The Fertility Awareness Method or (FAM) is where a woman tracks her fertility and ovulation using natural biological signs from her body such as, cervical fluid, cervical position, and Basal body temperature. This method used in reverse can also be a reliable form of contraception if used correctly. To use this method correctly, a woman has to track not one but all three components. Claim Your 20 Free Pregnancy Tests – Click Here
To start off, one needs to keep general track of their menstrual cycle. This means simply mark down on a calendar when your period starts and stops. By doing this, you will be able to gauge the average length of your cycle. Each day you will record your basal body temperature.
To track your basal body temperature, first invest in a basal body thermometer. It should be accurate to 1/10th of a degree and a nice added bonus would be one with a memory recall feature, so that when you turn the thermometer off and then on again, it will display the last reading. Each morning, when you first wake up, before you get out of bed, take your temperature and record it. There should be a very small spike during ovulation. This change can be as small as 0.4-1.0 degree. These temperature records are often graphed, so that the small changes can be visual.
While you are taking your temperature every morning, the other things that must be tracked (and recorded) are cervical changes such as mucus and position. As ovulation nears, your cervical mucus should start to resemble the look and consistency of an egg white and the cervix should be low, soft, and open. The bible of the fertility awareness method is a book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, MPH, her book explains the FAM method in detail.
The downside to all this is that it can be physically cumbersome to be lugging around a graph, a calendar, and a thermometer. Fortunately, there are many free charts that can be printed on the web and there are even apps for your smart-phone. “The Woman Calendar” app allows you to keep track of your menstrual cycle, basal body temperature (BBT), weight, ovulation, and sexual activity, and cervical changes. The downside is that the app costs $9.99, expensive for an app. However if you are a fellow math class drop out that cannot graph this app or something similar might be worth it.
