Women’s health solutions
In Reply to a Reader: The Benefits of Charting into Perimenopause
Here at Natural Womanhood, we love being a resource to answer women’s questions about their bodies. Too often, women tell us that when they bring their inquiries about health and wellness to their doctors or clinicians, they are met with quick fixes and temporary solutions, rather than treatment plans that honor the whole of who […]
The Pill vs.The Sandman: How Hormonal Contraception Messes With Your Sleep
Are you feeling tired? You’re not alone. Roughly 25% of women have trouble sleeping at any given time. As our female bodies go through seemingly endless hormonal changes, it can be hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. But researchers have found there may be an unexpected factor contributing to the modern epidemic of exhaustion: […]
What’s the Best Postpartum Fertility Awareness-Based Method?
One of the beautiful things about Fertility Awareness-Based Methods (FABM) is that they can be used at any stage of a woman’s reproductive life, whether she’s got a regular menstrual cycle or not. Often, women and couples learn a natural family planning methods when they are preparing for marriage or when they are trying to […]
How to Talk Confidently About Fertility Awareness Methods With A Doubtful OBGYN, Partner, or Literally Anyone
Fertility Awareness-Based Methods (FABM) and modern, evidence-based methods of natural family planning (NFP) bring a wealth of helpful information and powerful insights into your health. FABMs can help you address and treat symptoms related to PMS and PCOS without using synthetic hormones, monitor your fertility, and clue you into any hormonal balances you might be […]
Good and Bad News Concerning the LAM Method During the Postpartum Period
If you’ve been learning about Fertility Awareness-Based Methods (FABMs), you’ve probably heard that you can’t get pregnant while breastfeeding. You probably also know of someone who has. So what gives? In order to trust a natural family planning method, you need to have all the information—that is, all the scientifically proven information, not just anecdotes […]
Three Science-backed, Natural Ways to Ease Childbirth and the Postpartum Period
While many people want to have children one day, few people actually look forward to the act of giving birth. Labor, delivery, and the postpartum period are often depicted in media as times of impossible desperation and exhaustion. There’s some truth to these depictions, as childbirth and the period that follows can be among the […]
Supplements for PMS Symptoms that Really Work
Did you know there are healthy supplements for PMS symptoms? For decades, hormonal birth control has been prescribed for reasons such as the reduction of PMS symptoms. A 2011 study by the Guttmacher Institute confirmed that 14 percent of women using oral contraceptive pills used them “exclusively for noncontraceptive purposes,” with alleviating the pain of […]
Why I Choose to Use a Fertility Awareness Method, Even Though I Have a Serious Reason to Avoid Pregnancy
As a physician assistant specializing in OB/GYN, I have prescribed birth control to everyone for everything . . . irregular cycles, painful periods, unusual bleeding, PMS, acne, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, perimenopause and, of course, to avoid pregnancy. It wasn’t until my own struggles with infertility that I began to research more about the […]
Let’s Talk Menstrual Cups
As more women look for sustainable and environmentally friendly options for healthcare and wellness, menstrual cups are coming to the fore as an alternative to disposable tampons and sanitary napkins. Though they’ve been around since the 1930s, the first manufactured menstrual cups for the United States appeared in 1987. Menstrual cups are typically made of […]
What Kind of Exercise Works Best to Mitigate PMS?
One of the first things my mom told me when she gave me the scoop on feminine cycles is that taking a walk can help ease menstrual cramps. She didn’t explain why, but I quickly learned she was right. A few years later, I was traveling to a family vacation and sat in a car […]