MYTHBUSTER - About the Pill

   The next very important topic to cover in the Mythbuster series is the hormonal birth control tablet (the Pill).

Myth #1: The Pill is so effective because it makes your body believe that you are pregnant.
Fact: The pregnancy hormones are different, what the Pill does is it completely shuts down your natural hormone production, creating an artificial menopause state in your body, not to mention the side effects that come with taking it.

Myth #2: While taking the Pill you still have your normal menstruation every month.
Fact: Taking the first, experimental versions of the Pill women did not have bleeding at all which made them worried that they were pregnant. For this reason the manufacturers removed the hormones from the 4th week's tablets therefore inducing 'withdrawal bleeding' to imitate menstruation, hoping this would encourage women to take the Pill. We can talk about true menstruation only if it is preceded by ovulation.

Myth #3: Taking the Pill with regulate your cycles, reduce menstruation cramps, and cure your acne.
Fact: All these problems indicate some underlying health issue which can be cured by changing your lifestyle, your diet, taking certain vitamins or drinking herbal tea. Your body is trying to let you know that something is wrong. Taking the Pill, as we have seen above, shuts down your system therefore not providing a solution, only masking your symptoms. As soon as you stop taking it, your problems will return. 'If the smoke detector went off in your house would you try to locate the fire and put it out or would you wear your headphone, turn up the volume to drown out the sound of the alarm and pretend that the house is not burning down around you?' /Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: The fifth vital sign/

Myth #4: After coming off the Pill your normal cycles will return immediately.
Fact: There are cases when this statement is true but for most women it is a longer process that can take months or even 1-1,5 years. Think about waking up in the morning after a long sleep. There are people whose eyes just pop open and immediately they are up and about but for most of us it takes some time - let it be 5, 10 minutes or half an hour - to reach the point when we can get out of bed and start the day. Same scenario with the natural hormone production after the Pill.

Any comments or questions are welcome in this topic, I hope you found it useful! 😉

MYTHBUSTER - About the cycle and fertility

   The world is full of false information and misunderstanding burnt into the public's mind, so I thought of starting a series where we would discuss these myths in certain topics. The most popular misconceptions are related to the menstrual cycle and the fertility, so we will start with these.

Myth #1: A normal cycle is 28 days long.
Fact: Only a fraction of women have 28 days long cycles. The length of the cycle is totally normal between 24 and 35 days, it can even change from month to month (see in the next paragraph), but doctors usually follow the textbook "norm" and count with 28 days to make it easier.

Myth #2: Ovulation always happens on the 14th day.
Fact: The brain produces the hormones that are responsible for ovulation, therefore stress, travel, grief, illness etc can have an effect on it. Ovulation can happen as early as day 9-10 or as late as day 20-21 or even later, all are perfectly normal. The number of days between ovulation and the next menstruation (luteal phase) is always the same individually, it can last 10-16 days. The length of the cycle always depends on the day of ovulation in that month and the length of the luteal phase of that person. Doctors however count with 14th day's ovulation, following the textbook "norm".

Myth #3: Women can get pregnant on any days of their cycle.
Fact: After ovulation the matured egg lives for 12-24 hours and can be fertilized only in the first 6-12 hours of its life. The sperm can live up to 5 days in nourishing environment (fertile cervical fluid). Taking these factors into account there are only about 6 days in each menstrual cycle when unprotected intercourse can cause pregnancy. 

If you know more myths in this topic or you have comments or questions, use the comment option below, I would love to hear from you! 😉

The fifth vital sign

  More and more people consider the menstrual cycle (with ovulation) to be the fifth vital sign. And it is not only about the bleeding but all the hormonal changes, the maturing of the ovum.
  The cycle is closely related to your overall health, if everything is fine with you, then everything will be OK with your cycle also and vice versa: if there is something wrong with your cycle, most of the times it indicates an underlying health issue.
   Fertility Awareness is not only about contraception or making babies. If you learn to observe the signs that your body sends every day and note them into your chart, it will give you a complete and detailed picture of your health status as well. It can happen that you don't have symptoms but your chart tells you that your thyroid function is low and that is why you are unable to conceive. But this is only one of many examples.
   Fertility Awareness is very useful at any age and any state of life, after all who wouldn't want to avoid going to the doctor?
   Learning this method will give you such knowledge that you will gain control over your own body and confidently make decisions about it. For example you will not freak out and run to the pharmacy for anti-fungus medicines when you go to your gynecologist in your fertile time and s/he says "Unfortunately you have some flow", mistaking your cervical mucus to be a vaginal discharge caused by infection. You will just smile, thank her/him and throw the prescription into the first dustbin. (This is not only my experience, unfortunately most of the doctors are not aware of the things that you can learn here, it is not being taught in college or university.)

   So get an appointment, learn how your body works and gain confidence in your decision making. 😉

What is Fertility Awareness?

If you
- want to know more about your cycle and your fertility,
- are interested in what your returning symptoms mean,
- are trying for a baby and want to optimize your chances,
- are looking for a natural, effective and environment-friendly way to avoid pregnancy,
- are tired of the invasive fertility check-ups,
- want to avoid unnecessary treatments 
then you are at the right place!

   I can teach you everything you need to know about your own body and cycles. You can learn how to recognize your fertility signs, when to have sexual intercourse, maybe even try to choose the gender of your baby.
   
   Whether you are adolescent, adult or approaching menopause, whether you want to achieve or avoid pregnancy, whether you are breastfeeding or coming off the birth control Pill, you will find learning the Symptothermal Method, which is the base of Fertility Awareness, very useful.

   I think this is enough introduction, we will talk more about the topic later! 😉

Blog introduction and teaching

Dear Readers!
   I have created this blog, because I have so many things that I want to share with you related to Fertility Awareness, and my husband says nobody reads long posts on Facebook. I hope you will like it and find it useful!
   If you get interested and want to dive deeper into the topic and learn the Fertility Awareness method, send me an e-mail to timeaagnesvelu@gmail.com, contact me on my Facebook page: Fertility Awareness teaching and consultation - Timea Agnes Velu or message me here at 'Contact me!'.
   I teach mostly via Skype, the basic course is about 4 hours long (for Indians it would be 5-6 hours due to the complete absence of education in schools in the human anatomy and reproduction field). In special cases (adolescent, postpartum, breastfeeding, coming off hormonal birth control, approaching menopause) it takes half an hour extra. I teach everyone individually, therefore the pace is personalized, there is always time to process what you heard or ask questions.
   The course is mainly for women because the base of the method is the observation of fertility signs during the menstrual cycle, but it is always good if the male partner also takes part, it helps with the cooperation. In case of Indians both the partners should attend the course due to the reason mentioned above!

So Ladies (and Gentlemen), let's get started! 😉

Welcome

Hi, my name is Timea Agnes Velu. I was born in 1990 in Budapest, in high school I joined the faculty of biology-chemistry, I have a degree in taking care of babies and children and I studied indology in the university. I got married in 2016 and moved from Hungary to India the same year. We had already been trying for a baby for 6 months when I came across this method, one of my friends told me about it. I immediately fell in love with it, with all the knowledge that it gave me. Within a week I bought my basal body thermometer and a book that I learnt charting from, and dived into the world of Fertility Awareness. After only 3 months of using the method I got pregnant. Unfortunately it was an ectopic pregnancy, I ended up in hospital for surgery. Thanks to charting they could diagnose it quite early, my life was not threatened by it yet, but my left Fallopian tube had to be removed. Few months later my second angel was conceived but that was a biochemical pregnancy, it ended before we could be happy about it. I was devastated, but at least I had proof that this method works if you want a baby. That was when I decided to become a Fertility Awareness educator, I immediately signed up for a teacher course and I passed my final exam on 15th February in 2019. Being a Fertility Awareness teacher I want to assist women to get to know and understand their own cycles and fertility signs which will help them either to achieve or avoid pregnancy or simply to keep an eye on their general and reproductive health. I believe that the best way to succeed is this natural method, based purely on biology, that takes only few minutes a day but provides them with a huge amount of knowledge of their body. By using this method they can avoid taking unnecessary hormone treatments and medication, go under invasive check-ups in order to figure out the reason behind their infertility or get pregnant against their will. Learning about Fertility Awareness can help them confidently make their own decisions about their body and be in control. So, ladies, let’s get charting! 😉