Knowledge is Power: How Learning about Fertility Empowered Me

Knowledge is power. The more a woman understands her naturally occurring hormonal cycle, the more she is able to make educated decisions for her health. That is true female empowerment. A woman who works to love and understand her body; not suppress it, hate it, kill it’s offspring or change it’s true nature. That is true feminism.

A popular podcast, Fertility Friday, refers to the female cycle as “the 5th vital sign.” As medical professionals, we’re taught to workup abnormal symptoms as clues for the underlying cause to disease. In a patient with chest pain, we aggressively attempt to identify WHY the chest pain is occurring. Unfortunately, not the norm in women’s health. For a woman with abnormal menstrual cycles, we band-aid her symptom with the pill. Rarely discuss the carcinogenic effects, unrecognized spontaneous abortions, and negative effects of sexual promiscuity. Women deserve better. Fertility awareness and NFP is another way.

As a college student, I was empowered to help my friends who were experiencing horrible side effects of hormonal birth control. I watched them heal from headaches, depression, mood swings and weight fluctuations after stopping the pill.

As an engaged woman, I was empowered to learn a method that included my husband without, “he’ll just have to get emasculated or fixed,” or “she’ll have to pop toxic pills!”

As a graduate student, I was empowered to learn about NaproTechnology, and witness doctors who effectively practiced pro-life women’s healthcare free of hormonal birth control and abortions.

As a working professional, I was empowered to learn how stress and unhealthy weight were effecting my own cycle, and be able to make positive changes for my health.

As a post-partum mother, I was empowered to know I didn’t have to pop a pill weeks after giving birth.

Every woman deserves this empowerment.

It can start with you. Your story, your bookstack. I threw some of mine in my beach bag to share for NFP week. May it inspire. Let’s learn as much as possible in the time we can. NaproTechnology, fertility awareness, NFP methods, pro-life medicine. Let’s be empowered. Let's show the world who we were created to be!