Hi there, this journey feels heavy. I get it.

There’s so much to learn and every time we see that period come, we feel like the world has ended. We know that’s not the case, but it feels that way.

There are two parts of that stress that stand out and the side that we are focused on today is the “did I do it right/enough” side.

I’ve been helping couples for a while now and it’s incredible when you see how knowledge can change an entire outlook. That spark ignites an entirely new picture of what is happening, or what happened. Suddenly, empowerment is visible! Confidence is clear!

One example, a younger newlywed couple had been trying for 5 months already. She had cycles that varied a bit, so it was harder to understand when to do the deed (it definitely was not when her calendaring app suggested). She tried to plan for it but he traveled frequently for work and in the end, they were both frustrated every time that period came. While she couldn’t have planned exactly what day she’d be ovulating, in the end awareness that they could be fertile over a wider range was insightful for both of them. Adding cycle tracking awareness knowledge helped them be able to communicate and understand why they may have missed the window, or why he needed to try to schedule trips more often in certain timeframes.

After this, they only needed 2 more cycles. The first one, she started to see how it all was lining up. The second one, the business trip came just after ovulation and they enjoyed that time together.

Cycle awareness eases stress, builds real confidence and often halves TTC time. Using tracking methodologies well can cut the average TTC time from within 12 months down to within 6 months!

There are multiple tracking methodologies. This means, ways to monitor where we are in our cycle. The main three (before the fancier “monitors”) are tracking Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Basal Body Temperature (BBT), and Cervical Mucus (CM). Today, we are not going to do a deep dive into them, but here’s a quick overview of some scientific perspectives.

LH is a hormone and we can buy easy to use strips/tests for checking it. Tracking LH is quite finicky because surge patterns and timing can vary per person, and hydration can even impact it! BUT, tracking LH indeed helped with improving success rates compared to not tracking cycles at all (increased chance from 16%-28%).

CM tracking is observing our body’s natural fluids created around when we are fertile. These fluids can create a more hospitable environment towards sperm and although it can get easier over time to recognize and understand the fertile fluids vs. non-fertile, it is a bit overwhelming at first! Of all the methods, this one is the one that gives the most insight into your “fertile window” because the nice CM is when you are fertile!

Finally, although analysis of BBT tracking is sometimes considering it an imperfect methodology, I suspect that a large portion of the times it is considered unreliable could be due to user error or other underlying issues. As such, basal body temperature tracking is still a method that’s been trusted for many decades.

These methods highlight a different part of the process, so you can imagine how insightful it is to combine more than one for a more complete picture of the situation each cycle.

In the end, while this stuff can take time to learn and apply, it’s powerful in providing a window into your cycle and when to focus your efforts. Knowledge of tracking is something that medical professionals should know and understand, but surprisingly few do!

Although doctors may not be fully trained to understand your charts, being able to understand it thoroughly yourself can empower you to advocate for yourself and your journey. All too often, I see treatment plans being prescribed that are not suitable for the situation.

For example, why have the patient take a test that is meant to be done on 7 days past ovulation… when they’ve not even ovulated yet.

Of course, the test will look bad. Maybe they don’t even normally ovulate for 6 more days. Then, they are told they “aren’t ovulating” based on a poorly timed test.

A woman who understands her own cycles and has been tracking, can help to steer the ship and understand when something isn’t right. Having the ability to question doesn’t make the doctor bad, or you a bad patient. It means you and the doctor save considerable troubleshooting and running around in circles. Many cycles of heartache you can avoid, all with the insights from tracking cycles and navigating with confidence.

This is a highly personal decision and can change based on the season of your journey. Personally, as your coach and friend who also understands the journey personally. It’s often tracking without confidence, that stresses us out. It’s the ambiguity that comes with trying to track the cycles and not really understanding what it all means.

I just helped a sweet gal with an Inito monitor yesterday. She was saying how it doesn’t tell her anything. Unfortunately, she had all this helpful information at her fingertips but she didn’t understand what it all means. To be honest, those things do have a lot of information to take in. That is an expensive way to navigate and of course, adding more confusion to an already challenging journey.

Researchers share that using cycle trackers did not impact stress levels of couples while TTC, but fertility stress is tremendously impacting many couples including anxiety and depression.

While tracking is great, and the apps/products out there are doing their best, we are all unique beings. Our cycles should be approached and read with that in mind. Apps can improve our ability to understand and track our cycles, but there are always challenges for some people even with those apps.

All-too-often, women say this app said this but this one says something else.

This is normal, because each app has a focus on certain elements of the cycle, or not enough has happened yet to see where everything will line up.

The key is to understand how it all works together and navigate your cycles with a clearer picture! With that, you can understand the tools (or skip some of them altogether) and take each day with confidence. We need to understand the activity and not rely on tools to perfectly relay the full picture when they can only see part of the picture.

I invite you (both new and experienced) to take a look at the Fertile Window Blueprint. This is a workbook and calculator that is designed to show the “full” potential fertile timeframe according to your personal cycles. It doesn’t cover tracking methodologies, but gives you the foundation to build on and for some, a key awareness that you could be possibly fertile for a longer time. If you are ready to figure out your full fertile window, grab the free blueprint here. No pressure, just clarity.