FFP 036 | Increasing Body Literacy with Fertility Awareness | Health Benefits of Regular Ovulation | Feminism and The Pill | Laura Wershler

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Laura is a veteran sexual and reproductive health advocate who has worked for and volunteered with Planned Parenthood-affiliated organizations in Canada since 1986. She was a Columnist for Troy Health Media, and she is the new editor-in-chief for Re: Cycling, the blog of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research. As many of you know, I recently interviewed Holly-Grigg Spall, and in that interview, we spoke about her book Sweetening the Pill or how we got hooked on hormonal birth control. Laura actually wrote the forward to this book, and she has also publicly shown her support for the upcoming documentary that Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein are doing based on the book. And she has also charted her cycles for 27 years.

Today we will be talking about the health implications of using the Fertility Awareness Method that go beyond the practical aspects of having a hormone-free method of birth control, why rejecting the pill is actually not “anti-feminist” and why it is important for women to have access to accurate information about all forms of birth control regardless of what method they eventually decide to rely on.

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Topics discussed in today’s episode

• Is it possible for women to learn to use the Fertility Awareness Method confidently and accurately?
• Why a “possibly fertile day” is actually a fertile day
• The role that intention plays in the effectiveness of the Fertility Awareness Method
• The role that the Fertility Awareness plays in helping women to learn body literacy
• The implications of placing young women on the hormonal birth control before their menstrual cycles have fully matured
• The importance of helping women transition off of hormonal contraceptives successfully
• Why questioning “the pill” is not actually “anti-feminist”
• The benefits of having the ability to understand and interpret your fertile signs
• Why the pill doesn’t “regulate” a woman’s cycle or “mimic pregnancy,” and what it is actually doing to your hormones
• Why Laura has publicly endorsed the upcoming documentary Sweetening The Pill by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein

In this podcast episode, Laura described the hormonal changes that a woman experiences naturally throughout her menstrual cycle, and how that changes when a woman is taking hormonal contraceptives. For reference, here is an image of the hormonal cycle during a healthy menstrual cycle. You’ll notice that a woman has high levels of estrogen in the first half of her menstrual cycle before ovulation, and high levels of progesterone in the second half of her cycle after she ovulates.

Connect with Laura

You can connect with Laura on the Re: Cycling Blog for The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research and on Facebook and Twitter!

Resources mentioned

• re: Cycling | The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
• Coming off Depo-Provera Can be a Woman’s Worst Nightmare | Laura Wershler
• Six Things Women Need to Know About Their Fertility | Laura Wershler
• The Value of Ovulation to a Woman’s Health | Laura Wershler
• Why I’m Backing the Sweetening the Pill Documentary | Laura Wershler
• Sweetening the Pill: or How We Got Hooked on Hormonal Birth Control | Holly Grigg-Spall
• Sweetening the Pill Movie – Preview | Youtube

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Music Credit: Intro/Outro music Produced by Sirc of (The Nock)