Real women share their FAM stories: #folkswhofam

Real women who use FAM share their stories of how fertility awareness and body literacy has impacted their lives.

carly s.

I stumbled upon FAM through social media, and was instantly fascinated by the ability to be more aware, in sync, and literate of my body's signs.

After taking the birth control pill for 8 years and reading 'This Is Your Brain on Birth Control' by Sarah Hill, I felt confident that the pill was no longer the best method for me. I also felt cheated, frustrated and confused at the effects it had on my body without being aware of it. 

Along came Fertility Awareness Method. After taking a few months to think and learn about the method, I took Cycle Love, and I have now been relying on FAM for birth control for 6 months. This newfound knowledge about my cycle and my body has broken down myths I believed for years. Myths that FAM was just the rhythm method, myths that had me in fear of getting pregnant all the time, and myths that had me believing I had to be taking a hormonal birth control to avoid pregnancy.

Thanks to this learning, I can now confidently trust FAM for birth control. I feel so proud and grateful for my body's ability to cycle naturally. My favorite things about FAM are: 

• How I have learnt to trust and appreciate what my body was made to do. 

• How much more in tune I am with my overall health and changes in my body. 

• How I do not need to depend on daily hormonal birth control or pills. 

• How I feel in control of MY fertility. 

• How fascinating the female body is and how empowering this process has been.

I wish all women could have the knowledge to make an informed choice for what is best for them. Though I wish I knew it 10 years ago, I now know what is best for me.

paola a.a.

FAM has been one of the most empowering things I have had the privilege to learn during my adult life.

Before FAM I was on the birth control pill for more than 10 years and this took a toll on my body and on my mental health. Before the pill, even though I was not using a hormonal birth control method, I always felt disconnected from my cycle it felt so foreign to me, something I would never completely understand. I always thought that my period bleed was the main event in my cycle but thanks to Nat's awesome Cycle Love FAM course and her guidance I now know ovulation is the star of the show and I also know how to confirm it! The fact that a menstrual cycle gives you so much insight into your liver, gut and thyroid's health among other things is truly mind blowing.

With FAM I now feel confident to use my own body signals to TTA and when I have the best chance when I TTC. Even though I feel sad I didn't learn this sooner in life I feel incredibly lucky to now have access to all this valuable information and I always make sure, when given the chance, to talk as much about it with other women I know. If I ever have a girl, FAM is one of the things I'll make sure to teach her when she is old enough

maya r.

The last two years have been transformational in finding control and a deep love for my own body.

One of the ways I have found most fascinating about relearning how to love my body is through FAM.

This method of self love has truly reshaped the way I think about every aspect of my life. Understanding the cyclical motion of my body has given me a sense of peace that I can now trust my body to do what it was specifically made for where before I never felt so free. Molding this new found truth to my relationships, daily routines and inner conversations has been challenging and so freeing. The conversations I am having about my body now are found in knowledge from studied learning rather than assumptions. I am so grateful to my body and my cycle.

leanna p.

I’m one of those lucky folks who’s never used hormonal birth control and went straight to using FAM. Even though I’d suffered from horrific hormonal acne and was tempted to “time my period” to avoid bleeding on my honeymoon, no pill, IUD or shot ever felt right for me.

I’ve been charting for over 2 years now—first with a mucous-only method, and now I’ve recently added temping. I love that women can choose and change methods that harmonize with their season of life. Once I worked through the initial hurdle that I was being “robbed” or “inconvenienced”, I grew to reap the benefits what FAM promised me:

1.     Appreciation of my body, my sexuality, my innate worth. Knowing my cycle makes me feel peaceful and powerful. This peace translated to all areas, including confidence with my first pregnancy, labour and birth. 🤰🏻

2.     Union with nature. It’s environmentally friendly (no hormones, no packaged pills, no condoms) and it beautifully mirrors the ebb and flow of the wilderness itself. 🌲

3.     A strengthened relationship with my partner. My husband’s trust in my charting has not only made FAM workable, it’s brought us closer with better communication, shared intentions, more playfulness and yep—better sex. 😉

4.     A supportive sisterhood! Is there a better way to be body-positive, pro-mental health and ultimately feminist than practicing FAM? ✊🏻

gabrielle p.

I decided to learn about FAM because traditional birth control was terrible for my mental health.

I learned about Nathalie through a podcast called Chatty Broads. Through taking her course I not only learned how to master fam but for the first time learned about my body. There was so much I didn’t know and I felt validated in my experience around my cycle for the first time.

Nathalie is such a wonderful teacher and I now feel confident using FAM for birth control. I think every woman should take the time to learn about the amazing way our body works.

anna h.

One of the most inspiring and important aspects of FAM is the community I’ve found of other womyn who are choosing to say NO to invasive methods of birth control and YES to the wisdom of our bodies.

I’ve felt isolated for a long time for choosing not to take any type of hormonal birth control, but now feel validated in my life-long ache for a relationship with my fertility based in reverence, pleasure, creativity, spontaneity and joy rather than fear and control.

Up until reading Toni Weschler’s Taking Charge of Your Fertility, I believed that womyn were fertile 24/7 and could get pregnant at any moment from the day of their first period to the day of their last. As I began to chart my basal body tempearture each morning and observe my cervical mucus and cervical position, the little variations I had always noticed in my body each month suddenly made sense. FAM has and continues to unravel the mystery of my body, my menstrual cycle and my fertility.

I’ve found that letting my partner into this process (explaining what each type of cervical mucus means, when I take my temperature, etc.) and how it relates to our sex life has become a vehicle for expanding our connection and deepening his understanding of me and of the female body and reproductive system as a whole,

What once felt like the burden of fertility that I as the womyn was expected to “manage” and “control,” now feels like an amorphous gift of ever-shifting creative life force that I have the pleasure to explore, learn about and play in harmony with.

lucìa r.

Last year I came across Lara "Briden's Period Repair Manual" and discovered the amazing world of  FAM as a way of personal development.

I'd only been on HBC for a couple of months years before, so that wasn't my main concern. Rather, I wanted to find some natural and loving ways to manage my crazy menstrual pain.

In June I did Cycle Love with Nat and, not only did I learn tons about my cycle and FAM, but I also met a group of likeminded women. That's always the most significant part for me. I've been charting my BBT and CM for 7 months now. I'm using it as birth control and I've found some ways to unblock the pain. Honestly, what I’ve gained is so much wider. I LOVE to mindfully pay attention to my body.

For the last couple of months I've been sharing these knowledge and experiences with some close women and it's been a wonderful experience as well. FAM is a one-way road to empowerment.

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El año pasado, de casualidad, me encontré con el libro de Lara Briden "Cómo mejorar tu ciclo menstrual" y así entré al increíble mundo de la ginecología natural y la ciclicidad como caminos de crecimiento personal. Sólo tomé anticonceptivos hormonales durante unos pocos meses de mi vida, así que ese nunca fue mi preocupación principal. Más bien quería encontrar respuestas y propuestas amorosas al dolor paralizante que he tenido desde mi primera menstruación.

En junio me anoté a Cycle Love con Nat y, no sólo aprendí muchísimo sobre mi ciclo ovulomenstrual y el método sintotérmico, sino que me encontré con mujeres en la misma búsqueda. Eso siempre es lo más valioso para mí.

Hace 7 meses que registro mi temperatura basal y mi fluido cervical. Ademas de poder usarlo como método anticonceptivo y haber encontrado varias pistas para desenrredar el dolor, vivo con mucha, mucha emoción el estar atenta y a la escucha de mi cuerpo. 

astrid b.

I wanted to learn FAM to get an even better sense of my cycle, especially how it affects my mental health. I now feel so much more in sync with my cycle. 

Knowing more precisely when I ovulate is also allowing me to better predict my period and with that the PMDD-symptoms I often get. I no longer feel at the mercy of my cycle and emotions, but much more in tune with them. 

I am also simply amazed at seeing in much more detail how amazing my body is, and how healthy and strong it is. 

janice g.

“After having a copper IUD for 6 years, I went on a hunt to find a safe, reliable, and effective way to manage my fertility.

For the entire 6 years I had been experiencing a host of uncomfortable symptoms from the copper IUD; I knew I was finally ready to take back control over my body and my reproductive health. Many will say that they love FAM for how it teaches body literacy - but I was already in tune - sometimes too in tune!

I love how empowering FAM is. It empowers me to make real time decisions based on my fertile signs. It empowers me to understand what is happening within my hormonal systems as each cycle progresses. It has allowed my husband to feel more in tune with my cyclical rhythm, and to better understand how my feelings, emotions and energy ebb and flow through the different phases of my cycle.

Through FAM my husband and I are empowered to make decisions together, and it has undoubtably brought us closer in all respects. FAM has been an opening up. A taking back, a coming back into my own. FAM has encouraged me to come deeply into my femininity, and to appreciate the sacred gifts we are given as women.”

mary y.

My journey with FAM started with reading TCOYF and continued by taking Cycle Love with Nat.

Before I started using FAM I was on hormonal birth control. I have many food intolerances and while on the pill I began noticing that there were more and more foods I couldn’t eat.

FAM has brought those foods back into my life AND allowed me to better understand my cycle and my body. It has allowed my partner to contribute to birth control more actively. Not only that, but our conversations around this topic are more open and collaborative. I am less embarrassed and as a result my partner is too.

It may take a while to get the hang of, but with the help of a FAM educator it is well worth the time and energy for all the power it gives back to you. I am just at the beginning of my journey and can’t wait to learn more about my body.