Are women not smart enough to manage their fertility with a Fertility Awareness Based Method?

Are women not smart enough to manage their fertility with a Fertility Awareness Based Method?

Maybe we need men in white coats to sell us a product which will help us understand our cycles better…

A 2018 study published in The Linacre Quarterly (the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association) questions the accuracy of Fertility Awareness Based Methods (FABMs) by stating that cervical mucus and basal body temperature are only indirect measures of fertility biomarkers.

The authors - all men, I mind you - claim that those markers are “sometimes difficult to interpret, and significant changes in the variables are sometimes “missing” from some cycles”.

Instead they promote the use of at-home test kits for urine metabolites of estrogen and progesterone (similar to an OPK/LH test). So this means every day you would need to test for the presence of estrogen or progesterone in your urine.

I have several issues with this. While some women really like the availability of the LH tests, oftentimes IN ADDITION to other biomarkers such as mucus and BBT, they are certainly NOT NECESSARY! The authors claim that the presence of hormone metabolites in urine is hard and fast proof that estrogen/progesterone levels are rising.

To clarify; cervical mucus is also a direct reflection of what is happening hormonally. Estrogen stimulates the cervix to produce mucus. Similarly, a sustained thermal shift measured with a basal body thermometer reflects rising levels of progesterone after ovulation.

If something is off with those markers (for example a limited mucus pattern or weak BBT shift) indicates that something is also off with the body as a whole. In this case it is beneficial to work with an instructor who is trained in a specific method of Fertility Awareness to sort out which days are fertile and infertile, as well as address improving the menstrual cycle and health as a whole. Now don’t get me wrong - yes, instructors also charge money for their work, but the skills they teach are skills you will have for your entire life (#bodyliteracy), compared to a product you have to keep buying.

Throughout the whole article women’s intelligence is questioned - for they cannot possibly grasp the complexity of the rules accompanying various Fertility Awareness Based Methods.

No, instead, we need capitalism so that men can sell a product to women for their most biological functioning such as having a menstrual cycle. More and more women choose not to take hormonal contraceptives - so other means of making money must be explored by inventing products women can use to manage their fertility without hormones.

I’m not saying that those tests are inherently bad. I’m just saying they are not necessary. But that is not the message you would get from reading this article.

Where do you stand on this?

Would you use a urine test kit for estrogen/progesterone every day? Instead of or in addition to cervical mucus/BBT?

Do you currently use LH tests/OPKs?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments! ⬇️

‍