5 Reasons Why I Love Charting My Cycles

I’ve been charting my cycle since 2017 and over the past four years, I’ve found so many benefits to this practice!

Before I explain why I love charting, let me state what charting is not.

Charting is NOT putting your period start date into an app and letting it predict when your next period will be.

When I bought my first iPhone when I was a freshman in college, I downloaded a random period app that would predict when my period would start. This app worked by taking into account my average cycle length and would count the days out for me.

Sometimes it was spot on. Most times it was off by a few days.

One time that year, my period was a week late. I was waiting to have sex until I got married so I knew I wasn’t pregnant, but I remember wondering where on earth my period was.

Eventually, I deleted the app. It just wasn’t that useful.

A few years later, I learned about charting menstrual cycles. I read the book Cycles and Spirituality and that book taught me more about my period than I had ever known, and I scurried to Walmart to buy a thermometer, excited to try this out.

After two months when I was accurately able to predict my period to the day based upon the signs my body told me, I fell in love with charting! I felt so empowered and in tune with my body.

What does it mean to chart your cycle?

Charting is super easy! It only takes a few minutes a day. It involves…

1. Taking your temperature first thing in the morning
2. Observing your cervical mucus when you go to the bathroom

That’s it! :)

You can write this info down on a paper chart or use an app (I use the Read Your Body app).

When I was single, I used the info my charts gave me to accurately predict my period. Now that I’m married, I chart so that my husband and I know when I’m fertile.

Today I wanted to share with you all the reasons why I love charting my cycle. Then, at the end of this post, I want to share the resources I used to learn how to chart :)

Five Reasons Why I Love Charting My Cycle

1. Charting my cycle has taught me how my body works

Before I started tracking my cycle, I knew about my period and I knew it was supposed to come every 28 days… but when I’d track this in a random period app I downloaded I found my cycle actually varied in length and was

The female body goes through a cycle each month, and this cycle has four phases. The first is the menstrual phase- your period. Then you have the follicular phase, ovulation, and then the luteal phase.

I’m gonna sum up what I’ve learned about these phases, but keep in mind that I’m not a doctor or biologist. I’ll list the books I’ve read on this subject at the end of this post :)

Most of us ladies are very familiar with the menstrual phase. We love to hate it, am I right?

Our follicular phase is when our body prepares for ovulation. During this time, we produce cervical mucus as we approach ovulation. Fun fact- this is the phase that can change in length. If you’re experiencing extreme stress, your body will sense that and will delay ovulation because it can tell that it’s not a good time to conceive a baby! How cool is that!?

Then we hit ovulation- our cervical mucus is clear and stretchy and you might see some on your underwear. Before I knew about this, I would freak out if I would see this on my undies and wonder if something was wrong with me. Nope! I was just ovulating!

After ovulation, we enter the luteal phase. We can confirm that ovulation has occurred because our resting temperature (taken first thing in the morning) will rise and our cervical mucus will stop. This phase should always be the same length of time for you. Mine is 11-12 days.

2. Charting provides accurate period prediction

Because the luteal phase is always the same length, we can count the days from our “temp shift” to the start of our period. This is so useful!

In February, Texas got hit with crazy insane snow and ice! Power went out all over the state. Our house never lost power, so my husband and I “adopted” my brother and four of his college friends because the local university lost power. I was stressed about us feeding five extra people when we had only stocked up on food for two. I was stressed because my parents and grandparents had both lost power. My grandparents were running out of firewood and they live too far away from my family so we couldn’t get to them. Needless to say, that week was super stressful.

That week happened to fall during my follicular phase. Like I mentioned above, that’s the phase that can change in length. Once my temp shift finally happened, I counted ahead to see when my period would come. “I’ll start next week, either the Friday before Spring Break or that Saturday,” I told Caleb.

And I was right; I started the Friday that we got out for Spring Break.

My last cycle was 32 days instead of 28, but I was able to tell mid-cycle that it was going to be longer than usual and accurately predict the day my period would start.

3. Charting is useful for planning social activities

I don’t know about you, but I have zero-energy when I start my period. Additionally, I tend to cramp pretty badly on my first day. Because of that, I don’t like planning get-togethers with friends when I’m going to start my period because I hate having to back out on them due to cramps or exhaustion.

Tracking my cycle and knowing exactly when my period comes allows me to avoid planning big social events during that time.

On the flip side though, I’m extremely social during the follicular and ovulatory phases. I like to plan things with friends during that time.

4. Charting my cycle helps me prep for my period

I like to support my period as naturally as possible. So, when I see my temp shift happen, I know to start using Young Living’s Progessence Plus serum. I start diffusing the Dragon Time essential oil blend. I drink more NingXia Red.

Knowing when my period is coming and having a literal “countdown,” allows me to know when to use these essential oils to support my period.

I also have found that eating spicy food during the few days before my period can make my cramps worse. So when I see that I’m about 5 days away from starting my period, I avoid eating salsa and other spicy foods.

(Want to know what else I do to support my period naturally? Read this post!)

5. Charting is hormone-free birth control

Did you know that women are only fertile for 24 hours?

Yup.

They don’t teach that in sex ed.

With the presence of cervical fluid, sperm can live up to 5 days. So really, you can only get pregnant within a small window of your cycle- right around ovulation.

While I’ve been charting my cycle since June 2017, I only have a few months of experience of using it as birth control as Caleb and I have only been married since January.

Charting as birth control is called NFP (Natural Family Planning) or FAM (Fertility Awareness Method).

The difference between NFP and FAM is that with NFP you abstain from sex during the fertile window and with FAM you use a barrier method of birth control during the fertile time.

Within NFP and FAM, there are bunches of different kinds of methods. Some FAMs, like the Billings or Creighton methods, only chart cervical mucus. Other methods track both cervical mucus and waking temperature.

My husband and I are using the sympto-thermal method, where I track both my waking body temperature as well as my cervical mucus.  The sympto-thermal method has the same “perfect use” rates as hormonal birth control!

Also, remember that story about how my period was a week late due to the stress of the Texas snow? Because I was charting I knew I wasn’t pregnant but that rather my ovulation had been delayed!

I use the app Read Your Body to keep track of everything.

I LOVE this app. It’s about $15 a year which is crazy affordable compared to some other FAM apps. I used to use the free version of Kindara to chart, but I love the flexibility of Read Your Body so much more than Kindara. Plus, we just ordered a Tempdrop, which can sync with Read Your Body and I’m excited about that :) (More about Tempdrop later!)

Charting as birth control isn’t about predicting when ovulation will occur. It isn’t about counting days on the calendar or using past patterns. It’s about answering the question “Am I fertile today?”

How I learned to chart:

As I mentioned before, I started off by reading the book Cycles and Spirituality by Alison Protz. If you’re wanting to learn how to chart and you’re single, I highly recommend this book! It teaches everything you need to know about charting without teaching the birth control rules.

After I read Cycles and Spirituality, I made a copy of the paper chart in the back of that book and bought a thermometer at Walmart. Then I just got started and learned a little bit more each month.

Eventually, I switched from paper charting to using the Kindara app. (And as I said above, I now use the Read Your Body app.)

When I wanted to learn more about charting and to learn about the birth control aspect of it, I read the book  Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. This book is great to read to learn more about the female body in general, but it also contains all the info my husband and I need for us to use the sympto-thermal method for birth control.

What’s next in our journey? The Tempdrop!

This is a thermometer that you wear while you sleep. I’m so excited to try this out because to get an accurate basal body temperature you have to take your temperature at the same time every morning.

Because the Tempdrop takes your temperature throughout the night, you don’t have to take your temperature at a specific time. This is advertised to be great for shift workers or moms of infants. I’m neither of those, but I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to wake up at 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning.

I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve tried it for a while :)

I think charting cycles is something that can benefit every woman!

It’s so empowering knowing details of how my body works, being able to prep for my period is a lifesaver, and the natural birth control aspect of it is also fantastic!

Regardless of if you are single or married if you have a period you can benefit from charting your cycle.

I feel like I shared so much info about so many different things in this post. So, if you have questions or would like me to expound on anything, let me know in a comment :)

Also, let’s be Instagram friends! You can find me @kara_beth17

Posted by Kara Beth & filed under Charting, Marriage. This post has 5 comments.