FAM 101 - Part 3 - Charting Your Data Accurately
FAM 101 - Part 3 - Charting Your Data Accurately
In Part 1 of my blog series FAM101, we looked at gathering the tools you'll need to perform the fertility awareness method with a high degree of accuracy. In Part 2 we covered what we chart in the fertility awareness method, including your 3 primary fertility signs, as well as secondary fertility signs, and other health data of your choosing. Part 3 will go through the details of charting your data accurately via paper chart or FAM tracking app.
The FAM 101 series has four parts:
Part One: Tools of Fertility Awareness
Part Two: What We Chart & The Fertility Signs
Part Three: Charting Your Data Accurately
Part Four: Interpreting Your Data
This is a process
When we practice science, we try to remove as many variables as possible, and we try to keep bias from tampering with our results. Fertility awareness is a scientific method, and so to achieve your goals and to obtain body literacy, you have to make an effort to remain objective. The fertility awareness method has parameters, and rules that you must follow which are meant to account for hormonal changes within the individual user, as well as to account for a degree of human error. The more rigorously you chart, the more accurate your results will be, but there's no need to worry. As you grow to learn your charts more intimately they will become much easier to understand, and charting will take up less & less of your actual time.
General FAM rules for properly taking and analyzing your data.
Building these skills will make you a better and more accurate user.
Take Your Time To Understand FAM. Especially if you’re coming off of a reproductive health issue, it’s better to track to understand your body than for contraception purposes at first. The first charts you make are where you’re going to want to become more highly educated on the fertility signs and how they work from day to day with your body. Taking the proper time for learning is important to using FAM correctly and to maximize your own autonomy. This means that if your goal is to learn charting for contraception, you & your partner(s) should agree to use barrier methods until you feel comfortable that you understand your fertile window and when it's concluded.
Don’t Assume. It is tempting to revert back to rhythm method thinking. "Well, I'm only on day 8!" Remember that you are doing the work of taking your daily biodata so that you no longer rely on these types of predictions. Predictions are antithetical to understanding fertility awareness because ovulation is a hormonal event which can be delayed or shifted for a number of reasons. Making assumptions means you are no longer relying on interpreting your data.
Don’t See What You Want To See - This one can be really tough, but you have to remove your bias when you look at your chart. This is where you can start to take risks by rationalizing data that isn't actually reflecting such an outcome. If you find yourself doing this, go back to the rules of FAM for contraception & use the rules to determine if you are fertile or not. If you don't have enough data to do so, you need to collect more before you are truly utilizing this method. Example: If you are waiting for your temperature to rise, but it isn't morning after morning, it's more likely that you haven't actually ovulated than something like "I think my thermometer is broken." You have to take the data at face value, even when it reflects an outcome you don't like.
Listen To Your Body. It's rarely wrong. One of the greatest advantages to FAM is being able to use your body's signs as a guide to understanding your rhythms and patterns. Your charts are not always going to look like the textbook. Between endocrine disruptors, hormonal birth control, the stress of everyday life, frequent travel, and a culture of unaddressed menstrual issues, the chart may not line up when you first start this process. You have to tune in to start writing down these observations. This is a skill that will take time.
Fertility signs may very well deviate from the biphasic pattern we would like to see, but those signs mean something for your reproductive & overall health. Don’t discount cervical fluid you observe in the post ovulatory phase. Don’t discount that you feel a lack of fluid during your fertile window. Don’t discount if you don’t see a temperature rise. Your data can *always* be interpreted, and sometimes its less about the moment of ovulation and more about what this is trying to tell you about your overall health. The pattern is a guide, and your charts will improve toward that pattern as your health does - but everyone is different.
This method is best when you utilize all your biomarkers & even your secondary fertility signs. Think big picture. Think one body. Your reproductive system is not separate. Your sex hormones actually have receptors in many cells in your body, not just your reproductive system. Every piece of the puzzle you decide to include is a step towards understanding your body & how you can work to feel well in it.
Let's go through the process of charting each fertility sign accurately in your chart or FAM tracking app.
For a review on how to take your fertility observations, return to FAM 101 - Part 2 - What We Chart
Cervical Fluid
Day 1 is always the first day of red menstrual blood. Further confirm this by using your basal body temperature. If you had a thermal shift 12-16 days before, the blood you are seeing is definitely menstruation and not something else.
Dryness is determined by checking throughout the day. Focus on vaginal sensations.
Use as many senses as you can to take observations (sight, touch, smell) and use the notations in your paper chart or tracking app to mark down the sensation.
Your app may have pre-determined categories for the main types of cervical fluid: Sticky, Creamy, Egg-White (Stretchy), & Watery (Wet). Although these may not perfectly describe your observation, you can mark down the closest to your observation and then make more notes in the journal section.
Utilize the journal feature to make even better notes about the consistency of the fluid. How it felt in your hands, how it dried on your fingers, and other descriptors, such as fluid present on your partners genitals or fingers.
Record the most fertile and most wet quality fluid/sensations of the day. Even if you are dry for the rest of the day, if you have the feeling of lubrication at any point, count that as your daily observation.
Identify Peak Day: Peak day is the last day that you observe eggwhite/lubricative or wettest quality cervical fluid. You may have a day or two of creamy afterwards, or the vagina may rapidly dry up the following day.
Learn the point of change: This is the point in your chart where you determine the two bookends of the fertile window. The fertile window begins when the previous day was 'dry' and the following day was 'wet' & it ends when the previous day was 'wet' and the following day is 'dry'
If your fluid observation is inconclusive, mark it down. If you used spermicide, or think you might be observing semen, make sure to mark your chart as questionable.
Add other types of fluid or vaginal sensations. Spotting, abnormal discharge, or anything else pertaining to your fluid or vaginal sensation can be added to the charts.
Cervical Position
Charting your cervical position seems like its going to be difficult but is actually quite simple.
In most apps, there will be a section for Height, Openness, and Firmness of the cervix.
When you are infertile, the cervix will be low, closed, and firm. When you are fertile, the cervix will rise higher, become open, and get softer. To represent this in the charts, we use a circle.
Basal Body Temperature
If you use a basal body thermometer that keeps a record of your temps, you can record your waking temperature in your chart later in the day. This makes charting much easier in the mornings and makes the method much more manageable on a daily basis.
If you decide to take your temperature twice for accuracy, always use the lower of the two numbers.
Record and connect your temps with a pen, or the charting app will do this for you.
Unusually low or unusually high temperatures can be marked as questionable, and eventually discarded in the reading of the whole chart. Wait until the following day to connect these temps as they may end up being discarded.
Drawing the coverline: Identify the first day that your temperature rises at least two-tenths of a degree above the highest temperature in the cluster of 6 preceding temperatures. (Day 16 shown here) Draw the coverline at least one-tenth above the highest temperature in the cluster of 6. Highlight the cluster of 6 temperatures previous to determine your bbt observed fertile window (Day 10-16 shown here)
Temp/Thermal Shift Button: some apps have a temp shift button so you can count how many luteal phase days you have. This is displayed as the 1,2,3 etc numbers in the post-ovulatory temperature chart below. If drawing by hand, write the luteal phase number on the temp.
When signs don’t align
If you feel doubt, don’t take the chance. That is the only way to use this method with its intended effectiveness.
The safest approach for contraception is to consider yourself fertile until you can confirm that you are not, that is when all signs clearly point to infertility. Check your cervical position to clarify.
Even on days where you don't feel like you have a lot of cervical fluid, if you observe it at all, know that a chance of pregnancy is possible and that you are still fertile at this time.
If you want to have penis in vagina sex without a barrier, make sure you & your partner make an observation before you are really aroused, and that gives you the opportunity to make a decision together about what you would like to do for contraception. Communication about your fertility status is key to practicing this method properly and getting the intended results.
Thanks for learning FAM101 - Part 3 - Charting Your Data Accurately!
In Part 4 - Interpreting Your Data, I'll go over how to make sense of the information you've logged into your fertility awareness chart.