Fertility Awareness Method

FAMs basic principles

FAM is based on the presumption that most women and few men understand a women�s reproductive system and therefore, are acting without the necessary knowledge to conceive. If you know what your body is doing and why, you can use that knowledge to more easily conceive a child. Those that just plan to have a lot of sex will likely get more control over when and why they should be having sex using this method.

What you will need

There is a fantastic book called, Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, that outlines how to practice and understand this method and female fertility. The book includes diagrams and descriptions of what you should be looking for. You will also need a Basal Body Temperature thermometer. These are available online or at most local drugstores. A normal thermometer will not show the small fluctuations in your body temperature you will need to track.

Overview of how it works

This method requires the most of the female, since it is her bodily functions that will need to be tracked. The male partner can be supportive by reading the literature and supporting and reminding his partner in her tracking efforts. Otherwise, it falls on the woman to make the effort. This effort will primarily consist of:

• Daily morning temperature taking and tracking to detect patterns
• Analysis of female discharge texture and consistency
• Regular analysis of changes in the feel and position of the woman�s cervix

While this may sound complicated or unsavory to some women, these are all things you can do yourself in the privacy of your own bathroom.

Benefits of FAM

• FAM is a great way for any woman to learn more about her reproductive system and her cycles. On the most basic level, it is an education and one that is likely to benefit you even if you do not get pregnant from it!
• You can learn when and if you are ovulating. If you are tring to get pregnant, knowing exactly when you are ovulating increases the odds in any given month of conceiving. Many women do not know they are anovulatory (not ovulating). Charting their cycles through FAM will tell them this.
• You can learn how long your luteal phase is (the second half of the cycle post ovulation). This will help to show you when your period is due (helpful if your cycles are irregular), and if your luteal phase is long enough for successful implantation.
• The information gathered from this charting will also be helpful to any couple who is having trouble conceiving. Charts of temperature and cervical fluid might tell a doctor much about what may be working or not working with your fertility.

Challenges with FAM

Given that FAM is a natural method of increases the chances of pregnancy, it can be more detail intensive than some desire.

• It takes at least two full months to conceive because you have to track a full month�s cycle before knowing and predicting what your ovulation cycle will be the following month.
• This tracking effort can be hard work for some women and requires a consistent commitment to ensure the results are correct.
• You must take your daily body temperature first thing in the morning, before getting out of bed and before going to the bathroom. (These things can effect the incremental changes in your body temperature and throw off tracking efforts.)
• The beep, beep, beeping of the thermometer every morning can be annoying and some husbands find it an irritating and constant reminder that they are under pressure to conceive.
• Some women say that despite efforts, they just cannot detect a predictive pattern.

Other methods of conception

If practicing FAM seems to overwhelming to you, you can try some of the other forms of attaining conception:

• Have regular sex every other day. Sperm can live for 1-4 days in the woman after sex. If you�re consistently having sex on that frequent basis, ovulation will eventually occur and conception should happen in that window of time. Obviously, this works only if the woman is ovulating properly and neither the man nor woman has reproductive health issues.

• Use ovulation kits. While this method may work for some couples, other couple�s lifestyle or desires may prevent this from being an effective method. For those couples, using ovulation kits may help considerably. (See FAQ on Ovulation Kits.) These easy to use kits tell the woman when she is ovulating so the couples� sex activities can be more targeted to the appropriate timeframe.

• Fertility drugs. Most doctor�s will tell you to try conceiving naturally for 6- 12 months before you consider that there may be reproductive problems that require medical help. If this is the case, the use of ovulation stimulating drugs and invitro fertilization (IVF) are options you may want to discuss with your doctor.