66. Cycle Charting Basics for Health & Fertility

In this episode, Dr. Monica Minjeur discusses the essentials of menstrual cycle charting, explaining how tracking specific biomarkers—like cervical mucus, basal body temperature shifts, and hormone metabolite patterns—can reveal insights into ovulation timing, hormonal balance, fertility evaluation and overall health. We discuss how charting these daily biomarkers can aid in targeted hormone testing, identifying irregularities, and supporting natural fertility. Tune in to learn how charting can empower you in your reproductive journey, whether you are trying to achieve or avoid a pregnancy, or just want to know more about your overall health.

Transcript

Monica: 0:02

Welcome back to cycle wisdom, where we empower women to restore natural menstrual cycles to improve health and promote fertility. I'm your host, Dr. Monica Minjeur and I'm so glad you're listening today. On today's episode, we're going back to the basics and discussing the importance of charting your cycles. I will discuss exactly what I mean by charting your cycles, as well as describe how it's so much more than keeping track of just when your period happens. I also discuss how I utilize what I see in your charting to help identify and treat hormone related symptoms as well as gain an understanding of things that may be impairing your ability to get pregnant naturally. Let's get started with Kelly's story. Now Kelly came to me because she wanted to get off birth control pills in order to try and achieve a pregnancy. However, prior to being placed on the pill, she had very heavy and irregular cycles as well as acne. And she was worried that she was going to have a return of those same symptoms when she stopped taking the pill. Kelly and I met first for a medical consultation and talked through those medical concerns prior to her taking her last dose of hormonal birth control. However, the other priority that we had was in providing education on charting instruction. Now, what I mean by this is that when we are looking at identifying exactly when your date of ovulation is, We're able to identify a fertile window. This also was going to allow me the opportunity to be able to further evaluate Kelly's medical concerns and those specific symptoms she was having paired to where she was at in her menstrual cycle. And then the final piece that really helps when it comes to having some charting in order to evaluate medically is that if cycles don't look normal, it helps me to observe exactly where things are going wrong. For example, is the problem in a follicular phase? So when that follicle is developing early in the cycle, is the problem during the ovulation window or is it during the luteal phase after ovulation has occurred, but before the next menstrual cycle. We talked through all of this as far as getting this charting instruction done as well as ways that we were going to manage her irregular cycles when she stopped the pill. Now, when Kelly came back to see me for followup, I could tell very easily where the concerns were just by looking at her charting over the course of two cycles and it helped me to be able to order labs appropriately for a particular time in her cycle, as well as to order the correct labs in the first place so that we knew exactly what we were evaluating. Now, Kelly's story is like so many others that we hear, and this is why it is so incredibly important that we have that charting down prior to getting that full medical evaluation. If you come in and all that I have is just to know when your period was, that doesn't really tell me anything as far as how you're ovulating, what else is going on with your cycles. Now, we certainly can kind of ascertain that there may be something going on if your cycles are not happening regularly. Or if you have really, really heavy or really, really light bleeding, but it doesn't tell us enough to be able to determine is ovulation happening. And really, we call ovulation the main event. And if you're not looking for those biomarkers, it's really hard to know, am I ovulating? Am I ovulating consistently? And does it look like everything else is aligning appropriately? Now, I do want to provide just a little bit of a disclaimer today in that the info that I present in this podcast isn't enough to go and use these charting methods with complete efficacy. I really recommend that you are working with a professionally trained charting instructor to learn a method that works best for you. There are multiple different charting methods that are out there that would qualify for what we call this adequate charting where you're identifying ovulation, and every method works a little bit differently. They all kind of have the same end result, but different women have different biomarkers that they utilize in order to know what works best for them. I would love to put you in touch with someone who is skilled in educating you on how to chart your cycles in a way that honors those unique differences your body has from day to day. and cycle to cycle. Our charting instructors at Radiant Clinic can teach in person in our Cedar Rapids, Iowa office or virtually all over the world. Let's start off a little bit with what do I mean when I say charting your cycles? And, you know, we talk about this in a lot of the other episodes, But really this is going to be tracking your daily biomarkers. Now certainly this does include tracking your bleeding, so the number of days of bleeding, how heavy it is, if you have any spotting, brown bleeding, or irregular bleeding happening at other times of your cycle. But it also is going to include other daily biomarkers, like checking your cervical fluid or mucus. And for a lot of people, they get a little bit weirded out by this, thinking it needs to be some internal exam or something that's going to take a lot of time or energy. But really what this means is that when you go to the bathroom, you take a clean, dry piece of toilet tissue, You wipe across the entire vaginal opening on the cross to the perineum, and then you observe what you see on that toilet tissue, and based on that, based on the sensation that you have with your wiping, based on what you observe on that toilet tissue, as well as the characteristics of any mucus you see, will help to determine if that day is fertile or not. Now you do have to do this observation every time that you go to the restroom throughout the day, because we want to make sure that as things shift and change throughout the day that we aren't missing any observations. That's what we mean by tracking your cervical fluid or cervical mucus. Something else that some women will utilize in order to track their daily biomarkers may include temperature charting. This is also known as basal body temperature. And there are different devices that are available out there that will track your temperature kind of around the clock. But really what we're looking to identify is a temperature shift. Now, the one downside with this temperature shift is that there are a lot of things that can throw off your temperature. For example, if you are sick, If you have had alcohol to drink the night before, if you didn't sleep through the night, maybe you were up with a kiddo overnight, or maybe you had an irregular sleep schedule, all of these things can throw off your temperature a little bit. But for some women, tracking their temperature can be a really accurate way to kind of identify when that shift happens from the time after ovulation. And what we know is that after you ovulate, your temperature will increase a small amount, usually by 0. 4 degrees Fahrenheit. And once we see that increase happen, we can say it is likely that ovulation has occurred. Another way that we can look at your daily biomarkers is through urinary metabolites. This is going to be the breakdown products of things like LH or luteinizing hormone, or some other methods will also check things like estradiol, progesterone. FSH or follicle stimulating hormone. And again, we're not looking for the exact levels of those hormones, but we're looking for the pattern because it is just the breakdown products of those hormones. what we're looking for is to see, is there a shift? for example, if we see that your LH test is either increasing or it shows positive, depending upon what type of test you're using, that can be a good indication of when ovulation has occurred. Now, when we're looking at these daily biomarkers, it's important to realize that things are going to change from day to day. ideally when we're tracking these signs, we want to track them in a linear way so that we're able to compare easily from cycle to cycle to observe for any differences. most of the methods that we utilize, we have a preference for being able to chart out in one line. on a chart in order to be able to see and then line it up cycle after cycle. If we're charting on a picture calendar, for example, something that just has a big bunch of blocks, it's a little bit more difficult to line up from cycle to cycle. And so that's something else as you start this journey is that making sure that you're lining up so that you can see what is the trend over time. Now, there are different ways that you can chart on paper, and there are also some apps that are out there. Now, I would refer you back to one of our previous podcast episodes where I talk all about apps, because not all apps are created equally when it comes to actually charting your cycles. If you have an app where you just enter in your menstrual cycle days and then it predicts when your ovulation window is going to happen in the future, that is not the kind of app that we want to be utilizing. That is a predictive app and it's based on the rhythm method, which is almost a hundred years old at this point in time. And it does not have the day to day accuracy that you need in order to be able to confidently identify that fertile window and really approach the 99 percent efficacy that we're looking for. Some people didn't realize that they could identify when they're fertile without using devices. You know, there's a lot of different things that are out there on the market right now as far as medical devices, whether they are things that are checking your mucus, things that are checking your temperature, things that are urinary monitors. And a lot of people think they need to have these devices in order to be able to know when they're fertile. And the truth is that yes, we don't need all of these devices. You can just look at your data from these biomarkers that I mentioned. Even if it is just your cervical fluid or mucus, or your temperature with a regular old thermometer, you can know each and every day. if you are fertile or not. Now, typically, if we're looking at specifically cervical mucus, we identify a fertile window, especially if we see cervical mucus present at all, especially if when you wipe, it is slippery, or when you observe the mucus, that it's stretchy or clear. And this is often described as that egg white discharge. However, this is not the only time that you could be fertile, so it underscores the reasons that you need to be working with a trained instructor to help identify your particular pattern of fertility, because it is different for each and every woman. Now, the times of increased fertility are right around that ovulation day. but it can be up to three to five days before and after that time of ovulation. Especially if you are trying to avoid a pregnancy, it's really important to be working with a charting instructor who can help you identify when you are possibly fertile to make sure that you're avoiding intercourse during those times. The other question that we get asked a lot is, you know, Hey, I want to use charting and I've been told that it works great to get pregnant, but I don't know if I can use it for long term. And the answer is yes, you can use charting methods long term because when you know your fertile window, you are empowered to utilize that information to try and achieve a pregnancy, or in the future to avoid a pregnancy, if that's your intention. And although your cycles will change over your lifetime, there are guidelines built into many of these charting methods in order to accommodate different times of life. Specifically, postpartum, breastfeeding, illness, times of increased stress, or perimenopause. And you can still utilize charting your cycles with great efficacy to either try and achieve or avoid a pregnancy, depending upon where you're at during your reproductive years. Added bonus is that charting has no side effects. There are no chemicals. You have no implants or devices in your body. And over time, it is much less expensive over the course of your lifetime. Typically for most charting methods, you are going to pay for that education upfront and then be able to use that method for the rest of your reproductive years. Now, we often do recommend a refresher course over the years just to make sure that your charting is still accurate, as well as any time that you're noticing a major shift or change in your cycles, to make sure that we're helping to give you the best education possible. When you are utilizing the charting instruction dependent upon your particular phase of life, We know that these methods approach 96 to 99 percent efficacy at avoiding pregnancy. If that's your intention. Now, this is similar or better than typical use for most forms of artificial birth control. On the flip side, if you're trying to achieve a pregnancy, Typically, within six months or less, over 90 percent of couples with normal fertility will be able to do that by utilizing that fertile window. That's really why charting becomes incredibly important is by identifying that fertile window, we're able to utilize that in a way that empowers us to make these decisions each cycle. Now, the way that I utilize charting in order to identify and treat abnormal cycles or fertility concerns is really going to be dependent upon what your intentions are. if you come to me and you have your chart, we look at that and we look to make sure that there are normal patterns that we see. I assess the number of days of bleeding you have, the number of days between each cycle that you have, as well as the quality and quantity of both bleeding and mucus. We look for anything that's outside of those normal realms, and we also look for patterns over time in order to assess for improvement, changes, or one offs like stress. or perhaps breastfeeding or situations that may have been an illness. And really what that helps me to do is to identify when is it appropriate to time your lab draw, when is it appropriate to check an ultrasound, when is it appropriate to take particular medications or supplements. And really the charting becomes like this map that we utilize to kind of get a deeper look into what's going on with your body as a whole, specifically in regards to your reproductive health, but also it lets us know from a bigger standpoint, where else do we need to be paying attention to particular pieces of your lifestyle, whether that's making sure we're getting enough sleep, having an appropriate diet, getting enough exercise, and making sure that we're dealing with all of these other components that are really giving us this insight into your overall health. Imagine if you had an effective, safe, and healthy and relatively inexpensive way to know more about your overall health by observing these important biomarkers regarding your menstrual cycle. Understanding these cyclical changes in your body will empower you to make appropriate lifestyle changes and seek medical intervention when needed to improve health and promote fertility. If you're ready to work with our elite team of healthcare professionals, go to our website, radiantclinic. com, to schedule a free discovery call with me, and learn more about our package based pricing for comprehensive care. We are currently able to see people for in person appointments in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area, or can arrange for a telehealth visit if you live in the states of Iowa, Illinois, or Minnesota. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Please share this podcast with someone in your life who would benefit from our services. Remember to subscribe to this podcast for more empowering content that I look forward to sharing with you on our next episode of cycle.