61. A Natural Birth Control Method: Cycle Tracking with Chanana McGarry

Well, that's really insightful.

I think that what I find with so many women who are doing the work that you and I do when it comes to, like, hormone support and understanding our bodies, we kind of have our own lived experience.

So I know for myself, I knew nothing about my body.

I knew nothing about the menstrual cycle.

I knew nothing about hormones.

And so I disconnected from my body and went on hormonal birth control for 17 years.

And then coming off of hormonal birth control, it was this whole eye-opening experience of like, "Oh my gosh, my body, hello.

It's great to get to reconnect with you." It was actually kind of frustrating at first too because I ended up getting a diagnosis of PMOS because my cycles were really delayed, and the birth control pill just hid all that from me.

And so now I feel so much more empowered by knowing more about my body, and it sounds like that was really the focal point for you of understanding more about your body and feeling empowered with your choices instead of disempowered.

Yeah, definitely.

So the doorway was the natural birth control aspect, but as time went on, all of these different layers, like you were saying, revealed themselves.

And it's a great tool for understanding if you have an underlying Something like PMOS or any type of sexual health concerns, irregular cycles, hormonal imbalances, anything like that.

It's really an amazing tool.

It kinda gives you, at the end of every month, a monthly report card of your hormonal health.

And so you're able to see right there in black and white what's happening in your body, and then you work with nutrition, you work with lifestyle things, and you're able to see in black and white the things changing in your chart, and really feel empowered as an active participant in your sexual health journey versus just a passive participant.

Mm, yeah, absolutely.

I think you bring up a really good point about how that's gonna be a report card for us, and I talk to my clients all the time about that.

And full disclosure, one, I'm perimenopausal.

Two, I've had a really, really stressful month with the passing of my dog and some other things coming up.

I did not ovulate until day 26 of my cycle.

If I was not tracking my cycle using some of the fertility awareness method aspects of it, I would've thought that like, "Oh my gosh, this is it.

This is downhill.

I'm like on my way to menopause." But no, stress has such a significant impact on our hormones that it is a report card in which we can look back and be like, "Well, what happened during that cycle? What was different? Was there stress? Was there travel? Did I eat differently? What was going on?" And that can help you then make decisions about how to support your body going forward.

Yeah, and that's another great point that ties into some of the things we hear around the internet.

So many people are using apps to track their cycle, and I've even heard wellness influencers suggest women just avoid sex around day 14 of their cycle so that they can avoid pregnancy.