The One with the Charting Comparisons
AND WE BACK.
So, about "taking a week off for Labor Day"....
We've traveled something like six times in the past two months. Including this weekend, actually; we just got back from The Final Trip (for now).
We are tired. Anyway! We back. Today, we're talking charting. char...TING. It's time.
EW, CHARTS. Just...why.
Fair point. 'Charting' doesn't sound like the sexiest thing in the world. Getting excited about it is a pretty nerdy thing to do. But, like, have you met me and Ted? (Probably). Of course we're excited about this stuff.
However, my previous marketing rant about Napro applies here: This stuff doesn't exactly get a great spin, for like a million reasons. Let's start with what charting is and why anyone in their right mind would want to do it for fun:
'Charting' here refers to the practice of taking relatively easily-observable body indicators, putting them all in one place, and noticing how they change over time. Simple. Nothing scary. Nothing weird.
Charting just takes some of the symptoms that could be (and have been) dismissed as 'whatever, women's bodies are weird' and, instead, assumes that there's a discoverable reason why. Without sounding like a weird sex ed pamphlet, there's a lot your body can tell you...if you're listening, I guess.
After the initial learning investment (which might be nothing more than the cost of a thermometer), it's a free/cheap way to keep tabs on a lot of factors about your health. It's pretty damn empowering, it's super fascinating, and it goes wayyyyy beyond just being a form of family planning (although it certainly helps for that).
Case in point, here are just a few things that you can learn from charts:
- if you're physiologically under chronic stress
- Or chronic inflammation
- If you should get a thyroid test
- If your hormones are all working the way they should (which affects like basically every organ system, not just your reproductive ones)
I hear stories all the time about women who were able to notice, self-diagnose, and get help for some pretty serious (and even life-threatening) issues ... just because they were charting. Like cervical cancer. For example.
Because there is so much *outside of fertility* that you can learn from charting your daily indicators, I'd personally prefer to put charting in the 'biohacking' category, instead of where it is - in the 'fertility awareness based method of natural family planning' category. Which is just too many words and has the unfortunate stigma of basically being Catholic birth control........so.
Anyway, that rant aside, you can obvi use this tool to assist with your fertility goals.
If you're not a special snowflake like me, your chart can likely tell you when you're ovulating, when implantation is happening, if you're pregnant (prior to an at-home test, which is cool), and if your period's about to show up (which, personally, I like the head's-up).
Is it inconvenient? It can be.
Is it for everyone? Of course not.
If you're down, there are, as far as I can tell, three general methods.
Basal body temping:
We've talked about this at length. The basic idea is that your core body temperature has two settings: low, and high. For many women, the shift from low to high happens around ovulation, so you can use it as confirmation of that/to plan special hugs strategically, if you're so inclined.
My fave application recently has been charting to see how stressed I am. If your temperature is pretty much the same from day to day, excluding that big monthly shift, you're (apparently) handling stress pretty well; if your temperature is rocketing all over the place, then maybe it's time to take up meditation and yoga (or whatever). I like having a way to keep tabs of whether I'm stressed or not...because my brain isn't always super great about knowing whether it's in need of a time-out, you know?
The commitment: Taking your temp at about the same time, every morning. If you don't wanna get up at the same time every day or if you're an insomniac or etc, there are some pretty good wearable thermometer options.
What you get: Over time, you'll get enough daily temp data that you'll be able to see trends; day-to-day, you'll know where you are in your cycle, which is helpful in many ways. Temping can also give you information about how your body's doing in general, which I like. I also like that temping is universally...known about? Like my acupuncturist knows what's up when I tell him my temp's doing weird things.
Who's this for: This is an inexpensive, relatively easy, eminently accessible charting system. If you're just looking to start charting, this is a good place to begin.
HOWEVER you do have to have pretty reliable sleep patterns. I've probably told this story before, but it's a good one: When going through our NFP classes before getting married, I (the insomniac) asked our instructor how to make the method work for me even though I didn't get regular sleep. His answer? "Get more sleep". (Unfortunately, that was pretty indicative of our experience with that class overall......but I digress.)
If you're looking for some Level Two charting fun, it's time to move on to...
Creighton:
Regrettably, there's not much that I can say about this. We're going through the initial instruction now, and it's not bad. (The classes are WAY more helpful than our NFP ones. WAY. Like, as in, with actually helpful/updated/relevant scientific and health data. And I really like our instructor.)
Our biggest beef with Creighton is how un-accessible it is - the Creighton people have the method copyrighted and locked tightly shut. Where with BBT charting you can get literally all the info you need for free on the Internet, you've gotta work with a Creighton person in order to get even basic information about what this system is....and, like, literally, as a freelance writer I live in fear of being sued, so I'm not going to blog extensively about it.
In a sentence, though: Where BBT charting is about temp (duh), Creighton is about cervical fluid. (Or, rather, cervical mucus, but like many things I've ranted about extensively on this site, I think the concept's in need of a major marketing glow-up.) Much like your temp can give you vital information about your health and your fertility, so can your fluid and how it changes over the course of your cycle.
The commitment: Again, without giving away too much insider info (SAD FACE), you've gotta check your fluid every time you go to the bathroom (and a few other times, like before bed, swimming, and showering). It's a lot, but it does become relatively routine.
What you get: Same as BBT: You get daily information about what's up with your body, and over time, trends. In a lot of cases, your cervical fluid and how it behaves over the course of your cycle could signal to your instructor and your doctor that you have a specific fertility or health condition, which can be used for further treatment.
Who's this for: It's probably a good Level Two method for people navigating infertility - our Napro recommended learning/practicing it for getting-pregnant purposes, and that's certainly how I'm going to treat it. (I see myself temping basically until menopause, because I like the data. Creighton...well.)
It's very, very standardized, which is a good thing; but, like, the flip side of that coin is that you really can't deviate from the system *at all*. Like, SPOILER THIS IS A LOT OF INFORMATION, but, okay: I like *doing internal exams* because, like, you can also tell a lot about your health and etc from what's up with your cervix, and, in case it wasn't abundantly clear, I like using all of the info available to me.
Under Creighton, you're not allowed to do that. At all. I don't like being told what not to do, so. They also disregard temperature, which......I think is incredibly valuable.
But....noted....you don't have to wake up at the same time every day, or even have regular sleep. Which is a plus.
Our Napro uses Creighton-specific data for initial diagnosis and treatment, so we're going with it for now. But am I temping in the background? Obviously.
(We'll have a Napro II post with our initial experiences coming up probably around the end of October. We were pretty salty about it in our Napro I post, haha. Stay tuned.)
Marquette:
So, I've never done Marquette charting, but here's what I'm seeing: It's another way of tracking your fertility....that relies on daily urine tests and a Clearblue monitor to track production of the various hormones dancing around in your body during your monthly cycle. (Somebody! Correct me if I'm wrong and I'll update this!) That data, used in concert with a Marquette algorithm, can help determine a woman's fertile window.
With Marquette, we're mostly interested in estrogen and LH (luteinizing hormone). LH triggers ovulation; estrogen helps your egg-follicles get ready to ovulate (and also does cervical fluid stuff).
The commitment: Urine test, every day. Which, like, anything you have to do every day sounds like a lot. But I think this is likely the least invasive method: You're gonna need to go to the bathroom right when you wake up, anyway, so, do it then? As long as you keep your tests in a handy location, it would just become part of your daily routine. No need for a specific wake-up time, regular sleep, or checking throughout the day.
On the other hand, I'd think that this is probably the most cost-intensive method, as you'd have to keep purchasing tests on a regular basis.
What you get: I mean, same deal. You get info about your fertile window and your hormone levels on a daily basis. I'm sure trends over time could paint a picture of overall health - and I know of at least one person learned about a pretty critical condition she had because she had that detailed hormonal info. (People who do Marquette: What other pros are there???)
Who's this for: People who'd rather not get their hands messy with cervical fluid, haha...? And who'd rather avoid waking up at the same time every morning. Sounds pretty good to me, honestly.
I should also note that you can definitely use the charting symptoms together: For example, there's a Marquette method where you do the tests *and* observe fluid, and the Sympto-Thermal method relies on BBT *and* fluid, albeit not in the standardized/granular way Creighton advocates.
I'm sure I'm missing a method. At least one, probably.
ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY, as usual, you do you, girl :) The end.
Anyway.
We're happy to be back! No more travel for a bit, which means that we're resuming normal programming.
Join us next week for a discussion on metformin - a drug commonly associated with diabetes.....................but! it has an off-label use for helping women with PCOS get+stay pregnant. Yay! Surprise: I'm on it, now. Let's chat.
After that, we're talking plant-based diets. Subtitle: Eating seaweed is fun!
Weight stuff (spoiler alert, being a kinda-vegan is helping):
I got tired of doing all of my number subterfuge. Here's the chart from my phone:
And there we go! Have a great week!