Ep. 59: Can I really use Creighton myself??

Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast! Today we’re addressing a question I hear so incredibly often: I’ve been hearing about Creighton and it all sounds great, but how do I know that I can do this? 

In a general culture that constantly encourages us to doubt our ability to plan our families without medical intervention, I’m not surprised that this is such a common concern! 

Perfect example: 

Several years ago, I had moved cities and was seeing a new OBGYN for the first time. As I sat in the exam room, waiting for her to come in, I noticed a poster on the wall listing methods of preventing pregnancy with their (I’m using air quotes here) “effectiveness stats.” 

At the very top was, no shock, oral hormonal contraception. It took up the majority of the chart and specific brands of oral contraceptives were listed. Was this poster paid for by pharmaceutical companies?… I can only wonder. But in big bold letters, it stated that hormonal contraception was in the 99% percentile for effectiveness. 

Then came IUDs, which they listed as closer to 98% (which supports my theory that the poster was gifted by a pharmaceutical rep). And then things like condoms, spermicide, diaphragms, etc. 

Then there, at the very bottom, in tiny print, was the general term “Natural Methods” and next to it was an image of two crossed fingers, as if luck was the main ingredient in natural method’s effectiveness. The effectiveness stats were listed as 80-99%. Quite a range! But that’s what you get when you try to lump all forms of natural family planning together. 

So you’re constantly given this message that nothing natural can be trusted.

And, many women have experienced having a doctor, or even a friend, say straight to their face: The body is so complicated. It would be so hard to know what was going on! What if you messed it up? 

There’s a lot of misinformation about there - about the systems, how they work, and if they work. But also about a woman’s ability to truly understand her body and her fertility. 

So naturally, women ask themselves: 

• Can I trust this system to work? and

• Can I trust myself to understand the system? 

Let’s talk about the system itself for a second first. Because having a system that you can trust is an absolute game changer. You can work all the day long to use a system well, but if it’s only 80% effective, your odds are still only 80%… and I don’t know about you, but I want more than 80% when it comes to my fertility. 

Woven Well is a part of Woven Natural Fertility Care, which teaches the Creighton model system exclusively. We have a full episode explaining Creighton back in our basics series. I believe it’s episode 2 and I’ll link it in the show notes. But as a general summary, Creighton is a standardized system that’s used for comprehensive family planning, and medical support & diagnosis. 

There are two main aspects to it: understanding when you’re fertile and infertile, and understanding the health of your cycle and fertility. It empowers women to get to the root cause of issues, like painful periods or irregular cycles, while allowing couples to confidently plan their family - whether avoiding pregnancy or trying to conceive a pregnancy - all by understanding the critical role of cervical mucus. Cervical mucus is an incredible biomarker that reveals a ton of information about your hormones and reproductive health. 

One of the huge reasons we only teach Creighton is because of how effective the Creighton system is. 

An effectiveness study published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine shows the method effectiveness at 99.5% - 99.5%! 

Even the typical use effectiveness, which accounts for natural variation in use between individuals, puts it at 96.8% effective. Do you know what the same typical use is for oral contraception? 93%. And that’s coming from the Guttmacher Institute, a major reproductive health research and policy organization. Even Planned Parenthood prints the same stat. 

These statistics come from studies with a large sample size over years of study to show the effectiveness. It’s a big deal! But, of course, individual stories matter, too. 

If you have friends who have worked with me, ask them how Creighton is going for them. Or listen to our client story episodes! They’re full of real-world women sharing what Creighton has meant to them and what it’s been like to use. 

Then, ask your friends taking hormonal contraception. Or compare your personal experience, if you’re taking birth control. 

But here’s another major difference you’ll notice: not only is Creighton effective at family planning, but it’s effective at educating women about their cycle health. And you can’t say that about hormonal contraception! 

Many women who use Creighton are not using it for family planning purposes. This is not just a system for married folks determining family size. ANY woman benefits from using Creighton to understand her body, her fertility, and the reproductive issues that may be plaguing her. 

Because reproductive issues, or fertility issues, aren’t just important when you’re trying to have a baby. They’re important now, because they affect your quality of life - and give you insight into health issues you may be dealing with. Painful periods, irregular cycles, PMS/PMDD: these are all flags our bodies wave to help us pinpoint underlying conditions causing these side effects. And Creighton gives us the tools to start investigating those underlying conditions, and improving our lives. 

So, no matter how you look at it: the Creighton system is most definitely effective. If you’re going to use a natural system, choose one you can use confidently, knowing that it as long as you learn how to work it, it will successfully work for you. 

Once you’ve done that, you’re left with the question: Now that I’ve got this great system, can I really do it? 

Spoiler alert: Yes. You really can. 

And here are a few reasons why: 

All female bodies are designed to function in the same way, including yours. 

What I mean by that is that your anatomy and physiology functions in the same general way as every other female. Each of us has differences; things that function easily and others that have dysfunction. But the anatomy is the same. The hormones we’re looking for are the same. The process of ovulation and menstruation and such are the same. 

Yet, so so so often, someone on the fence about investing in this education will convince themselves that this system won’t work for them because their body isn’t like everyone else’s.  Their cycles aren’t regular, their periods aren’t heavy or light or whatever they think is normal, their doctors haven’t ever been able to provide help with their concerns. So, they must be different, and this can’t work for them. 

But every body is different. 

 Creighton is not limited to working with women with textbook reproductive systems. It works with any woman. 

Regular or irregular cycles, even not having cycles at all! (I have lots of ladies who are working toward cycling for the first time.) 

The Creighton system teaches you to understand the natural processes of reproductive health, while revealing your body’s particular expression of those processes. 

The system understands and respects that each woman’s body is different and will have differences. That’s an advantage to the system. And it’s an advantage to you. 

We want you to know and understand how your body functions. We want you to get to know your particular body, even as you understand more about women’s health in general. And doing both of these things simultaneously is incredibly empowering as you begin to pinpoint both signs of health and signs of needed-support in your cycles. 

You can trust your body to show you exactly what’s going on. 

And hear this, too: It’s not up to you to make your body function in a particular way. The end goal of charting is not a chart that looks like this “perfect,” “standard” cycle. The goal is to chart in a way that gives us an accurate record of what your body is doing. 

You can trust that your body will show you exactly that. It doesn’t need to be anything different or anything more.

And I’m going to throw this out there, too… Just as you can trust your body to reveal what’s going on, you can trust God to be with you in this journey. It may not feel like God can offer much in helping you to feel confident in understanding your body. But remember who created your body. 

And God didn’t just create it and decide to be done with it. God designed you with the same level of detail, care, and passion as a master craftsman. God is invested in the care of your body. To God, it matters how it’s treated, nurtured, used for service or rest or work. God cares how you feel about it, how it worships, how it thrives. 

Knowing that God is invested in this journey with you changes the way we can view the journey. Learning about how to understand and care for our bodies is suddenly an opportunity for worship. It changes the way we understand the importance of our physical bodies, the significance of Jesus’ body, it changes how we treat and love and respect our bodies. 

You are going to have fears when you start learning. I always encourage you to share them with me so that I can address and respect them. But more importantly, express them to God, the Creator of your specific body, mind, and soul. 

Knowing God is with us on this journey can really provide great comfort when we feel like we’re doing it on our own. 

But, listen, I understand! Ultimately, it can feel like you’re out there on your own. It can feel like quite a bit of pressure on your shoulders to get all of this right. 

I can almost feel those concerns coming my way: “Caitlin, this works great for most women, I get it. But I’m a teacher. I’m a nurse. I work night shifts. I breastfeed. I’m doing it alone while my husband is deployed. I’m in grad school. I co-sleep. I have 5 kids under 10. I travel biweekly for work.” 

I hear you, friends. Lives are busy and complicated! 

But you, even with all the schedule and life challenges, you can do it! Each one of those examples are real clients I’ve worked with who started off nervous about whether Creighton could work for them, and now are successful, confident users. 

Remember, even though you’re the one making observations, you are not learning this system on your own. 

You learn the Creighton system through one on one follow ups with a Fertility Care Practitioner. You are choosing a guide who is educated and experienced, and is going to do everything within her power to help you be successful. I can say that with confidence, because I’m the Fertility Care Practitioner!

And the follow ups are designed to help you learn gradually and become successful incrementally. You don’t have to have it all down at our first meeting. 

Sure, it’s complicated and tricky, before your learn it. That’s also true of algebra, driving on the highway, and cooking a turkey at thanksgiving. 

You don’t try to do those things without instruction and practice, and you won’t do Creighton without those either. 

You are incredibly capable of doing this. 

And the first step toward proving that to yourself is attending our Introductory Session. This one hour, online session is a great overview of your anatomy and physiology, what the Creighton system is, how to use it, and what you can learn from it. From there, you can decide if it’s right for you. We offer these each month, and you can check dates and register at wovenfertility.com/join-us. 

I’m really hoping you walk away today feeling confident in your ability to understand your body, designed and created and loved by God. For all the people in the world who may tell you it’s too hard, or too complicated, or too uncertain - I want you to hear me saying you are capable of doing hard things. You are able to understand challenging concepts. And, while I think you’ll find it less challenging once you begin learning, you can be absolutely certain of your ability to use the Creighton system. 

As always thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.