HAPPILY HORMONAL | hormone balance for moms, PMS, painful periods, natural birth control, low energy, pro-metabolic

E59: 2 Things You MUST Do to Track Your Cycle Accurately (And Why Tracking is Key When Balancing Hormones)

• Leisha Drews, RN, FDN-P, holistic hormone coach, period expert

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Welcome back to the Happily Hormonal Podcast! I have a super juicy episode for you today. It’s full of hands-on support for your hormones with specific steps and tips on how to track your menstrual cycle – even if you’re not trying to prevent pregnancy or get pregnant.

This is something that I wish I had known how to do so much sooner and something that I help my clients with all the time. I believe that understanding our cycles – and how our body behaves in our different phases – is incredibly empowering.

Please share this episode with your friends, sister, BFF, sister-in-law, or any woman you know. I want this information to be out there for all women to know and use.

In this episode:

  • [02:38] Tracking your cycle vs. tracking your bleed days
  • [05:05] Why you should track your cycle even if you're not trying to prevent pregnancy or get pregnant
  • [09:27] How to track your basal body temperature
  • [14:30] Using your temperature to know when you’ve ovulated
  • [23:07] Using your cervical fluid to predict ovulation
  • [28:17] How to track your cervical fluid


Resources
- If you have a question about tracking your cycle, fill out this form. I would love to hear from you, and I will feature it in the next episode.
- You can purchase the Tempdrop armband here
- Nourish Your Hormones Course: use the code HHPODCAST for $50 OFF Nourish Your Hormones!
- 3 secrets to balance your hormones workshop
- Free hormone balance guide

Connect with Leisha
Instagram: @leishadrews
Website: www.leishadrews.com
Apply to work 1:1 with Leisha HERE


Send us a text with episode feedback or ideas! (We can't respond to texts unless you include contact info but always read them)

Don’t forget to subscribe, share this episode, and leave a review. Your support helps us reach more women looking for answers.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Speaker 1:

Hey, ladies, i have a super juicy episode today for you, full of hands-on support for your hormones and full of really specific steps of how to track your cycle, because this is something that I wish I had known how to do so much sooner, and this is something that I help my clients with all the time. I love to do it because I so believe that understanding our cycles and being able to prevent pregnancy or be more likely to get pregnant when we want to is so tied to understanding our cycles. I was told as a 20-year-old that essentially what you are not smart enough to do, that it's not even possible that you could prevent pregnancy on your own. You need medication, and I don't subscribe to that anymore. I want to share this knowledge with you and I would absolutely love if you share this episode with a friend, with your sister, with your BFF, with your sister-in-law, anyone that you know. I want this information to be out there because, as women, we truly can understand our bodies in such a better way and such an easier way by creating our bodies to work really well and really consistently and really predictably and tracking your cycle and understanding it, whether you want to get pregnant, don't want to get pregnant, your husband has a vasectomy. Wherever you are on the spectrum, tracking your cycle is really important, so get your pen and paper and get ready to dive in to this juicy episode, and don't forget to send it to your sister friend right now.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Happily Hormonal Podcast. Now, if you're a little iffy on whether or not the word hormonal is a good one, you're in the right place. My name is Leisha Drews, registered nurse and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and a turn holistic hormone coach, and, after going through my own hormone journey and having my three babies, i actually believe that our hormones are one of the greatest gifts that we've been given as women and that, no matter what you've been told, it's possible for you to have thriving energy, good periods and a stable mood all month long, and I am here to show you the way. I think it's time to change the narrative around words like hormones and hormonal and start to reclaim the power that we truly have as women, which is a power to change not only our own health but the health of all of our family for generations to come. Hormonal balance doesn't have to feel hard. It can actually feel simple and fun when we do it in a way that aligns with how our bodies were made. If you're ready to start trusting your body again and feeling really good in that beautiful body that you've been given, then grab yourself a yummy drink and maybe a snack and let's do this.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's just dive in. I've been getting so many requests for this information, and I've actually had a couple of friends ask me recently what episode do you have on how to track your cycle? I need to find it, and I didn't have one that was truly. This is exactly how you track your cycle and why it's important, and so this is the one, and I cannot wait to just dive into it with you. So let me just start with a little bit of housekeeping here.

Speaker 1:

If you are tracking your cycle, there is a way that is going to help you really understand your body, and then there are other ways that are really going to not necessarily help you, and so when I talk about tracking cycles, i will ask people a lot of times if they have questions about their cycle. They will how are you tracking? Well, i'm just using an app, and so I'll say okay, if you're tracking your cycle, are you tracking just your periods, or what else are you tracking? They're like, yeah, i'm just tracking my periods. I just put in my first two of my period and then the app tracks it, and oftentimes they'll tell me that they're tracking ovulation because of that. Well, to be honest, they are not tracking ovulation. What they're doing is they're tracking their bleed days, which is great, super important to do that, so you know what's going on in your body And when. You're only tracking your bleed days, you're essentially trusting that an app is going to be able to accurately predict when you ovulate, and that would be perfect.

Speaker 1:

If you have a perfectly regular cycle and you never have stress in your life, you've never had a child, nothing ever goes wrong, essentially Because, as women, our bodies are so adaptive to stress and so sensitive to stress, honestly, that our ovulation can be delayed when there is stress. And so if that happens, if you travel or you have a really stressful event in your life or something that happens really close to ovulation, sometimes your ovulation can get pushed back a couple of days, and so if you're trying to get pregnant or you're trying to not get pregnant, that can be a problem, right, if you don't even know exactly when you're ovulating. So what I really want to teach you today is how to see the other signs in your body that would show you that you are ovulating and when you are ovulating. And then there's some troubleshooting that you can do with your cycle because of knowing these things as well And I'll probably do a second episode on that next week so that you have the context with that And really I'm just going to give you the how to today and then we'll go into the troubleshooting after that.

Speaker 1:

So when you are– not trying to get pregnant, or your husband has a vasectomy or something like that, or you're not married, you're not in a place that you would be needing to prevent pregnancy or even trying to get pregnant, then it can sometimes feel like why would I need to track my cycle? And if that's the case, i don't think that you maybe need to track it as like consistently every single month, perfectly. I would highly recommend, even if you've never tracked your cycle the way I'm going to teach you today before, i would highly recommend doing three to six months of this really consistently, so that you can start to truly know what's going on in your body and in your cycle And then, if you're not in a season that you really need to pay attention to it. Cool, drop it, but you will know later if you have things come up that you want to start tracking your cycle more consistently, or you want to go off of birth control, or you decide you want to get pregnant, you get married, whatever that looks like, there's going to be reasons that later in life you may want to track your cycle And I would love for you to be able to learn that now, whether you're 20 years old listening to this, or you've had three babies and been on birth control the whole time and you're 43. So this applies to all of us as long as you have a cycle.

Speaker 1:

Now, also if you are pregnant or nursing and don't have a cycle because of that, or have, like your regular cycles or PCOS or something like that, this is also so helpful for you because you can accurately predict and maybe not predict as much, but you can accurately track ovulation even before you get a period, and so you can know if you have PCOS and you have long cycles, you can know oh, i ovulated, so my period should be coming in the next two weeks, or if you are nursing and you don't have a period that you can track your ovulation before you would get a period, and that allows you to prevent pregnancy, if that's where you are right now, before you would even have a period to know that you had a cycle. So I think that all of that can be really important. And I said pregnant, but you wouldn't be tracking your cycle when you're pregnant. Really, this applies to nursing. So if you are pregnant, listening to this, save this info for later When you are past your pregnancy and you are postpartum. You could definitely take some temperatures during your pregnancy just to practice, but it's not going to give you a lot of information because you will not be cyclical the same way that you would be, even postpartum. There's going to be some sort of cycle there and some sort of paying attention to when the cycle is coming back. That doesn't occur in pregnancy.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the other thing that I wanted to kind of like let you know before we dive into the how to. I promise we're getting there is that natural family planning gets a really bad rap. Essentially. I know there's a joke that's what do you call people who do natural family planning? and it's, oh, parents. And there is truth to that for some. There's definitely truth to that, because it is easy to make errors when you really don't have all of the information And of course, we're all humans there can be still error. So natural family planning is more the like track with an app don't really pay attention to all of the factors.

Speaker 1:

But what I'm going to talk to you today about is considered more of the fertility awareness method, or FAM, and these are going to be the basics of that. There's always more to learn, but when FAM is used really consistently and you have the knowledge you need and you know what you're looking for, it can be just as accurate as hormonal birth control, which is incredible And I feel very confident in it myself at this point, and it's not because I'm a hormone expert. It's literally because I didn't know at all what I was looking for before And I was able to start to track my cycle really effectively and really efficiently, even though my cycle has been irregular in the past And even though I have been pregnant and breastfeeding in the midst of this. I was just because I practiced when cycles were regular and when I had a chance to learn. It is easy to come back to and track in different seasons of my cycles as a mom. So that's all the things, and let's talk about how to track.

Speaker 1:

So there are two main things that you need to track to accurately get a picture of your cycle. So number one is basal body temperatures. I'm going to tell you all about how to do that and what app to use, what thermometer, all the things. And then the other thing that you're looking at is cervical fluid. Those are truly the two things that you need to track And for most women, that's going to give you all the information you need And once you get confident with it, you're going to feel great about knowing when you're fertile and when you're not fertile.

Speaker 1:

So, tracking basal body temperatures It sounds really fancy, but truly what it is is. You want to get a body temperature first thing in the morning, when you first wake up, before you talk, before you move, before you roll over, before anything else happens, and most women will use an oral basal body temperature thermometer. I think that you can use a basal body temperature thermometer that's going to give you two decimal points. After the decimal, it's going to give you four numbers total. So, for example, 98.34 versus just 98.3. And that basal body temperature thermometer is just going to give you a little more accuracy. If you just have a regular oral thermometer around and you know the batteries are good, you can totally start with that, and the 98.3 is going to give you most of the information you need.

Speaker 1:

So I highly recommend, just like, using a regular thermometer. Don't get too fancy with it. You can get the one that like syncs to your phone. That's fine. I think that it's really ideal to have one that you can just track with an app that you like, so that you can really see your charts and see what's happening in your cycle And I'll talk about those apps here in a minute. But all you really need is a thermometer and you can take your temperature again right when you wake up in the morning.

Speaker 1:

Now I find that there are some women who have, for a variety of reasons. If you are mouth breathing, your oral temperatures may not be very accurate and you may notice they're all over the place. So in that case I would recommend doing either vaginal temperatures You have to do it the whole cycle. You can't do you know some one way and some another way and get accurate results So you can switch to doing vaginal temperatures. A lot of women are not really a fan of that either. Totally fine.

Speaker 1:

I also really like the temp drop arm band for cycle tracking, and that one's really nice, especially if you are breastfeeding and getting up with a baby in the night or have little kiddos that are still getting up or even are getting up at like lots of different times in the morning. It's really easy to track your temperature with that. And so the temp drop arm band I'll link to it in the show notes. It is just a little wearable thermometer that you put on your arm and it like essentially takes your temperature under your armpit during the night and gives you an average temperature, and so that one's really really easy because you just remember to put it on at night. You don't have to remember in the morning. That's often a factor for women who are not doing super well with tracking their oral temperatures. So if that sounds like you and you're like I don't think I'm going to remember my oral temperatures or I've had trouble in the past, then maybe you just get a temp drop. To me it was worth the investment because it just made it easier while I was nursing and getting up and it wasn't a big deal. So you need a thermometer. That's your number one tool When you are taking your temperature in the morning.

Speaker 1:

Like I mentioned, you don't want to be getting up and moving right before you take your temperature, and FAM rules actually say that you don't need to be moving for about three hours before you take your temperature besides the normal little bit of movement in your sleep. That's obviously fine, but if you again like, if you're waking up in the night regularly for any reason at all, and especially getting up in the night and moving around, you may not be getting accurate temperatures if you've been up within three hours before the time that you take your temperature. So definitely take that into consideration as you decide what type of thermometer you want to use. So that's with oral temperatures. It wouldn't be as accurate if you're getting up. So that's what you want to make sure that you are getting your temperature taken right away, first thing in the morning.

Speaker 1:

Now what are you going to do with that temperature? You're going to put it into an app. That's what I use. That's what many, most of my students like to use. There are a few of us who really like paper charting. That's totally fine. You can print out a paper chart. All you have to do is like Google cycle tracking paper chart and you can totally print one out. That's going to take a little bit more digging to understand exactly how to use that chart, but I prefer just using the Kindara app If you are taking oral temperatures. I really like Kindara because it makes the temperature cycle tracking chart very, very clear And there's lots of good information that you can track along with it, like tracking your cervical fluid, tracking your symptoms, like I'm going to teach you to do in a minute. So I prefer that you just wake up in the morning, take your temperature, plug it right into the Kindara app Or, if you want to not use your phone first thing in the morning, get just have a little piece of paper by your bed.

Speaker 1:

A lot of the thermometers are going to have a recall function on it So you could check if yours has that. If so, you can take your temperature, put it down, come back to it later and see what your temperature was. That's fine. Just figure out something that's going to work for you that you can get your temperature in the morning and get it written down whether that's on a piece of paper and you put it in the app later, put it in the app right away, do a paper chart. Any of those things are a good option, and I think that you can make it as high tech or as low tech as you want to. It truly can be super simple and super low tech and super accurate. And so, with that, when I say super low tech, this also means this is super low cost. That worst you're going to spend $10 on a thermometer and everything else should be free, essentially to be able to track your cycle.

Speaker 1:

So, when you've got your temperatures, what are you looking for? Over the span of your cycle, you're going to notice that you have a pattern of lower temperatures in the first half of your cycle, so from your period until ovulation, and then you're going to see that you have a pattern of higher temperatures in the second half of your cycle, so from ovulation to your next period. Now, one of the main things that we are looking for with your temperatures is that we're confirming ovulation and we're confirming when you ovulate it, and the reason that this works so well is because the pattern of lower temperatures prior to ovulation is going to look like it's going to be a little bit of a jagged line. It's not going to be perfectly. For example, 97.3 or 97.5 every single day, just a straight line and then a straight line up and then another straight line. It's going to be a range of temperatures within a few tense of a degree of each other. So let me tell you what that means accurately or, more sorry, more practically, if you are not like a real math girl.

Speaker 1:

So what that looks like is, for example, i would love to see, with a really healthy metabolism and not tons of extra stress in your life during this cycle. I'd love to see your temperatures like mid 97s all the way before ovulation. Now, if yours are in the 96s, yours are low 97s. This isn't something to freak out about. It is something to realize, though. That likely your metabolism is slower or your metabolism is more stressed, your body is more stressed. Your body is not prioritizing producing energy and producing heat, and often you notice this with symptoms like cold hands and feet or hair loss or low energy or constipation or fatigue or there's so many different things that you would also generally see. But if you're having those low temps, this is great to know because, as you implement the steps that I teach in, nourish your hormones to increase your metabolism and increase your energy and really nourish your body so it has the pieces that it needs to make healthy hormones, then you're going to see that these temperatures slowly increase over time.

Speaker 1:

Over a few months You would notice like, oh, i was 96.9 all the time prior to ovulation. Now I'm like 97.4, like we're moving in the right direction, which is a great sign. So this is something that you can use to really pay attention to your metabolism and your stress as well. But what you're looking for, like I said, is that lower pattern of temperatures. So what I generally see would be like okay, you're 97.3, 97.4, 97.2, 97.5, 97.3 again, and this is your little range where you're just within a few points of a degree of the same temperature, and then you will see sometimes a dip in temperature right around the mid cycle. So if we're using that 97.3 as your baseline, then we might see like a 96.9 or a 97.0. And then we see the next day generally a rise in temperature to 97.8 or 99, not 99, sorry 98.0 or 98.5, whatever that looks like for you. But what we're really looking for is at least 0.3 to 0.5 degrees higher than the previous pattern of temperatures. So the strict rules for this to be able to confirm ovulation are that we need to see a temperature rise that is 0.3 to 0.5 degrees higher than the last six temperatures that you took. Now, this doesn't happen every single time this way, but for you to confirm for sure that you ovulated, that's what we would be looking for.

Speaker 1:

Oftentimes, it takes a couple days after ovulation to be able to really tell for sure, but if you were 97.3 all the time and they popped up to 97.7 and then 97.8 and then 97.7 again, that's a pretty good sign generally that you have ovulated, because we see that progesterone has taken over, and progesterone is a warming hormone and increases the body temperature. When we see that little dip prior to ovulation, that is often indicative of the estrogen spike that happens. That triggers ovulation, and so oftentimes, when I see that dip, it is a sign that ovulation will occur within the next 24 hours. So sometimes we see that spike all the way up in temperature, that progesterone has now taken over, or sometimes we see one little temp that kind of is somewhere in the middle, and then a higher temp after that Again, what you're looking for, though, to know that you ovulated with these temperatures is you're looking for that day where you see a higher temperature and then you're looking for it to sustain for the next hopefully two weeks, but at least the next several days would confirm to you that ovulation has occurred, and then it's not just like a weird out of the blue temperature that rose.

Speaker 1:

Now when you're looking for this is going to be somewhere around mid cycle. Often times I'm looking for this around day 14, day 13, day 16, like right there in the middle of your cycle. If you have a cycle that's 28 to 30 days, that's about when I'd expect it to happen. With that being said, everyone's cycle truly is different. If you can have a 30 day cycle and ovulate on day 20, it just means that you're having a shorter luteal phase, and that's not something that we prefer because it means less progesterone production. But it can definitely happen.

Speaker 1:

If you start tracking your cycle and you're like there's nothing happening on day 14, there's nothing happening on day 16, i must be doing this wrong. Keep going, because we want to see that temperature actually rise and then stay risen. We would hope to see, like I said, that that temperature will actually stay in the higher range, at least half a degree 0.3 to 0.5 degrees higher than that first range of temperatures That you were looking at. We would hope that that stays all the way up until your next period starts, and then it will drop down and you'll see that lower pattern of temperatures again. If you see that your temperature is dipping a lot in that luteal phase and even dropping off a few days before your period, these are all signs that your hormones are not balanced.

Speaker 1:

This is where it's something that you can address and I can help you with inside of nursery hormones or with one-on-one support, and this is something that I spend a lot of time on in my membership. The nursery hormones collective is really helping my girls in there be able to see what's going on with their cycle. Part of the collective is that every month, you can submit your chart to me and I will make you a personal video that says okay, this is when you ovulated, this is what was happening with your cervical fluid, which we'll talk about in a minute. This is why I think your progesterone is great, or this is why I think your estrogen is a little out of control. There's so much that we can see with that, and this is something that you can learn to see for yourself within your cycle, but often it takes a little bit of outside support and outside help to help you be confident to know okay, this is really happening. This is what to expect. Now I'm clear on ovulation, and so you can ask your questions and get that support and really talk through your charts the first several months that you are tracking. Or if you've been tracking for a while and you're like, wow, i don't think I'm noticing all these things about my cycle, then this is a perfect time for you to join too, because I can help you with that And so we spend time on our group calls doing that, as well as those video audits that I sent. I highly recommend getting some support around this if this is new to you, because it is just such a powerful tool that is so hands on and like you can do on your own, and so I love that so much.

Speaker 1:

All right, so that's tracking your temperatures, just as a little recap. I know I talked about a lot of things there, but just as a little recap. You're going to take your temperature in the morning every single day. You're going to use an oral thermometer. If you decide not to do that, you're going to use a temp drop thermometer, you're going to use the Kendara app. If you're using an oral thermometer, you're going to use the temp drop app because it just syncs to that. If you have a temp drop thermometer and you are going to take your temperature for days and days and days before you try to figure out what's happening, you're going to look at a whole cycle at a time, or at least a few weeks at a time, and pay attention to those patterns and see if you're noticing those patterns for yourself to be able to track ovulation. Now, the problem with only doing basal body temperatures is that if you have an irregular cycle which tracking your cycle is incredible for an irregular cycle because, again, you're getting so much insight into what's going on in your cycle But if you do have an irregular cycle, you want to be able to predict ovulation, for many reasons, but to be able to predict ovulation to be more in the loop with your pregnancy options, essentially.

Speaker 1:

And so when you are doing basal body temperatures, you only know that you ovulate it in hindsight because we see that rise in body temperature. But what we want to be able to also see is when are you going to ovulate? And this is a really easy piece for many, many women, and so much of the time my clients just haven't even ever paid attention to cervical fluid, or they just don't even know what that's a thing. And it's so easy to track. It's already there, you don't have to do anything else, and so I highly recommend also tracking cervical fluid, because cervical fluid shows up when you are fertile and it helps you really know when ovulation is about to occur. And once you start to know your patterns, how many days you have cervical fluid, what your patterns are of cervical fluid, you can accurately predict ovulation to enhance your pregnancy planning options, and from there you can also confirm ovulation with the basal body temperature. So it's a perfect combination.

Speaker 1:

So what is cervical fluid? Cervical fluid is the fluid that is coming from your cervix and it is available, or it shows up when you are getting close to ovulation, and the reason for cervical fluid is because it makes it easier for sperm to get to the egg, essentially, and cervical fluid can actually also nourish the sperm and feed it. So if you had sperm in your body, say, three days before ovulation, that sperm can actually live, and often in really healthy, good cervical fluid it can live and sustain for three days, even up to five days, before ovulation occurs, and so you can still get pregnant even if you didn't have intercourse until even if it was five days before. Now, that doesn't always happen, obviously, but, with that being said, this is where we're looking at your fertile window as a longer period of time than just the day of ovulation, because when you ovulate, till the time that your that egg is disintegrated and no longer viable is only 12 to 24 hours. It's a very small window, but because that sperm can live inside your body in healthy cervical fluid, you have a much bigger window of time where you are fertile and that sperm can hang around until that egg drops down and, potentially, you could still get pregnant when you ovulate. So, with that being said, what we're looking for, to be aware of this fertile window, is cervical fluid, and it looks like most women will notice it in their underwear, and it looks like a really has several different qualities.

Speaker 1:

At the beginning of the time that you notice it, you may notice a little bit of kind of like a dry line on your panties. It's probably like white or could be like a creamy color. Notice it's dry, though. There's just like a little bit there And then it moves to more of a creamy consistency. It can be like dry and sticky. First You might notice dry or sticky And then it goes to more of a creamy consistency that's more like lotion, over the span of a couple of days generally, and then it can go to even more of a wet or an egg white quality cervical fluid before you actually ovulate.

Speaker 1:

So what I would usually see is if you were going to ovulate, say, on day 14, i'm just using that as a classic number for ovulation, but not everyone ovulates on day 14. Then I would expect that, like about five days prior to ovulation, so somewhere around day nine of your cycle, you would start to see a little cervical fluid. You'd see maybe one day of dry kind of sticky, you'd see a couple days of creamy and then you'd see a couple days of a wet or an egg white consistency And you would know that you were really near ovulation. When you have ovulated, that cervical fluid will dry up really quickly. For most women. You will see that it was like what? egg white quality and then it's gone, and the day that it's gone is usually the day after ovulation has occurred, and that's the same day that your temperature will generally rise. So the entire time that you see any type of cervical fluid, that is a time that you are fertile And so it's really important to know that and to be paying attention to that.

Speaker 1:

Most women will be able to see cervical fluid in their underwear and just notice it, and it's probably something. If you're listening to this and you haven't tracked it before, it's probably something you've already noticed but maybe didn't know what it meant or didn't pay attention to it very much. It's something you can start to pay attention to and it's something you can track in either app the Temptrop or the Kandara app and be able to have that information. So when you come into the collective and you're looking for help with that, i'll be able to really help you pinpoint especially if your cycle is a little more tricky to figure out. I'll be able to help you pinpoint, with the cervical fluid and the temperatures, exactly when you're ovulating and how long your luteal phases and how your estrogen or progesterone are doing, like all of those things with that information. So cervical fluid is, like I said, really easy to track generally. A lot of times you'll see it in your underwear If you're like I've never seen that before or haven't seen it in a while. I don't know what you're talking about. I do recommend that you grab the Kandara app and go into their knowledge base and they have some really good little articles in there about how to know which type of cervical fluid you have. And if you're not seeing it externally, you can, in that part of your cycle when you're like okay, i think I know that I should have some at this point, or I think I'm getting close to ovulation You can actually, with a clean finger, of course, reach inside and feel your cervix and just have, when your finger comes away from the cervical tip, you can kind of like rub your fingers together and see what you notice as far as consistency.

Speaker 1:

So if there's no cervical fluid there at all, it would essentially be the same as putting your finger inside of your cheek and moving your hand away. It's obviously going to be a little bit moist. It is a mucous membrane, but when you rub your fingers together there's essentially nothing there after a second or two because it's just dry, like it dries quickly. So that would be a dry day. There would be no cervical fluid that day, but if you notice, oh, it's like a little sticky, it feels like there's something here or there's a little bit of creamy lotion type texture. Or if you're able to even stretch that cervical fluid between your fingers. If you pull your fingers apart and it stretches like glue, that's more of the egg white quality of cervical fluid. So you can actually measure that internally if you need to, if you don't notice it on the outside. So that cervical fluid it really is simple to trap if you are able to pay attention to it. I would actually recommend that you try to track it every day during your cycle for a while so that you get in the hang of it and you can see what your patterns are.

Speaker 1:

Some women will have some cervical fluid a little while after ovulation too, and that often is because there is another little estrogen rise in the luteal phase And it may be like five-ish days before your period, five to seven days before your period. That doesn't mean you're fertile at that point If you have already confirmed ovulation with cervical mucus and temperatures prior to this time. If, okay, i already ovulated. This, that was a whole week ago having a little cervical fluid doesn't mean you are fertile at that time, as long as you actually have confirmed the ovulation. So those are really the main two things that I always want my clients to start tracking And then from there, as you start to trap, there's often questions and I am here as a resource for that.

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I love supporting my clients with that. I love looking at these charts, helping you figure it out. It's like a puzzle. It's so fun And sometimes it really is so straightforward, and sometimes it's not, but once you start to learn your patterns, you can be so empowered to figure it out cycle after cycle after cycle, with a little bit of additional support if needed. So I just want to encourage you go get a temp trap or a thermometer, start tracking your cervical fluid this month and then message me and tell me how it's going for you. Really, i'll see you inside of the collective so I can support you there. There's just so much that you can learn from this And, like I promised, i will come back with another episode next week that tells you a little bit more about what you can actually understand with your basal body temperature tracking and with your cycle tracking, like more advanced things that you can notice with your patterns and things like that, and some troubleshooting as well.

Speaker 1:

So I'm actually going to include a quick form in this episode. If you have a question, I would love for you to send it to me and I will feature that on the episode next time. Any information shared on this podcast is solely for educational purposes, is not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or treatment plan for any medical condition. I'm sharing my educated opinions and experience, but nothing shared here can be taken on a one size fits all basis. We always recommend that you do your own research, talk to your own doctors and take full, informed responsibility for any health and medical choices that you make.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for spending your time with me today, for listening, and I hope that you were encouraged and learned something new. If you enjoyed this podcast, would you be willing to share it with a friend and to leave us a review? I believe that every woman deserves to understand her body and feel great in it, and you can help me in this mission by sharing the podcast If you're also feeling like you're ready for the next step and you're really ready to dive in in your hormone journey. My course Nourish Your Hormones is created specifically for you. It's a step by step blueprint to increase your metabolism, restore energy and have better periods and mood every single month. I would love to connect with you, so come over and join me on my Instagram page at lea shouldrews and send me a message if you have questions or just want to tell me something that you enjoyed about this episode. I can't wait to meet you.