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When I began planning my wedding, I envisioned my handsome fianc\u00e9, a beautiful ceremony, lively reception, family and friends reconnecting, and my one-of-a-kind white dress. And while those images were front and center amidst the chaos of planning all the wedding details, I also looked forward to our first Natural Family Planning (NFP) class together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even before getting engaged, I felt I understood how NFP worked and had a solid understanding of my cycle, though I often felt burdened by it. Growing up, I experienced severe S\u00edntomas del s\u00edndrome premenstrual<\/a> that interfered with my abilities in school and triggered debilitating episodes of anxiety into adulthood. Instead of my cycle and hormones being a layer of my personhood, I felt that my personhood was subject to the unpredictability and pain that came with each new month. I got used to experiencing enough bleeding to go through multiple maxi pads in mere hours, off-the-wall mood swings, and cramping that made me double-over with nausea, but I had no clue any of these symptoms were abnormal. Instead of my cycle and hormones being a layer of my personhood, I felt that my personhood was subject to the unpredictability and pain that came with each new month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I was first experiencing this harsh new reality of life, my mom was going through her own discovery of fertility awareness. Together, we utilized some of the same remedies like vitamin supplementation<\/a>, prioritizing rest, and eating well to mitigate our symptoms. While these habits helped alleviate some of the pain, the months where I went off-course felt brutal. I went through a majority of my adolescence feeling that my experience shouldn\u2019t be considered normal, but it was mi<\/em> normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In college, I was introduced to Natural Womanhood\u2019s Club Cycle Mindfulness<\/a> (CMC) program through a friend, and eventually led the group on our campus for 2 years while I completed my degree. During this time, I talked to countless women inside and outside of the club who confided in me about their cycle issues, desires to come off of birth control, and the frustrations they felt in not knowing how their body worked. It was both alarming and frustrating to me that as young women we lacked the basic understanding of how such an important system in our body and essential part of our personhood functioned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As I learned through the CMC about gr\u00e1ficos <\/a>and the four distinct phases a woman experiences each month in her cycle, I became more attuned to the emotional and physical needs of my body. Understanding that I couldn\u2019t operate at my fullest one hundred percent of the time made me realize that I had been working against my body instead of with it. It had never before occurred to me that in times of my cycle where I felt exceptionally tired or had more energy, I could structure my days and activities to make the most of how I was feeling. This encouraged a newfound feeling of empowerment. I didn\u2019t have to push myself harder or pretend to be okay if I wasn\u2019t at times, and at others, I could lean into my creativity and heightened energy to partake in the activities that gave me life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Needless to say, tracking the basics of my cycle became an important practice for me while I was in college. So much so that by the time of my first Natural Family Planning (NFP) class (which my fianc\u00e9 and I took together as part of our preparation for marriage), I had already tracked 46 cycles! <\/p>\n\n\n\n After my experience as a Club Cycle Mindfulness<\/a> leader, I thought I knew what to expect from NFP, and was looking forward to applying what I had learned. I walked into the class excited, and in a frustrating turn of events (by no fault of our instructors), left the class utterly distraught and confused. The M\u00e9todo sintot\u00e9rmico<\/a> charts were much more complicated than anything I\u2019d used to track my cycle previously, and the calculations, terminology, and family planning rules all jumbled together in my mind. I left our first class feeling dejected and shocked that I felt so lost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What felt heaviest of all was the realization that I could become pregnant if I made an error on my chart recordings, or didn\u2019t interpret the signs correctly that cycle. When tracking my cycles in college, I had never worried before about becoming pregnant, because my fianc\u00e9 and I knew we would wait for marriage. But, as we approached marriage and NFP entered the picture, I suddenly felt afraid\u2014not only about becoming pregnant one day, but also about the new layer of depth and commitment marriage would bring into our relationship. I actually said aloud to my fianc\u00e9 at one point, \u201cWow, this is getting serious!\u201d (which I immediately recognized was silly to say after three years of dating and one year engaged).<\/p>\n\n\n\n What felt heaviest of all was the realization that I could become pregnant if I made an error on my chart recordings, or didn\u2019t interpret the signs correctly that cycle… as we approached marriage and NFP entered the picture, I suddenly felt afraid\u2014not only about becoming pregnant one day, but also about the new layer of depth and commitment marriage would bring into our relationship.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Internet advice and the advice of friends who practiced NFP left me even more confused\u2014 everyone did something different in their NFP practice, or even more surprisingly, didn\u2019t practice it at all! I felt like I couldn\u2019t relate to anyone, and besides the confusion, what felt worse was the loneliness in trying to seek out practical advice, only to be told \u201cWell, if you get pregnant, it just happens,\u201d or \u201cNFP just doesn\u2019t work all the time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nFinding a new path to cycle health <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Cycle charting meets family planning<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Looking for answers and finding more questions<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n