Natural Cycles — TRINE KRISTIANSEN

Many people ask me what type of contraceptives I use, as I've shared that I'm not on any type of hormonal birth control like the pill. I've been using Natural Cycles for a while, and I love it so much! Natural Cycles tracks your temperature, and can be used as a part of the "fertility awareness method". I actually started tracking my basal body temperature not only because of cycle awareness and for the use of contraception, but also because of my metabolism, as I'm hypothyroid (low thyroid function) and wanted to measure my metabolic rate, and how it responds to the nutrition and lifestyle changes I'm doing to heal myself. And since you can use it to prevent pregnancy, you can of course also use it to plan pregnancy. More knowledge about your body and how it works are really the only "side" effect.

I wish we, as young girls, learned about our bodies and how they truly works. So that when the issue of contraception arises, we already have the knowledge of our cycle, including our fertility signs, so that instead of hormonal birth control dominating the conversations, we now have choices. I didn't have this knowledge. I didn't think twice about starting on hormonal birth control because that seemed to be the only option and I didn't know of anything else. At school our teachers and school nurse spoke about of the importance of contraception while showing us condoms and boxes with the pill. We were taught that women are always fertile and that the only way to prevent pregnancy effectively is to use hormones that protect us from the possibility of pregnancy every single day. But that is simply not true. Not once did they tell us about what actually happens during our menstrual cycle. Not once did they speak of the different phases we go through each month, nor that a pregnancy only can happen in one of them. Not once did they explain what happens in our bodies, every month, most of our lives. And how we could use that information to get to know our bodies, to read the signs and to be able to choose an alternative contraception method that's as effective and safe, but without all the damaging side effects that hormonal birth control has on a woman's health and wellbeing. It should be basic information taught to us alongside every other subject learned at school. Because if there is one thing to be certain of, it's that we are going to live our life inside our bodies, meaning that our health should always be first priority. Our hormonal cycle is a big part of our health and wellbeing and has to do with far more than just our fertility, because our cycle is utterly connected with everything else that is happening in our body. Our cycle, and how it shows up, is a reflection of our overall health and can give us so many signs of what's going on health wise, and for us, as women, to understand these signs, and to know what happens inside of us countless times throughout our lives, is our birthright.

The power of knowing your cycle is truly underestimated, and something most of us never learn about, which means we miss out of our own sacred femininity. We miss out on how to use the wisdom hidden in the different stages, how to use the cycle to our advantage and how to treat our bodies throughout our cycle as our needs naturally changes with the different phases, allowing us to connect and balance ourselves.

Not many women know that the side effects – mood changes, acne, suppressed fertility post-pill, are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the negative impact hormonal birth control has on the female body. Some of us are familiar with the short term negative effects, like bloating, weight gain, mood swings and nausea, but fewer of us are aware of the long term impact of hormonal birth control, the kinds of issues it can be difficult to reverse even when you come off the pill, and can impact your long term health. Damaged microbiome, increased inflammation, cancer, heart disease, nutrient deficiency, infertility, PCOS, thyroid issues and other hormonal imbalances are all long term side effects of hormonal birth control for women, like I've experienced myself.

The Fertility Awareness Method

I'll just explain what fertility awareness is, and how using Natural Cycles, can be a part of your fertility awareness method. The fertility awareness method is a natural hormone-free method of birth control that involves learning to observe and interpret the changes in your fertile signs so you know what days of your cycle you are actually fertile. Using the fertility awareness method allows a woman to have an effective alternative to hormonal birth control methods, that not only allows her to prevent pregnancy naturally, but also gives her a tool to better understand her body, menstrual cycle and fertility. When used perfectly it has been shown to be 99.4% effective, more effective than the pill, not to mention that there are no side effects.

The Fertility Awareness method also provides women with an extremely important and helpful window into their overall health that can actually be used as a diagnostic tool to identify health and fertility related issues through cycle charting. Using the fertility awareness method of birth control involves learning to interpret 3 main signs of fertility:

- Cervical Mucus

- Basal Body Temperature

- Cervical Position

Read more about the fertility awareness method here.

What is Natural Cycles?

Natural Cycles is an effective method of contraception - and so much more. It's the only certified and clinically proven contraceptive app in which gives you the knowledge to get to know your body and truly understand how your cycle works. The Natural Cycles unique algorithm analyses a woman’s basal body temperature (BBT) and identifies when ovulation has occurred, predict fertil days as well as calculating when the woman is no longer fertile. It's protection with more sexual freedom - minus the side effects that other contraceptive options like the birth control pill, has.

Natural Cycles are all about combining scientific research and mobile tech to empower every woman worldwide with knowledge about her body, menstrual cycle and fertility. That way women can make a conscious decision on whether and when she wants to get pregnant. Choice is power.

How does Natural Cycles work?

Every cycle is different but in general women can only get pregnant during their fertile window. A short 5-7 day window around ovulation is where it’s possible for you to get pregnant, you cannot get pregnant on every single day of your cycle. Natural cycles find those days for you. All you need to do is measure your temperature in the morning, by using a thermometer, and then enter it into the app which will give you a red or a green day depending on whether you need to use protection or abstain from sex during these days. It not only detects ovulation, fertility and the different stages of your cycle, it also calculates accurate predictions for upcoming cycles.

After 1-3 cycles of measuring, the app has enough data to confirm when ovulation has occurred and accurately predict the fertile window as it gets to know your individual cycle.

Natural Cycles identifies the fertile window for each individual woman, based on her unique cycle pattern, changes in hormone levels and temperature fluctuations. Established biological indicators of ovulation include:

- A temperature rise of 0.2 – 0.45°C, when progesterone is released.

- A surge in luteinising hormone (LH) approx. 48 hours prior to ovulation.

How does Natural Cycles calculate my red or green days?

During your menstrual cycle your temperature rises and falls slightly which is due to the change in your body's hormone levels. The Natural Cycles algorithm analyses your temperature and also takes other factors like sperm survival, temperature fluctuations, past cycles and cycle irregularities into account - to determine whether you are fertile or not and calculate your red and green days. If you take your temperature every day before you get out of bed, after at least 5 hours sleep, and you put your numbers into your app, you'll will notice a pattern. Although your temperatures won’t be the same every day, they will fall within a certain range. The temperature shift typically occurs the day after ovulation, and is due to an increase in your body’s production of progesterone following ovulation, which causes an increase in your metabolism that can be measured. Your BBT will remain in its higher range until you get your period and start a new cycle, at which time your BBT will drop back down to its lower range.

The image above illustrates the increase in temperature that occurs after ovulation, and how the hormone levels influence the basal temperature.

Can I have sex without protection?

Yes, on a green day. You cannot get pregnant as you are not fertile.

Is it effective?

Yes. Clinical studies have shown that Natural Cycles’ effectiveness as a contraceptive method is comparable to other conventional methods. During one year, 1 woman out of 100 gets pregnant due to a falsely attributed green day or condom failure on red days. 7 women out of 100 get pregnant during one year due to all possible reasons (e.g. having intercourse without protection on red days or failure of the contraceptive method used on red days).

Read more about Natural Cycles and the science here. And I've got a discount code from a friend that gives you 10% off of your annual app subscription and the Natural Cycles oral basal thermometer, worth 199nok, for free!