Know Your Yoni: Natural Birth Control
Getting in tune with our natural cycles is an incredible way for us to embody our femininity and become overall more sensual beings.
In this episode, I’m chatting with Liz Burton, menstrual cycle educator and creatress of Wild Womb Co all about the fertility awareness method. This is for all menstruators, whether you’re actively trying to get pregnant or avoid pregnancy.
Our bodies are remarkable machines and in this episode you’ll learn the basics of how to use this method to get more in touch with your cycle and your body, the different biomarkers of fertility, what’s wrong with the pill, how knowing your cycle can lead to better sex and so much more.
This podcast is for YOU, so if you ever have any questions you’d like me to answer on the show, or topics you’d like me to cover – reach out to me on email here or over on instagram @eleanorhadley
Links & Resources
Check out Tempdrop, the wearable basal body thermometer and receive 10% off here: https://wildwombco.com/affiliate-products/
To learn more about Liz’s upcoming course, Empowered Cycles, head here: https://wildwombco.com/empowered-cycles/You can find Liz online at @wild.womb.co
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Sensuality Academy Podcast!
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Sensuality Academy Podcast!
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Episode Transcript
Welcome to Episode 18 of The Sensuality Academy Podcast!
I’m really excited because this week on the podcast is the first time I’m having a guest on the show. I’m pretty lucky to know some amazing people who are doing equally amazing things in the world and I can’t wait to introduce them to you.
Today I’m chatting with Liz Burton from Wild Womb Co, all about Fertility Awareness.
Now, you might be wondering - fertility awareness? Since when its this a podcast about fertility? Well, it’s not. But one of the cornerstones of my work in my 1:1 coaching and in my programs is sharing about the importance, potency and power of connecting with our menstrual cycles. Especially for those us of who are menstruators and identify as women - I believe that getting in tune with our natural cycles is an incredible way for us to embody our femininity and become overall more sensual beings. That’s what I’m all about!
Now, I know when you hear the word fertility you probably think of it in the context of conception and pregnancy. But how often do you think about your fertility when you’re not actively trying to conceive?
If you’re anything like me - your answer is probably never. For many of us, we spend years actively trying NOT to get pregnant, until one day (maybe) you decide you do. But - fertility is so much more than this and can be a huge indicator of your overall health.
Now - fertility awareness can also have a huge impact on your sex life. As you’ll hear me discuss with Liz - your body is an incredible machine that will tell you how fertile you are throughout the month so you can plan accordingly in regards to protection, type and style of sex. Honestly - this has been a game changer for my sex life!
You’re in for a treat with this episode! You’ll learn what on earth fertility awareness is, how to use the method to get more in touch with your cycle and your body, the different biomarkers of fertility, what’s wrong with the pill and so much more.
Liz is a menstrual cycle educator and creatress of Wild Womb Co. Through workshops, presentations and online courses, she is on a mission to spread period awareness and deliver the education on cycles that you really should have gotten in school.
I was lucky enough to meet Liz at an event in Sydney recently, and she was so kind to invite me to stay with her at her place in Newcastle on my way up the east coast to my new home in Byron Bay.
I hope you enjoy listening to this insightful conversation. As always, if you’re loving what you’re hearing then be sure to screenshot and share to your stories, share with a friend and leave a lovely rating and review for the show.
Alright, here’s Liz…..
[INTERVIEW]
ELEANOR: Welcome Liz, Thank You so much for coming onto the Podcast today.
So, tell us a little about yourself. Who are you? What do you do? What you are passionate about?
LIZ: Thank you so much for having me on. My name is Liz and I teach people about the Menstrual Cycle and about Fertility Awareness in a nutshell. I’m really excited to share this with you. This started the back of my own journey and why I’m so passionate about it is because I have gone through this journey myself. I was put on Hormonal Birth Control, The Pill, when I was 15 because at the time my bleed was extremely painful and I was having a lot of nausea. I ran out of class one day to be sick while I was in High School and obviously that was not a great position to be in so my mum took me to the Doctor and that was an option that they told me to go on so I went on it. At the time, it was convenient, all my friends were on it, and it seemed like the best option at the time. From there, I was on it for a couple of years. Throughout that time I transitioned between a few different type of pills because my body was reacting and having bad side effects to different types. Eventually I ended up on Implanon, using it for a total of 7 and a half years. All up, 10 years on the little synthetic hormones running through my system. Towards the end of being on Implanon, I was getting a niggle from my body to come off it and, I guess, look into what my other options were.
When I went to the Doctor to get my Implanon changed over, I asked her while laying on the bed waiting for the next one to be put in and she mentioned that if she didn’t change it, I would get pregnant and that was kind of the end of the conversation - I didn’t even know how to respond to that, what do you do in that situation? Your Doctor is telling you that you don’t really have a choice, in my mind she wasn’t trusting me or my body. I left there with tears, with the new Implanon in.
It was another year and a half later when I started having that niggle come up again, when I started diving into Emotional Wellbeing work on myself and trying to connect in with my body but I felt like a ‘floating head’, like I wasn’t really in my body and I didn’t know how to get there. I had an epiphany one day that maybe the Pill was causing this. The Hormones floating through me, I was on this drug for 10 years - I had no idea who I was without this - this led me to jumping on Google and looking up all the side effects of the Pill and I was amazed that I hadn’t been taught this when I first went on it - Increased risk of clotting, Increased risk of depression, Cancers, everything there. So, I made the decision to see a different Doctor and she removed it for me and I was in a position where I wasn’t ready to get pregnant so I wanted some form of natural birth control and that eventually led me down the path of Fertility Awareness which we will be talking about today.
ELEANOR: Amazing, Thank You so much for sharing that. I think a lot of my listeners will be able to relate to that story of going on and off the Pill and trying a variety of Hormonal Birth Controls. I was on the Pill for 14 years and I didn’t even question it until the last two, I think, where I decided to work on my health and wellbeing and questioning ‘why I putting this random thing in my body every single day?’. How is it effecting me in ways I may not be aware of? Who am I without it?
We are never really educated as to what this thing does, what the side effects could be, how this could impact us long term and we stay on it because of the fear that if we aren’t on Hormonal Birth Control, how do we control whether or not I want to get pregnant - sometimes we are given it as the only option.
I am so excited to learn more about Fertility Awareness. It is something that I have been using in some way, shape or form for awhile but I know you are much more educated on this. So, tell us what is Fertility Awareness Method and why do you recommend it?
LIZ: A quick point, When you mentioned you were learning the side effects and when I started to dive in to understanding my body and Fertility signs - which I will go into - that made me really frustrated that I hadn’t been taught this education sooner and this is why I am doing this work now. We need to have these conversations, we need to be talking about this and have an understanding of our body. Fertility Awareness has definitely given me that tool.
In a nutshell, Fertility Awareness is multiple methods of tracking your Fertility Cycle and there are different branches underneath that. As a collective, they are all called Fertility Awareness - so many people think of the Rhythm Method, counting your cycle days - where everyone has a 28-day cycle, you ovulate on Day 14.
ELEANOR: Which is not the case.
LIZ: Approximately 20% of the population have a 28-day cycle.
ELEANOR: 80% of us are in the situation where that method will not work. It is over simplifying.
LIZ: Definitely. It has given us the tool to have that base understanding. In reality, anywhere from 24 - 36 days is what you are looking at for a healthy cycle. The different Fertility signs that people track with understanding Fertility Awareness and their body are Basal Temperature - this changes throughout our cycle depending on the level of Progesterone present and Cervical Fluid is another big one and that changes depending on Estrogen is dominate or whether Progesterone is dominate. Cervical position changes during a cycle which amazing - when I was learning all about this I was blown away that my body was this incredible but all also why I was learning this at 25.
ELEANOR: I feel the same way. I wish I had learnt about out this sooner and all the clients I work with are the same - amazed that our body is so smart and it is talking to us constantly. If we were taught Menstruation Education in High School I feel more people in the world would be more in tune with their bodies and have a better connection with themselves and with their partners. So, I want to ask you a little more about these Biomarkers for Fertility. First of all, when we say Fertility Awareness, I think for me in the past, when I heard the word Fertility, I said NOPE, I don’t want to get pregnant. Why one earth would I want to learn about a Fertility Awareness Method when I don’t want to get pregnant? Can you speak about that before we get into Biomarkers?
LIZ: We have definitely associate the word Fertility with Pregnancy for so long and to a degree we need to be fertile to get pregnant but that is not just having a baby. It is tied into our overall wellbeing and our whole reproductive system is tied into our overall wellbeing which is why I find it mind-boggling that we are taught that it’s ok to just shut off this part of ourselves - to me, it would be like shutting off a kidney function or something. Really, this is what we are doing.
ELEANOR: It is like, we are shutting it off until you need it again. Which is ridiculous because we do need it for our whole lives but we attach Fertility to Pregnancy and think it’s a far off concept especially when we are in our Teen years and early 20s it’s not something we are thinking about or maybe something we are never thinking of and so when we attach Fertility to Pregnancy we don’t even think about it. So, can you tell us more about why these markers of Fertility are important regardless of whether you are trying to have a baby.
LIZ: What is comes down to is the hormones that are playing around in our body which are basically little chemical messengers sending signals around our body. The main thing of shutting off our cycle with Hormonal Birth Control and there is a place for it but for shutting it off for so long, as so many people do, we shut off our body’s ability to a natural form of Progesterone and we need Progesterone for maintaining our body - it helps maintain our bones and tissues and really effective for our body’s anti-anxiety hormone. It is really important in our sleep system. When we are shutting that off - the synthetic version of Progesterone in the Pill doesn’t do the same thing in the body for our mental state as our normal self produced Progesterone would do. On the flip side, we have got synthetic Estrogen running around our body - which plays differently on what our normal Estrogen would be doing.
ELEANOR: Let’s go into Fertility Awareness Method. From my understanding, this is what I want to use to understand my body whether or not I want to get pregnant or activity trying not to get pregnant. You can use this method on either end of the spectrum. There are different Biomarkers in your body that tell you where you are at in your cycle and whether you are likely to get pregnant or not. Can you tell us a little more about these Biomarkers? And what they do, and how we can learn more about our body?
LIZ: These Biomarkers are our body’s way of talking to us and we should be viewing our cycle and our period as our fifth vital sign, like our monthly report card checking in with us. Cervical Fluid changes depending on whether we have Estrogen present - in the beginning of your cycle you will have your bleed once your previous hormones have dropped off and you will have a slow build of Estrogen causing your Cervical Fluid become more wet, more slippery, quite stretchy clear type and after ovulation - once Progesterone peaks, that becomes more like a mucus plug which is really important as part of immune system. Acting as a barrier of our external and internal world. We see those changes through checking our cervical fluid each day. I would encourage you start doing this - notice if you start to have that lubricative fluid during certain times of the cycle. Sometimes that can be confused with arousal fluids but you might start noticing that pattern within yourself and it is really beautiful to notice and this is something we were talking about yesterday - when I was a teenager, I remember thinking that I was the only person with stuff in their underwear and trying to hide that at sleepovers - I didn’t know any better but now that I know all about this about my body, that it’s normal - it’s producing this fluid that is vital part of my health. It’s more beautiful.
ELEANOR: I was the same as you. I always thought that this fluid, this discharge that was coming out of me was gross and there was something wrong with me. I remember as a Teenager especially when I was getting post-ovulatory fluid, I was questioning if I was aroused right now while sitting in Math class, I feel wet, but really it was my body doing it’s natural thing throughout the cycle. Some days there’s not much there, while other days there’s a lot there. Knowing there is nothing wrong with that is amazing and taking it to another level deeper - it’s telling me something very vital about my body is amazing. Can you tell us a little bit about Cervical Fluid how it changes at different times of the month and what that is telling us specifically? You mentioned about the Mucus Plug we are familiar with the egg-yolky, stringy type of fluid and then we have different types of consistencies. Can you speak to what those consistencies mean and what they can indicate about whether we are potentially ovulating or not.
LIZ: We have our bleed to start our cycle which is the fluid predominantly what you will be seeing. Once your bleed stops, you tend to have low level of Estrogen, low level of Progesterone. Typically you can be quite dry or pasty or sticky and as we go through our cycle and see the rise in Estrogen you will notice, which can vary in each individual, some may find it can go from dry to wet. Some may have a progression between a sticky and creamy and progressing into a slippery feeling fluid which looks like egg-white, quite stretchy for a few centimetres. With the rise in Estrogen, we have a peak of luteinising hormone which causes ovulation. We have a rise in Estrogen where we need to hit a certain threshold before ovulation is then triggered. The Cervical Fluid where we can open that fertile window, the body is gearing up for potential ovulation. Once we ovulated our body produces Progesterone and that Estrogen drops off and Progesterone causes that mucus. This is all happening within your cervix. Higher Progesterone - you can become quite dry, sticky, white dry towards the end of the cycle and you start your bleed again.
ELEANOR: And it all keeps going on again.
LIZ: Once you start to track this, you will find a normal within your pattern. What I described is within your “healthy cycle”. Some people will find their own rhythm with their body, within that system. The things that will spark that you will need to look deeper is when you have a build up of Estrogenic fluid and it drops off and you have a massive build up again of it. Sometimes you can have a little peak, around Day 21 of your cycle. If it was really building up then dropping off again and really building up again and you have an extensive cycle length and that can be quite typical of something like PCOS - your body is really trying to ovulate but it’s not really happening. It’s really beautiful because once we start to track our Cervical Fluid we can get a better indication what’s happening on a hormonal level and see whether or not that is within normal parameters for your normal.
ELEANOR: Cervical Fluid - we love it, it is awesome and can teach us so much and it’s all so perfectly natural. I think it is so powerful for everyone to know. Take that away with you. Tell us about Basal Body Temperature, what is it and why we use it as a marker of where we are in our cycle and potential for fertility?
LIZ: Basal Body Temperature is used confirm ovulation. Our body temperature fluctuates during our cycle. It tends to be fairly low and steady and once we ovulated progesterone rises and boosts our body temperature slightly. There are certain rules, depending on the methodology of Fertility Awareness that you are using to confirm ovulation. You will see a rise in Body Temperature and that will sustain until your next bleed and drop off - a beautiful reason why its beneficial to track Body Temperature and understanding my body. It allows you to see when your period is due, to be better prepared and no longer an inconvenience.
ELEANOR: Our body is amazing, there are so many indicators always happening. We need to take time to tune in to understand what our body is telling us.
LIZ: Basal Body Temperature - our resting body temperature, when you are still in bed, the lowest temperature after 3 hrs sleep. Thermometer can be purchased at Pharmacies.
ELEANOR: Check the show notes for a link to Temp Drop.
We have Cervical Fluid, Basal Body Temperature and Cervical Position.
Tell us more about the Cervix and the Cervical Position. A lot of people I know haven’t been taught much about our body’s. Some are not aware of what our Cervix is and where it is. Let’s start with that, then what the positioning means in terms of Fertility.
LIZ: The Cervix is a little organ that sits at the base of the Uterus in between Uterus and the Vaginal Canal and you can find it when inserting a finger in your Vagina you can feel something at the top of that. Some people have it quite high, others quite low. It moves during your cycle. When ovulating it retracts further up into body and becomes soft and the opening will open and after ovulation it will drop back down deeper into Vagina so more external so becomes quite firm. A good way to remember - ovulating is similar to the softness of your lips. When it drops back down it is like the firmness of your nose.
ELEANOR: This is the coolest thing. I talk a lot when teaching students and working with clients about the Cervix and orgasms because they are the most powerful. It is cool that it goes up and down throughout the cycle. It makes a lot of sense to understand why certain sex positions may feel good one week and bad the next.
When it is high that is ovulation. Indicating you are more likely to fall pregnant when having unprotected sex.
LIZ: For pregnancy to happen we need an egg, a sperm and cervical fluid which helps transport the sperm up into the Fallopian tubes where it will meet the egg. As it retracts into the body it opens up more. Looking at an image of the Cervix it can look quite puckered or ‘closed’ so that acts as another barrier.
ELEANOR: When the Cervix has dropped or closed it is essentially your body telling you that it is not the time to fall pregnant.
LIZ: use this as secondary sign as it can change with other things going on. It is a great way to track ovulation.
ELEANOR: When you are tracking, how do you test your Cervical High using the Fertility Awareness Method?
LIZ: Use your knuckles to measure how high up each day by inserting a finger. Make sure you are using good hygiene when checking your Cervix internally, wash your hands and not to use soap up there as it is self cleaning. Avoid using any washes. eg: FemFresh.
ELEANOR: Is there anything else about the Fertility Awareness Method that you want to talk about?
LIZ: Biomarkers that you can track, secondary. Predominant ones are Cervical Fluid and Basal Body Temperature. Progesterone testing and LH Testing - Ovulation kits which gives you another indication. Secondary testing differs between each individual and doesn’t necessarily have an accurate reading - you can get a positive LH test reading when ovulation isn’t actually happening.
ELEANOR: When we want to use to this to actively prevent pregnancy or try to conceive what else do we need to know? Is this enough information and is there anything else we need to know? How do we go about really committing to this method especially when trying to prevent pregnancy?
LIZ: If you really don’t want to get pregnant then you will require more information to stop that from happening as this is very entry level. There are rules to follow and depending on methodology that you are using they have different rules as to when you can have unprotected sex.
The biggest takeaway - you cannot predict ovulation with Basal Body Temperature. A number of factors could impact it’s result - sleep, travel, stress. Cervical Fluid helps to open up the Fertile window. It can happen earlier or later depending on what’s happening in your life. Be aware that there are limitations and methodologies, you can have different efficacy rates with the different methodology that you are using.
If you are just tracking your period with an app - those apps can provide better insight into changes throughout your cycle which can be a beautiful tool to take to your Doctors. This works more as a modern rhythm method, predicting based on when your periods were. It has a lower efficacy rating than if you were doing the Symptothermal Method which is the Cervical Fluid and Basal Body Temperature together. It has been known to have the highest efficacy rating. It can be up to 99.6% effective.
ELEANOR: We want as many indicators as possible if we are going to go commit to this especially preventing pregnancy but also if we are trying.
I know that in my experience, I have used a number of apps - Natural Cycles - it is rather alarming because it has this big red symbol that states you need to use protection, then this big green symbol that says you are ok. This can be dangerous if you are only charting when you have had your last period and only Basal Body Temperature and not understanding your Cervical Fluid.
LIZ: I also wonder if that is causing disconnect from our body as we are relying on an app to tell us - you are connecting on another level.
ELEANOR: It is very easy to hand-over our power to Doctors, to tell us what to take - false hormone - until you want to get pregnant and obviously some people struggle to get pregnant when they want to fall pregnant. We can be handing over our power to rely on Apps to tell us about our body rather than listening and paying attention to our body.
After being on the pill for many years and doing Basal Body Temperature and Cervical Fluid. - I haven’t done Cervical Height, I haven’t committed to that yet but willing to try it out. In terms of actively preventing pregnancy, I know that for me the method I was using I knew it’s safe when that Cervical Fluid comes out and I am aware that’s the ovulatory phase and knowing my cycle. If I was going to have sex I would have protected sex during those times. The other times, I would feel comfortable not using protection.
Obviously the disclaimer- STI Tests and checks and conversations around that were had well in advance before we decided not to use protection. Around the phase I knew I was potentially ovulating I would use either condoms or a diaphragm.
Could you speak a little more about how long we are ovulating for, as it can be very misunderstood because a lot of people will tell you, you can only get pregnant one day of your cycle but that is misconstrued with we are only ovulating one day of the cycle but we could get pregnant. Could you speak a bit more about that?
LIZ: We do have only one ovulation event. The egg only lasts for 12 - 24 hrs after that. What we need to take into consideration that within our Cervical Fluid, that beautiful stretchy egg like type, that sperm can live up to 5 days in there. We have to take that into consideration, which is why we use our Cervical Fluid to open that fertile window. As soon as we start to see that we know that Estrogen is rising, we know we’ve got conditions within our body that sperm could potentially survive in until we ovulate. We have to take that window into consideration.
ELEANOR: having unprotected penetrative sex when they come inside you 5 days before you ovulate that’s when you are at risk or potential to falling pregnant because of that Cervical Fluid. That is so important to know but there is a lot more , obviously to this method if you are going to commit to it. If you are wanting to commit to this method, it will be beneficial to work with a professional rather than just listening to podcasts and reading books.
ELEANOR: Can you let us know about your programs and what you offer in terms of your work?
LIZ: I offer menstrual cycle awareness - tapping into the energetic and emotional, physical, spiritual and all the juicy parts of us that change and fluctuate throughout the cycle. I have an app coming this month that I’m super excited about. I am about to finish my qualifications to offer The Fertility Awareness Training, my course comes out at the end of 2020.
ELEANOR: it’s so wonderful to know more about our bodies and to learn and educate everyone on how fabulous and smart our bodies are.
Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom today about the Fertility Awareness Method. What we are going to do is put in the Show Notes some links your programs, how to get in touch with you. Do you want to let us know what your Instagram handle is in case anyone is really keen to get in touch.
LIZ: My Instagram handle is wild.womb.co
ELEANOR: Everyone, go find Liz and learn more about your Fertility. I hope this episode was enlightening for you and as always, Stay Sensual.
