Ep. 66: Fertility Myths 02

Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast! I’m excited to share another Fertility Myths episode with you all and we’re going to cover some good ones today! 

Here they are: 

• Ovulation predictor kits show your window of fertility 

• Using a form of natural family planning means having a big family

• There’s no way to make irregular cycles regular besides birth control

All myths, and we’re gonna bust ‘em together. Some of these you may already know, some may be a surprise to you. Even if you do know that they’re myths, can you explain why? We’ll, we’re to talk about them in today’s episode. 

Number one: Ovulation predictor kits show your window of fertility. 

Ovulation predictor kits, commonly shortened to OPKs, are test strips that use urine samples to read hormone levels in order to tell a woman when her body is showing signs of ovulation. Most brands just test for LH, or luteneizing hormone, which is the hormone that rises in order to trigger ovulation. And there are a few brands that test for LH and estrogen.  (To learn more about LH and estrogen and it’s role in your body, go back to our Basics Series and listen to episodes 1 and 3 which explain all the details of what they do, why they’re important, and how you can know what’s going on when.) 

These opks are most certainly an amazing resource for women and couples, because seeing that your body produces LH, and seeing when it produces this LH, is really helpful information! But it most definitely does NOT show you your entire window of fertility. 

This is because your window of fertility does not begin with that rise in LH. Something much more important is the arrival of cervical mucus. 

Cervical mucus is produced as the ovary grows a follicle in preparation for ovulation. Your cervical mucus is amazing. It works so hard for you. It sometimes provides an antibacterial barrier. When fertile, it filters out weak sperm. It transports strong sperm to the uterus and beyond. It feeds and nourishes this sperm for days. And that is the kicker. 

You are not only fertile when you ovulate; you are fertile when your body begins producing cervical mucus. 

That’s because sperm can live in this nourishing, helpful mucus for 5 days! It’s going to give that sperm an open highway to the fallopian tubes, so that when the egg ovulates and enters those tubes, they are there waiting to fertilize it. Long before your LH rises to trigger ovulation, the sperm are ready and waiting…. If you’ve had genital contact while your body was producing cervical mucus. 

This is why your cervical mucus actually reveals your entire window of fertility, instead of OPKs. This matters for couples who are avoiding pregnancy, and it matters for couples who are hoping to conceive a pregnancy. This entire window is essential to know, so that you can make informed decisions that match your intention. And you can’t rely on OPKs alone to give you that. 

Number Two: Using a form of Natural Family Planning means having a big family. 

Luckily, I had never heard this when I was first learning Creighton for my personal use. It may have scared me away. But natural family planning was such a foreign concept to me that I didn’t know anyone who used it and I didn’t know any false stereotypes about it. I could learn it for what it was and truly fall in love with it. I had no idea I’d become so passionate about it and it would become my vocation. I’m so grateful that I didn’t have stereotypes to hold me back. 

Since then, of course, I’ve heard them all. And one of them is that those who use natural family planning have big families. The assumption being because it wasn’t effective at avoiding pregnancy. 

I’ll say this: large families who use Creighton chose to have large families. 

Now yes, I did switch the language there from NFP to Creighton. That’s because Creighton is the method I teach and it’s the one that I can vouch for as being 99.5% effective at avoiding pregnancy. 

But Creighton is a part of the Natural Family Planning world. Although it’s not called NFP specifically, since it also has a medical component and is frequently used by medical professionals to diagnose and treat reproductive issues. 

Natural Family Planning is a term used to describe the use of the body’s natural reproductive systems to plan out family size and timing. Some methods use temperature, symptoms, OPKs and hormone monitors, or cervical mucus. 

Creighton utilizes the body’s cervical mucus only, because it’s been shown to be the most effective way to identify the entire window of fertility, and give insight into the quality of the cycle, and spot possible hormone dysfunctions, ovulatory dysfunctions, etc. For me, when I was researching methods, I was simply trying to choose the one that was easiest, that was going to give me the most information for the least amount of work. And, for me, that was Creighton. 

So, I’m not going to speak to the effectiveness of each and every system of natural family planning. At Woven Natural Fertility Care, we use Creighton. So I’ll speak for Creighton. 

And Creighton is not a system of “taking chances.” “Oh, we’re going to “take a chance” and see what happens.” You know that you are either fertile or infertile on any given day, and you can make an informed decision as a couple. 

What I’ve found is that some couples who are more likely to use Creighton vs birth control is because they do value their long term fertility and know, from the start, that they’d like to have a larger family. They know they’ll need their body’s natural cycling in order to do that, and they don't want to shut it down. They also don’t want to go on and off of hormones in between pregnancies because they’re already on an emotional roller coaster postpartum and don't’ want to exaggerate it with birth control, which has mood changes as one of it’s main side effects. 

When a new couple or client begins working with me, they complete an intake form with information about their medical history, menstrual history, and goals for their use of Creighton. One of the questions asks if they want to avoid or conceive at that time, and then how many children they hope to have over the years. One of my very first clients was an engaged couple, whom I absolutely loved. They brought in their form to our first meeting and to the question of how many children would they like to have, they wrote in 9. This was a couple who knew from the start that they wanted a large family. 

Large families are not a sign of failure to a system like Creighton. They are a sign of choice. When you are not using hormonal or other forms of contraception, you have total choice as to when you try to conceive or when you avoid pregnancy. You are never limited by needing a doctors appointment to have an IUD removed, or needing several months to heal from hormonal contraception use. When God leads you to grow your family, you are free to respond, whether that happens once, twice, or nine times. 

Number Three: There’s no way to make irregular cycles regular besides birth control

Unfortunately, many women are led to believe this. I hear this a lot. Women with irregular cycles often don’t even ask if regular cycles are possible, because they’ve never been given any hope about that possibility. 

The only option they’re ever given is hormonal contraception, or birth control, to give them a “bleed” each month. This bleed is not a period, though. That’s a myth in and of itself. You are not shedding a healthy, developed uterine lining after a normal rise and fall of hormones. You are bleeding because you’ve been on constant hormones for weeks and when you stopped them, your body reacted to the change. 

This approach (if you want to call it that) does absolutely nothing to help you have regular cycles. It doesn’t help figure out what’s going on. It doesn’t address the concerns. When you come off of the pill, you’ll have the exact same issues you had before you went on it, at a minimum. 

But of course, many women with irregular cycles know this, because they’ve gone that route without any success. They want progress, and they’re not getting it. 

But there are ways to address irregular cycles! It all starts with investigating why you’re having them in the first place. 

Irregular cycles can be caused by hormone dysfunction, thyroid issues, nutritional needs, overexercising or not enough body fat, trauma and related stress, and other factors. The first step is to identify what cause your particular body is pointing to, and having a doctor who wants to investigate with you. 

We talk a lot about Napro doctors on this podcast. (Our Basic series has an episode that covers that, as well - episode 2) That’s because doctors trained in Natural, procreative technology are focused on getting to the root cause of your reproductive concerns. They want to know why your cycles are irregular, too. 

It’s so important to have a team working with you who values your health as much as you do. Or at least pretty close. Any doctors who focus on restorative reproductive medicine are going to honor the way your body was created and seek to help it thrive. 

This may mean nutritional support, lifestyle options, supplements, or medications. But those changes can significantly improve or even completely change those irregular cycles. 

Those are our three busted myths for today, and I hope you found them helpful! I have a running list of myths to bust over time, so if you have one you’d like to be on the list, please email it to us to see it on a future episode. You can send it to us via the link in the show notes or through our website at wovenfertility.com. 

At Woven Natural Fertility Care, we seek to provide education that empowers women in their health decisions, family planning options, fertility treatments and more, while honoring the deep connection between fertility and faith. 

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