Yes! You can read all about it here.

Yes, absolutely! I wrote all about that in the articles below.

Can you use the FAM Method with PCOS or irregular cycles?

How to manage PCOS without hormonal birth control?

Nope! I’ve worked with lots of folks who were still on hormonal birth control. Some folks prefer to learn about using FAMs as birth control before they’re comfortable going off of their hormonal method. The biggest difference is that you won’t be able to track your cycle using the tools taught in this class until you do go off of hormonal birth control because hormonal birth control can greatly alter our cervical fluid, ovulation, and cycles as a whole. You should also plan to invest in a few 1:1 drop in sessions with Brandy when you do decide to go off of your birth control and start tracking with FAMs because our first few cycles off of hormonal birth control can be quite wonky and confusing.

YES! I’ve worked with lots of folks with PCOS and/or irregular cycles who have ALL found the method to be extremely helpful in better understanding their irregular cycles, as well as being a tool for birth control and pregnancy. The signs for opening and closing the fertile window are all the same whether or not we have a period every month or a few times a year. A person with PCOS and long cycles will simply have fewer fertile phases than someone with a regular, monthly cycle. Another great thing about using FAMs with irregular cycles is that we can get a deeper look at what is going on beneath the surface to better identify ROOT CAUSES of pcos and cycle irregularities so that you can seek out personalized, tailored solutions and restore healthy, resilient, regular menstrual cycles.

Yes and no. This method of birth control is for anyone who wants it! Many religious folks do prefer this method because it doesn’t involve any disruption of our natural cycles and how our body was designed to operate, but there’s nothing religious that is taught in this class.

NO! In fact, in the 10+ years that I’ve been using this method I have never practiced abstinence during the fertile window. While some choose to do so (and the choice is yours!), many of us use condoms during the fertile window instead of abstaining.

This is NOT the Rhythm Method or the Calendar Method. Those are outdated, ineffective attempts at natural birth control methods that were often encouraged by different churches and religions. Those methods were ineffective because they relied on past cycle data to predict current cycle fertility. They didn’t use any signs of real-time fertility like cervical fluid or temperature tracking. That doesn’t work because you’re not a robot and your body & cycle experience changes from month to month. The method you will learn is called the symptothermal double check method and it has been proven to be up to 99.6% effective when learned from a trained educator like myself (Petra Frank-Herrmann, et al). We’ll talk all about that research study on our call.

Yes and no. As a highly experienced certified FAM Educator, I highly recommend that everyone who is new to the method plans to use condoms every time they have sex for the first 3 full cycles. This is to ensure that you have a back-up method of birth control while you’re still in the learning phase of tracking your cycle with FAMs. You may decide that you feel comfortable removing condoms sooner, but that is a personal choice. The 100% efficacy rate of this method among my clients is based on having used condoms for the first 3 full cycles of learning and using the method. Once you feel fully comfortable tracking your cycle and applying the rules of the method, condoms are not needed outside of the fertile window (and neither is pulling out). However, while in your fertile window each month (about 10 days) you must choose to abstain or use condoms to prevent pregnancy. If you’re like “Ugh, condoms for 10 days. Blurgh!” Think about it this way… how many times do you actually have sex in a 10 day space of time? If you’re me (a busy, exhausted mom) then it’s one, maybeeee two times. If you’re really feeling it maybe it’s 3 or 4 times. So all things considered, we’re talking about using 1 to 4 condoms a month.

I have a spicy take on this one. If he doesn’t respect your body enough to use condoms a few times per month, then he doesn’t deserve to be in your body at all. I highly encourage you to tell this boy (yes, he’s a boy) “Bye, bye, bye!”

What most folks don’t realize is that even though they’ve been tracking cervical fluid or temperature, they don’t really know what to do with it. This class is perfect for turning your cycle tracking data into ACTION. You’ll learn what all your tracking data actually means and how to better utilize it to get pregnant and spot potential imbalances that could be negatively impacting your fertility. This class is also great for folks who are TTC because many don’t realize that temperature is NOT the most effective tracking sign when trying to get pregnant - cervical fluid is! Many folks rely heavily on temperature tracking and haphazardly track cervical fluid, if at all. This class will teach you why that’s NOT the best way to do things when TTC and how to track cervical fluid with ease.