Opinion: Fertility Awareness is Not Taught in Schools or By Doctors for These Reasons

Fertility Awareness is the practice of having self awareness surrounding your own fertility. The degree to which someone uses fertility awareness for health and wellness varies from person to person, depending on what their needs and wants are.

For example, on one end of the spectrum, some women may practice fertility awareness so they know where they’re at in their cycle. This may be as simple (but important!) as noticing they need extra downtime and warming foods and teas a few days leading up to their period to help reduce PMS symptoms. 

On the other end of the spectrum, some women use certain fertility awareness based methods to learn how to observe and chart scientific biomarkers in order to know if they are fertile or not on any given day.

This second end of the spectrum is very different from the first, and requires thorough education and practice on the users part. This end of the spectrum is where fertility awareness based methods such as they SymptoThermal method come into play. (SymptoThermal Method boasts up to 99.6% efficacy as a natural contraception with perfect use and is what I use and teach)

Highly effective methods such as SymptoThermal allow women to accurately avoid pregnancy or achieve pregnancy, making it more than just a natural form of contraception. It is a way for women to gauge their own health from cycle to cycle without any outside help from experts. Women become active participants in their own healthcare. 

In my opinion, Fertility Awareness is not usually promoted by doctors as an option for non-hormonal birth control / contraceptive options for a variety of reasons. 

• Most doctor’s appointments last only a few minutes which is not enough time to inform people of highly effective fertility awareness based methods because they require a lot of time to teach and understand
• Fertility Awareness does not fit into the current healthcare model
• The CDC has a chart which ranks fertility awareness based methods among the least effective types of contraception options. This chart is inaccurate and misleading as it lumps in all types of fertility awareness based methods together. Some are more effective than others, which brings the whole category of this natural contraception method low on the totem pole. 
• FA would challenge / alter the authority of allopathic health care providers
• Pharmaceutical companies won’t profit as much (buying contraception vs. free fertility charting)
• There is so much incorrect information / misconceptions regarding fertility awareness based methods.  

As a sidenote-- there's an incredible organization called FACTS created by doctors for the medical community so that fertility awareness based methods (FABMs) become recognized as a valid contraceptive option. Hooray!

In my opinion, Fertility awareness is not currently taught in highschool or universities because:  

• they don’t want to have liability regarding unintended pregnancies of youth / young adults
• And / or they may fear that teaching about sexuality could encourage sexual promiscuity 

In my opinion, if Fertility Awareness were more widespread in our society and culture:

• Both males and females would have greater respect for both the female and male body

• Less dependence on pharmaceuticals

• Greater dependence and stewardship of land and nature, as we realize how connected we actually are to nature 

• Helps couples communicate clearly and set boundaries

This is where certified Fertility Awareness Educators can really help mentor and advise the current and up and coming generation of women to better understand what their reproductive health options are, while in the ~40 years of reproductive lifespan.

This is not to replace licensed healthcare professionals who are so valuable and needed, but just to expand the holistic options that women should have, but are almost never told about. 

Since there is a variety of fertility awareness based methods, fertility awareness educators can help make sure a certain method is the right fit for you, and thoroughly teach you the method.

I love teaching women how to use the SymptoThermal Method because it's highly effective at 99.6% efficacy as natural contraception with perfect use, and gives women an active role in their own health and happiness. Please reach out if you'd like to learn more, have any questions, or want to join me in my next round of live mentorship!

Warmly, Veronica