Fertility Awareness

Fertility Awareness is the practice of tracking one's physiological reproductive biomarkers for the purposes of family planning and monitoring reproductive health.  When used for family planning purposes, it is often called Natural Family Planning.  Kelly Donahue has been a Certified Natural Family Planning Instructor for 17 years and has experience helping women in a wide variety of reproductive categories: Typical cycles, Irregular cycles, PostPartum, Breastfeeding, Perimenopause, Difficulty Conceiving, and Post-Hormonal Birth Control.  Moreover, Kelly has used Natural Family Planning in her marriage for 18 years to both successfully achieve 8 pregnancies and to successfully avoid pregnancy. 

There are generally 3 types of Fertility Awareness Methods: Ovulation Methods, Sympto-Thermal Methods, and Sympto-Hormonal Methods.  Kelly teaches SymptoPro Fertility Education, which is a sympto-thermal method of Fertility Awareness.  SymptoPro teaches women how to chart 4 reproductive biomarkers: cervical mucus, vaginal sensation, basal body temperature, and changes that occur at the cervix (optional).  Using SymptoPro, women are taught how to crosscheck these signs to determine when they are fertile and when they are infertile. 

With SymptoPro, couples also learn how to use the reproductive biomarkers to identify the optimum time to achieve a pregnancy, identify a pregnancy, and set an accurate due date.  With SymptoPro, a couple can also identify infertility and health concerns, such as a short luteal phase, anovulation, and irregular bleeding. 

When couples are having difficulty conceiving, it is oftentimes helpful to incorporate urinary metabolites into cycle charting,  Kelly is not trained to use urinary metabolites to help a woman avoid a pregnancy, but she can help her clients use these tools to help them achieve a pregnancy or better understand how their hormones are functioning in their bodies.  Identifying the LH surge with the use of LH strips, confirming ovulation with PdG tests, using FSH to assess your stage in the Menopausal Transition, or evaluating the overall reproductive hormonal pattern through a fertility monitor can be great tools on a woman's hormone health journey.

Not all women need Fertility Awareness to avoid or achieve a pregnancy.  Some women may simply wish to work on cycle health.  In this case, Kelly can teach you a very simple system of Fertility Awareness that focuses on cervical fluid, Basal Body Temperature, and the LH surge.  The system is aimed at helping women accurately identify when the menstrual period is due and give them tools to monitor their reproductive health.

Fertility Awareness is not just for adult woman.  Rather, women of all ages should understand how their feminine bodies work and be able to identify ovulation as a sign of health.  Kelly is certified through Cherry Blossom Buds, a fertility education ministry for mothers and daughters, to teach 3 methods of cycle awareness to pre-teen and teen girls, each designed for a unique stage in the development of the adolescent cycle.  Each Cherry Blossom Buds charting system upholds the virtues of chastity and purity and enables girls accurately identify when their menstrual periods are due.