Why chart as a single woman?

One of the things that most people are most surprised to hear is that not all of my clients are married or engaged. And I am so happy that women come to me before they get engaged or even begin dating.

Why?

The Creighton FertilityCare method is also used to track fertility, to help women to understand and appreciate their fertility. And, disclaimer, you don’t have to wait to be married understand how God created our bodies to be (though it is lived out so beautifully in marriage). There is such a beauty in understanding your cycle and the patterns that come from it. And, understanding your cycle and fertility that allows women to understand themselves and their femininity in a deeper way.

Not only do women learn to identify patterns and the cyclic nature of their own bodies, they also learn to understand through our intro sessions how, biologically, our bodies are designed to carry and hold life, the hormones involved, and where problems occur in their body. So you get the added benefit not only of charting and learning about your specific body, but also the science and anatomy behind how your cycles and fertility were created and how they function!

And, charting while you’re single allows you to troubleshoot and identify any problems or patterns that are unusual early on. Sometimes these problems are obvious for women (problems with menstrual bleeding, never ovulating, having severe PMS, etc) while others may not be so obvious. And thankfully, it doesn’t have to be a scary process. If something is identified in your chart, you not only have the help and support of your Creighton FertilityCare Practitioner, but also certified doctors who are trained and equipped for any problems that may arise. You will feel loved and supported along the way, especially knowing that there is treatment that works with your body and your cycle, not against it, and can even be as simple as taking a bio identical hormone to give your hormones the support that they need. You can begin management and any kind of supplement or treatment, before introducing another person into it.

I’m grateful to have started charting as a single woman and through my training and charting with another Creighton FertilityCare Practitioner (yes, we all have Practitioners as well) have been able to identify secondary causes of some abnormal charts and symptoms that would have gone undiagnosed and identified otherwise! I will never forget sitting in my first set of classes in EP 1, seeing a chart and pattern that resembled a lot like mine, turning to a classmate and saying “oh my goodness, I think that’s what I have!” After charting for a month, and receiving confirmation from a Napro doctor, sure enough that little bit of information confirmed another subtle issue that needed to be treated. Had I not started charting as a single woman, I wouldn’t have know that what I was experiencing was an abnormality.

Not to mention, if your cycle shows a regular cycle that doesn’t need a lot of management, you’ve gotten to know yourself in a much deeper way, understand how your cycle and fertility work, and have been able to have a glimpse into the beautiful way that God created your body! We are made as body and soul, and what is revealed by our bodies gives us deeper insight to our femininity was created. Women have the unique capacity to have and sustain life within them, and by learning to chart (even as a single woman) and what your cycles and fertility mean, you get to partake and understand these realities in a much deeper capacity.

And, whether you’re called to discern religious life or marriage, these realities hold truths about the call to femininity, the role of women as mother (spiritual and physical), and the capacity for life in every woman. You may have heard the phrase “Grace builds on nature” and understanding how these supernatural realities are at play in our physical bodies is important for every woman, even as you discern your future vocation.