Charting your cycle with a fertility awareness method (FAM) can benefit your physical and mental health in numerous ways, from mitigating depressive PMS symptoms, to helping to diagnose a hormonal imbalance or reproductive health disorder, to assisting you in optimizing fitness and health choices.
Women who opt for FAM— also known as fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs) or natural birth control or natural family planning (NFP)— over hormonal birth control experience the natural health benefits of ovulation. These benefits impact multiple other aspects of women’s health, including:
- immune system health
- heart health
- bone health
- brain health
- breast health
- prep for future healthy pregnancies
Find more articles about the myriad benefits of fertility charting to women’s health, below.
This page was last updated on March 14, 2024.
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How cycle charting can help your teen reverse prediabetes
By Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN • March 21, 2024Blood sugar levels change over the course of the cycle -
Reasons Women Need Periods: The Role of the Menstrual Cycle in Preparing the Uterus for Pregnancy
By Clare Sharp • October 12, 2023Even before you start trying to conceive -
Irregular menstrual cycles in teen girls can predict future metabolic syndrome
By Kristen Curran • September 30, 2023As far as irregular cycles go, having too few periods might sound like a best-case scenario for many… -
What’s the connection between irregular cycles and cardiovascular disease?
By Kristen Curran • April 21, 2023It’s no surprise that the menstrual cycle can reveal important information about a woman’s reproductive health, but when… -
The top 3 reasons to avoid hormonal contraception during perimenopause
By Cassondra Moriarty • October 21, 2022In a recent People magazine story, Naomi Watts shared her story of unexpectedly entering perimenopause (literally meaning “around… -
Reasons Women Need Periods: The Role of the Menstrual Cycle in Breast Health & Development
By Cassondra Moriarty • April 8, 2022and its connection to cancer prevention -
Reasons Women Need Periods: The Role of the Menstrual Cycle in Brain Health & Development
By Cassondra Moriarty • November 14, 2020And why cycles are so important for teen braindevelopment -
Reasons Women Need Periods: The Role of the Menstrual Cycle in the Immune System
By Cassondra Moriarty • August 10, 2020When it comes to periods, misinformation abounds. Periods and period research have long been stigmatized, so it’s no… -
Reasons Women Need Periods: The Role of the Menstrual Cycle in Heart Health
By Cassondra Moriarty • June 5, 2020Welcome back for our third installment of “Reasons Women Need Periods,” a series dedicated to taking a deep…