out my Natural Cycles review for all the information.

15 Comments

  1. 13th October 2017 / 5:21 pm

    I love the idea of not being on the pill, I hate having to do that to my body. But I couldn’t trust myself to remember to do this at the moment, as much as wouldn’t mind having another baby my husband would not be happy.

    • 14th October 2017 / 9:36 pm

      It’s tough in the beginning but once the habit is formed it’s really second nature xx

  2. 14th October 2017 / 8:26 pm

    I use FAM (and a mooncup so kindred spirit here) and would never use any other way. We’re TTC and I’ve never felt so in tune with my body before. It’s such a pity girls aren’t taught it and encouraged to use it alongside condoms, so that when they are ready to have children they will know their body so well (and won’t have pumped it full of crap).

    • 14th October 2017 / 9:36 pm

      Definite kindred spirits! Absolutely agree. Once I started reading and learning more I had this moment of something, sadness is maybe too strong a word, but just a feeling about how I had got to my mid 20s without knowing any of this xx

  3. 15th October 2017 / 8:21 pm

    I can totally see the reasoning behind doing this. I did all the tracking when we trying to conceive though and every time I got pregnant it was from having sex really early in my cycle, before I should have been fertile!!

    • 16th October 2017 / 7:50 am

      Wow you must ovulate earlier on in your cycle then! Temping and CM should show you that though. Aren’t our body’s magical!

  4. 16th October 2017 / 7:31 am

    I’ve used FAM for over seven years now and I would never go back to hormonal contraception. It’s worked well for us both when TTC and avoiding pregnancy. I’ve not tried the natural cycles app though. The one I use is fertility friend which works well although is mostly aimed at people who are actively TTC. Remembering to take your temperature is the trickiest part when you have small children but once it’s part of your normal routine, it’s easy enough. So nice to see someone else recommending it.

    • 16th October 2017 / 7:49 am

      I always find that once I mention it a many other people say they use it too which is awesome. The Natural cycles app is great for people who don’t have time to learn how to interpret the data xx

  5. 7th November 2017 / 12:57 pm

    I first learned about FAM when I became obsessed with trying to fall pregnant. We had two miscarriages and falling pregnant was all I could think about. I tried ovulation kits but that became expensive so I read up on this and found I became very in tune with my body. However, it’s not something I’ve used as contraception and I have no idea why not…….. I might have to look into it all again to refresh my memory. Would certainly be better than a piece of plastic in my arm!

  6. 7th December 2017 / 7:17 am

    Great post! I’m also from Norfolk ☺️ I’ve been using this methods since finding out I have pcos as I hate putting hormones into my body so decided to look for an alternative. I done it and had no scares for 4 1/2 years, then when we decided to start trying for a baby (even though Doctors said there was a chance I wouldn’t be able too due to pcos) we conceived the first month we tried. I put it down to the nfp we’d done. Now I’m postpartum I’m thinking of starting again but I’m breastfeeding so have no periods, any advice on what to do? xx

  7. Angharad Stokes-Rhys
    23rd July 2018 / 2:40 pm

    I’ve recently gone dairy free (various reasons, including pregnancy, which is making my body totally reject dairy), so came across your blog & fb page via friends’ recommendations. It’s a fab resource for living a dairy free life, and now I’ve found this post I love you even more! I started using NC when my periods returned at 17 m pp after having baby #2. I plan to continue using it and FAM after I’ve had this baby and my periods have returned. I wish I could spread the word about it far and wide, but people get confused with the rhythm method and are so sceptical. Well done for putting your neck on the line and sharing what we should all be able to do if we trust our bodies! ❤️

    • 24th July 2018 / 11:24 pm

      Aw yay this is so so lovely to read! I’m a huge advocate for FAM and NC but it is a bit nerve wracking writing about it sometimes! We actually used NC to conceive on our first try last year after using it to avoid for so long too (unfortunately I had a miscarriage in Feb), and I think it’s so empowering for women to understand their bodies to that degree. Thanks so much for commenting! x

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