A brief education on how the female body works

So this information is for those out there who were like me four years ago.... someone who knows exactly two things about the menustration cycle. I ovulated sometime when I didn't have a period and I could get pregnant if I was sexually active.

But, silly me, I knew nothing else. I tried the mini pill for one week and it left me (you guessed it) hormonal. I didn't want to be "PMS"ing all the time, so I quit and decided to figure out an alternative. I looked up the rhythm method. It sounded good, despite the fact that I had irregular periods and never knew exactly what day my period would come, it sounded perfect. So I tried that. And was I dreaming! And then I got pregnant.

And I learned all about pregnancy. Then I had a baby, knew all about babies, and didn't have a period for ten months.  That was nice.

I did research on family planning methods that did not involve hormones and decided that I was going to use temperatures and cervical mucus data to avoid pregnancy.

I got my first period successfully knowing when I ovulated.

And then I had a 67 day cycle. And we got pregnant again.

Now, obviously I am an "expert" on my pregnancies and on my babies, but had yet to conquer the avoidance of more of them. But I was determined.

So here's a simple education on the female cycle that is vital for both men and women to understand if you prefer no hormones or foreign objects in your body.

Cycles change, and there are lots of reasons why. 
Hormones, stress, the moon, the people you are living with, breastfeeding, hormonal birth control. These things throw your body off and cause anxiety or excitement about the possibility of pregnancy.

In you (or your female significant other)'s cycle there are two phases: the follicular and luteal phases. The follicular phase is the period of time when you start your period through when you ovulate and the luteal phase is the time period after ovulation through the first day of your period.

Ovulation is when the body releases a mature egg from an ovary and it goes through fallopian tube to the uterus. The egg survives 24 hours. If a sperm finds it before it dies, then you have an embryo that goes into the uterus and attaches itself to the cozy ready-made lining (aka period discharge) and grows a cute cuddly baby. 

http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/images/item/prn-limbaugh-20130611-planbchart.jpg

The follicular phase is the part that varies due to situations listed above. However, you always have fourteen days after you ovulate (luteal phase) before your next period.  

During the follicular phase, the cervix is prepping for ovulation. After your period ends, the cervix begins creating copious (or small) amounts of mucus of various textures. It goes from creamy to very stretchy. The very stretchy (as in you can stretch it two inches) mucus is called (for lack of a better term) egg white mucus. This is considered fertile mucus and can shelter sperm.

A note on sperm: sperm, in hostile conditions (aka post ovulation), live only 24 hours, but sperm in ideal conditions (egg white mucus) can live for 5 days. Five days. That's more than half a week. 

So this is all scary and it seems inevitable to get pregnant if you don't want to touch your mucus (and who does?)

Your body temperatures change during the phases.  When you wake up in the morning, before any hot beverages, you take your temperature for five minutes (leave it in after it beeps). This temperatue is your body's baseline temp. Depending where you are in your cycle it's higher or lower. 

In the follicular phase, your temp is lower. For example, mine is 97.5 -97.7 (F). 

Once you ovulate, your body temperature jumps at least .3 of a degree. Mine jumps to 98.3-98.6. 
 During this phase, I always feel warmer than everyone else. And when the week before my period happens, I drink red raspberry leaf tea to negate rash behavior on my part (haha).

Here is an example of someone's temperature on a chart.

http://thegiftoflife.info/Images/Images/nfphormonegraph.jpg

What's so great about this??
 1. I always know when my period is coming (I just look on my calendar two weeks from when I ovulated, and also my temperature drops)
2. I understand my body and what's happening and so when we are ready for another baby, it will be simpler to "plan". 
3. I do not have to ingest any hormones (and their side effects) and our birth control budget is minimal (just barrier control during the fertile pre-ovulation periods)