How to Choose a Fertility Awareness Educator Training
You’re charting your cycles with fertility awareness, you’re discovering the magic of confirming ovulation, you’re listening to the podcasts, reading the books, and talking to your friends and family about FAM, and you’re finally starting to think that you might be interested in teaching fertility awareness formally.
Your next question is: “how do I choose a fertility awareness certification?”
If you’ve done a search for fertility awareness teacher training programs, you might now that there are an overwhelming amount of options to certify as a FAM educator. 🤯
One could say that there are as many different methods options as there are eggs in your ovaries.
Okay not quiiiiiiite that many, but it can feel like a lot when you first start looking into your options!
How do you choose a FAM instructor course?
The main distinction between teacher training programs are differences between methods. Over the years, multiple methods have emerged based on the research on fertility biomarkers. Different methods interpret fertility awareness slightly differently. The umbrella term for these methods are Fertility Awareness Based Methods (FABMs), and include a variety of different ways of charting that differ on religious beliefs, protocols and biomarkers.
Religious or Secular
Within FABMs we find religious and secular methods. Religious methods, or Natural Family Planning (NFP) sometimes include teachings around sex and marriage and often use heteronormative language. These methods often carry inherent and explicit beliefs around abortion, and emphasize abstinence during the fertile window. Some NFP organizations are more flexible on the religion piece than others, and don’t require you to include those elements when you actually teach. Others are quite strict about the use of particular language. It might be helpful to reach out to the certification program before taking it if you are a secular educator wanting to teach a method of NFP.
Secular fertility awareness (FAM) may include teachings around barrier methods, withdrawal or alternative sex during the fertile window, and the language doesn’t explicitly refer to marriage.
Method type
Each fertility awareness based method will have:
A unique approach to fertility charting
A unique protocol and use of a combination of fertility biomarkers
Fertility biomarkers are objective measures of ovulation, things like cervical mucus, basal body temperature, or urine hormone testing. Every method uses their own combination of biomarkers (some use just a single biomarker) and their own protocol to interpret the biomarkers. There are slight differences even between methods that are the same type.
Pricing & Timeline
Each FABM teacher training differs in timeline, and prices typically reflect this. Some trainings are extensive and are similar in price and length to a masters-level degree. Others are shorter and can be completed in under a year. Depending on your financial situation, and timeframe, this is an important consideration. Most teacher trainings will have a payment plan that spans the length of the training, inquire with the certification program if it isn’t openly advertised.
Emphasis
Depending on what your focus is when you want to teach, consider the focus of the teacher training. Some fertility awareness education courses focus more on the charting for health and observing hormones through the chart, and others focus more on charting for contraception.
Why certify in a method of fertility awareness?
Fertility awareness education is a specialized field that requires knowledgable instructors. FAM educators are not health coaches or simply teachers. Rather, we work intimately with clients to clarify intentions, teach concepts and review the data that clients have on their charts. Fertility awareness educators are passionate about body literacy and carry the skills to help clients make informed decisions about their fertility, contraception and health.
Teaching fertility awareness is not something to be taken on lightly. FAM educators carry a degree of responsibility to be competent for their clients, especially in cases where clients are avoiding pregnancy with fertility awareness. Fertility awareness educators also have a breadth of knowledge and understand the nuances between fertility awareness based methods so that their clients can find a method that works best for them
Taking a certification program in a method of fertility awareness is valuable. It helps you gain the knowledge, mentorship and experience to teach fertility awareness. However, there are pros and cons with each teacher training and method.
Symptohormonal Methods
These methods use a combination of hormone urine tests or a hormone monitor to test LH and sometimes estrogen in conjunction with cervical mucus. These methods include:
FEMM
Marquette
Boston Cross Check
To note about symptohormonal methods:
Some symptohormonal methods like Boston Cross Check also incorporate basal body temperature in the protocol.
Some people like the objective element of hormone testing, but in certain reproductive scenarios, LH tests might be a less trustworthy fertility biomarker.
Methods that use the Clearblue fertility monitor, like Marquette, are popular for postpartum charting.
Boston Cross Check requires educators to only teach one method of fertility awareness. Marquette training is only available to individuals with a medical training background.
Symptothermal Methods
These methods use cervical mucus and basal body temperature as the primary fertility biomarkers, however some methods include optional cervical position checks. These methods include:
Sensiplan
Symptopro
Sympto
Serena
NFPTA
The Well (which uses a similar protocol to Taking Charge of Your Fertility)
INER
Natural Family Planning International
Natural Fertility NZ
Couple to Couple League
Justisse
To note about Symptothermal methods:
Symptothermal methods are probably the most widely known out of all FABM’s, and are most frequently self-taught. People like the objective measure of temperature, but remember that temperature is only part of the equation as it rises after ovulation.
These methods may include a calculation rule (like the Doering rule) to open the fertile window and some will rely on only cervical mucus to open the fertile window.
Cervical Mucus only Methods
Cervical Mucus only methods use very specific categories of cervical mucus to open and close the fertile window. These methods include:
Billings Ovulation Method
Creighton
To note about Symptothermal methods:
Cervical mucus only methods like Billings have really strong protocols for postpartum or long cycles. These methods rely on close instructor support to clarify observations to ensure you’re charting correctly.
Creighton relies heavily on wiping as a way to check for mucus and have very specific categories to chart mucus in. Whereas Billings relies more on sensation with the appearance of mucus being secondary.
struggling to choose a method to teach?
As a final takeaway, all fertility awareness teacher trainings vary in the protocols they teach, their emphasis, the timeline and pricing, and whether they’re a religious or secular program. If you’re deciding between programs, you can reach out to an instructor and chart your cycles with an educator who teaches that method to get a sense for the instruction.
Visit the fertility awareness educator directory to browse instructors certified in different methods. You can also follow fertility awareness educators on Instagram to get a sense of their teaching styles and method instruction!