Why Your Fertility is so important (regardless of babies)

Taking charge of your fertility means way more than deciding to have children or not.

Your menstrual cycle, and the symptoms that come along with it, are clues to your overall health and wellbeing.

Your period also points you towards potential hormone imbalances that may be keeping you from feeling your best.

Which is why I am such an advocate for women transitioning off brith control + learning how to track their periods.

When women finally have the chance to connect to their body, (and their natural hormonal rhythm), they feel empowered and alive again.

Your period is one of your TOP 5 health clues.

Literally, it’s your 5th vital sign! And many holistic health professionals are discovering how crucial this is for women’s health.

In conventional medicine, the 4 main vital signs include:

• blood pressure

• body temperature

• pulse

• breathing rate

It’s time we officially add menstruation to that list.

You might be shocked at just how much your period can tell you!

When we ignore the fact that women are struggling with heavy and painful periods, lack of ovulation, clotting, or even too light of periods (to name a few examples…) we are REALLY doing them a disservice.

So often, women are being prescribed the pill for the symptoms above, which ends up making their underlying, and sometimes serious, health conditions left untreated.

Even if you’re not interested in babies, understanding the hidden signs of hormone imbalance is super important for you mental + physical health.

I have personally struggled with chronic anxiety that was directly tied to my extremely low levels of both progesterone and estrogen.

It was so bad at one point, that I was having a hard time functioning throughout the day, and I had started experiencing panic attacks that were preventing me from fully showing up for my life.

But, when I would ask about my crazy period symptomps (or request to get my my hormones tested), I was repeatedly told that “they don’t really do that.”

Birth control and anxiety meds were my only option. Especially since I wasn’t planning on having kids any time soon.

It wasn’t until I started diving into the world of holistic hormone health myself, and began making significant diet and lifestyle changes, that I noticed my moods were naturally lifting.

I noticed that periods were becoming more regular.

My cystic acne was easing up.

I was feeling happier, lighter, and more importantly… I felt like vitality and energy was coming back.

Now, what about the women who ARE interested in starting a family?

If you know you would love to have a family down-the-line, (or you’re currently trying to conceive), it’s crucial that you learn how to understand your body and how to track your fertility cues.

Why?

So that you can be an advocate for your health, and feel empowered and confident, going to your doctors for support.

Too often I see women who are struggling to conceive because we have been misinformed for our entire lives about how our body and fertility ACTUALLY work.

(*Side Note* Fertility is VERY nuanced and there are many reasons that women find it hard to conceive. But knowing how to understand underlying symptoms of hormone imbalance and how to track your fertility cues shouldn’t be one of them).

Do I wish that more women’s hormone concerns were taken into consideration well before they started thinking about pregnancy?

YES.

We could save many women from the months (and in some cases years) of rebalancing and harmonizing their system for pregnancy.

But until we get there, I want to offer you a few tips.

These are a few of my top recommendations for getting in-tune with your menstrual cycle + fertility:

• Begin tracking your cycle.

  Observing your cervical mucus (sticky, creamy, wet) as well as taking your basal body temperature every morning. Tracking your cycle is more than marking down your period in your phone’s app (which I love too!). But the real learning comes from diving into the Fertility Awareness Method. Which is something I teach to all of my clients.

• Analyze your basal body temperature for clues.

  Your BBT can tell you a TON about the health of your thyroid, progesterone levels, luteal phase defects, metabolic function, I could go on and on. If you consistently notice that your pre-ovulatory temps are below 97.0 Fahrenheit, this might be a clue to look into thyroid testing or that your metabolism is struggling. When you begin tracking BBT, you paint a picture for your overall cyclic health.

  For example, you might notice that your luteal phase is less than 10 days, or that your progesterone levels are low, because you observe temps near your baseline. You can take this information to your doctor and request additional testing. Especially if you find that you’re having a hard time conceiving.

• Track your hormone symptoms in accordance to the 4 phases of your cycle.

  Are you experiencing cyclic headaches? Spotting? Cramps? Acne? Digestive discomfort?

  Write ALL this down and don’t forget to mark which phase of the cycle (follicular, ovulatory, luteal, or menstrual) you’re experiencing them. You can later connect the dots between your hormone symptoms and the rise and fall of your hormones. Your hormone coach can help you tie these clues together and look for potential imbalances.

• Take note of your period.

  The color, length, light/heavy flow, clotting, etc. You would be surprised how the color of your period, and how much you bleed, says a lot about your hormone levels.

  Light periods – both in color (light pink) and flow – can be a sign of estrogen deficiency. Heavy and dark periods (especially with clotting) might mean estrogen dominance and/or low progesterone.

You would be surprised that observing your period alone can give you SO much valuable information on your health and fertility.

Which is why I LOVE doing this work with clients.

Teaching women how to live intuitively live with their cycles, so they can optimize fertility, and live their most empowered life.

What’s better than that?

Your period is SO much more than making babies.

If you’re looking for support, I currently have a few 1:1 coaching spots available.

You can also check out my online, and self-paced, Heal Your Period program for more information, too.

Here for you always,

Nina