I want to elaborate on something that I think is one of the best aspects of charting you cycles using the sympto-thermal method of fertility awareness: Being able to gauge hormonal health.
Not only that, but being able to do so easily and notice anything that is going on early.
When I first started charting, I had extreme amounts of cervical fluid, both pre and post-ovulation, longer cycles (not super long, but averaged about 32 days), lower temperatures overall, and a slow shift into my luteal phase with my temperature and cervical fluid. This is all stuff that indicates that my hormones were not quite right.
In fact, my second cycle I charted was anovulatory, but remains my only anovulatory cycle since charting.
As I tweaked my diet and started being less stressed, my cervical fluid decreased, my cycles shortened, my temps have gone up, and I usually have an extremely crisp transition after ovulation*.
First of all, why are you able to gauge hormonal health by charting?
You need to chart 2 signals daily in order to practice the sympto-thermal method: temperature and cervical fluid. Cervical fluid is produced by increasing amounts of estrogen and dried up by high levels of progesterone. Temperature is increased by high levels of progesterone.
When you learn how to chart, you learn what the typical hormonal cycle looks like as well as what signals your body gives you indicating high or low levels of those hormones.
The length of your cycle and the lightness or heaviness of your period can also give a clue of your hormonal health.
Sure, there are hormones at play that we can’t see via body signals, but you can actually get a good idea of some of the problems that may be going on in your cycle – Just by charting!
Some of the things you can see just by charting your cycles
Longer cycles can be an indication of low hormone levels in general or PCOS (you can get a good idea of which one based on quality and quantity of your cervical fluid), which is characterized by lots of estrogen and testosterone. They can also be due to acute stress, but generally stress induced long cycles will be more of a one-off than a recurring theme.
Low progesterone can be seen in a few ways such as low temperatures after ovulation, fertile quality cervical fluid after ovulation, a slow rise in temperature after ovulation, spotting before your period, or a short luteal phase.
Low estrogen can be seen in low amounts or low quality of cervical fluid, and perhaps a lighter period.
High estrogen can be seen in increasing amounts of cervical fluid and possibly some of the characteristics of low progesterone.
Bad ovulatory pain can be an indicator of endometriosis.
You also have a check on your thyroid. Since our thyroid regulates metabolism, and your metabolism increases or decreases our body temperature, you can see a potential problem with your thyroid based on whether you have high or low temperatures.
How the constant feedback helps
Having feedback each cycle can be wonderful so that you know if you just had one weird cycle (which is almost never going to be a problem) or if you are continually having some kind of imbalance over time.
You also get the added benefit of being able to see what is working and what isn’t. If you start charting and your cycles are a little off, you can get an idea of what might be going on and what you can do to support your hormones back to health. You can then watch your cycles to see if what you are doing is working or not. How friggin’ cool is that?
Seriously, this is one of the best parts of charting. I can’t tell you how amazing I have found it to have body feedback every month. It is so cool to know how my hormones are doing and see how my body reacts to different ways of being treated.
Your cycles can be a massive barometer for your overall physical and emotional health, and having that can help you notice if something isn’t quite right for you. It’s amazing.
*note: my last two cycles were kinda iffy, probably the result of moving to Los Angeles and having the light influence. I have also been eating almost no meat, and my body does much better when I eat meat. I probably never would have taken notice of this if it weren’t for the feedback that I get from charting my cycles!
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Hannah,
Great post! I love charting for these reasons too. It’s so nice to have a a solid reference sheet to guide health decisions. Charting makes it so easy to visualize and target areas for change/experimentation.
Speaking of, I think my hormones have been a little wacky for the past 2 cycles because I’m getting a few cystic bumps (not really acne) around ovulation and then again right before my period >:-(. Plus terrible PMS that reminds me of being on The Pill again!! Right now I’m trying to balance with Magnesium/Calcium and Evening Primrose Oil supplements. Do you take anything for hormone support?
Happy Fertile Friday!
Liz
Hi Liz,
Thanks for the comment! In terms of “supplements” the only thing I really do is take cod liver oil (the green pastures brand, which is not heat treated). I’ve also been trying to take epsom salt baths a couple of times a month because of all the time I spend on the computer, and I just started oil pulling, but that was more for dental health than anything else (though I hear that it’s great for other stuff). Other than that I just try to eat organic whole foods, avoid endocrine disruptors, stay un-stressed, and sleep! I try to keep to my healthy hormones tips: https://holistichormonalhealth.com/tips-for-a-healthy-balanced-endocrine-system/
Experiments are the best! Everyone is so different and it’s always nice to see how YOUR body reacts to things.
:) hannah
Oil pulling…never heard of it but after checking it out online, it sounds quite interesting. Might be experimenting!!! :) Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for this. You just moved to La? I want to move next month. I’d love to connect with you.
Yes, I’ve been living here for a couple on months now :)
Do you know if taking milk thistle can affect my charts? I am considering taking it to try and help my adult acne, which I’m pretty sure is hormonal (given that it flares up monthly, and nothing I apply topically or change in my diet makes a blind bit of difference). I don’t really have any of the extreme symptoms you list for hormone imbalance, my only weird thing is that my luteal phase varies a lot (10-15 days), but as I say I’m stumped to think what else could possibly be causing the acne! Since I use FAM for contraception, I don’t want to start taking a supplement and find that it messes with my charts and we get a wee surprise!!! Any advice would be gratefully received.
You shouldn’t have any problems with milk thistle. Generally (as far as I know, but I am not a herbalist) it’s used to help your liver. I could see it helping acne because your liver would be more effective at clearing out your excess hormones. It shouldn’t mask any fertility signs, though :)
Really interesting about your luteal phases! What are you going off of, temp or cervical fluid when counting your luteal phase? I know one other persons that also jumped around, but she was working specifically on lengthening her luteal phase so some cycles would be better than others.
That’s counting from the first high temp. Drives me crazy haha – completely wrecks the period-predicting feature of the method! Usually it’s 11-14, but I have had one or two of the extremes. I didn’t know you could intentionally lengthen your luteal phase. What factors do you manipulate? I don’t think I should have any trouble when it comes to baby time though, even if the 10 or 11 day months are a no-go: there are plenty of longer months!
Thanks for your help. I’ll go right ahead with the milk thistle. Looking forward to a nice happy liver!
Have you ever tried going back over your charts, counting from peak day, and seeing if it’s more consistent?
Generally work on strengthening progesterone, but you can also do some overall regulatory stuff (one of the things she was doing was trying to look at the moon everyday! No idea if that actually helped her or not).
You can see some of my general progesterone increasing recs here: https://holistichormonalhealth.com/how-to-identify-low-progesterone-and-raise-low-levels-naturally/
Ooh well I’ve just mapped a whole lot of details from my charts into an epic spreadsheet and there may be a few patterns emerging! Measuring from the peak day didn’t make a huge difference overall (10-14 range instead of 10-15), as it’s almost always been within a day of my temp rise; but the 2 cycles with extremes were also the only months that peak day and temp rise were a few days apart – measuring from the peak day turned my 10 and 15 day luteals both into 13s! So I guess if the peak day and temp rise are far apart I should be ready for anything. I also noticed that the long 14 and 15 day luteal phases were all in a group chronologically, so maybe there was some environmental factor at that time that was affecting things. They also occurred when I had a slightly slower temp rise (not too slow, just 2 or 3 days to reach a constant), so perhaps I should have been counting the temp rise a couple days later??? That one’s probably important to get right for contraception!! Anyway, thanks for giving me the idea to look at the numbers more thoroughly – this is fun!
Great, glad you are looking at the overall patterns. Temp is a little less reliable than cervical fluid, so it’s ALWAYS good to pay close attention to cervical fluid :)