Charting is Worth It

I guess you can say my NFP journey started when I was 12 years old when I got my first period. I had no idea what NFP was or really anything about fertility other than the very limited information my public education had provided me. But I knew from the very beginning that what I was experiencing was not “normal”. For years, I dealt with irregular cycles, heavy bleeding, and painful periods, but I kept it to myself because I just didn’t know who to turn to. When I finally saw an OB/GYN for the first time, I explained my symptoms and guess what I was handed? Birth control pills. I was 15 years old and putting artificial hormones into my body and just did what I was told. After all, my doctor told me this was the solution and doctors know best, right?

It wasn’t until I was in nursing school that I began to understand the side effects of birth control and the cancer-causing components in what I had put in my body for so many years. And with breast cancer in my family history, it was a big scare. I went through a few different doctors, all whom recommended the pill, until I finally found a doctor who was willing to do the research and detective work of figuring out what was going on in my body. And with a diagnosis of PCOS, I finally had a better understanding of what was going on and the unique challenges I had to face, but all with the empowerment of knowing what I needed to do to get my symptoms more manageable.

Over the years, I have learned and tried three different NFP methods before finding what works for me and my family. I have paid for instructors, doctor’s appointments, and fertility tracking devices. I’ve had planned and surprise pregnancies. I have felt frustrated, confused, and even pressured by others to go back to birth control. Learning about my body and navigating through NFP hasn’t always been easy but I don’t believe it’s meant to be. I know that putting in the extra time, effort, and money to respect and honor my body is an act of love, and love requires work.

Having the support of a health care provider, learning to become my own advocate, and joining a community of other NFP users to receive support and advice has been tremendously helpful. Discovering the intricacies of a woman’s body has opened my eyes to the genius God is in creating our bodies the way He did. It has helped me to understand that there is not one solution to reproductive and fertility issues, even though so many doctors still turn to birth control as an all-encompassing solution. Maybe it’s laziness, maybe it’s a lack of resources, or maybe they are simply misinformed, but I realized what a huge disservice doctors are doing by just prescribing the pill, and gave me a deeper appreciation and admiration for healthcare providers who are willing to do the work of getting to the bottom of what exactly is going on in each individual. As a registered nurse, I have made it a small mission of my own to encourage women and affirm them that their bodies are BEAUTIFUL. That even with the ups and downs of NFP, the challenges of managing your symptoms, suffering through reproductive issues, and maybe even the immense loss and grief of infertility, you are worth more than the pill. You are worth the time and effort of a provider who cares, who hears your story, and gets to the core issues instead of putting a bandaid on it. You are worth the sacrifices your husband needs to make to respect your body and your hormonal changes. You are worth the beautiful body God gave you. You are worth the work and love you give yourself – in mind, body, and soul. You are worth it.