Yellow Stamps - the answer to all your problems! (maybe)

If you Google "Creighton Model charting", you'll probably find something that looks like this:

Basic Creighton Model Charting

Red, green, babies, and more green. Those little colored rectangles are called "stamps". They're small stickers that you place on your chart each day, corresponding to the fertility of that day. Many women of normal fertility in regular cycles will have charts that look similar to the one above.

However, there are many women using Creighton Model whose charts look more similar to this:

Post Peak Non Peak Yellow Stamps

What is all that yellow for!? There are lots and lots (and lots) of women whose cycles don't follow that perfect little red/green/white/green stamp pattern. Some women new to the system will begin charting their fertility and realize that they are needing to place a white baby stamp on nearly every day. The white baby stamps are used for days of mucus discharge and generally represent days of fertility. However, what if a woman recognizes that she has a mucus discharge most days of her cycle?

FertilityCare Practitioners are specially trained in many different protocols that can help navigate these tricky situations. Yellow stamps are used to designate days of mucus discharge that (in close communication with your practitioner) have been deemed to be days of infertility. Even in the midst of "continuous mucus" (meaning at least one mucus observation every day), there are differences in the mucus that we can observe and interpret that occur in conjunction with hormonal changes happening inside your body. Use of yellow stamps is especially common in women with PCOS, long cycles consistently longer than 35 days, and post partum women not yet back in regular cycles. But lots of other women need to use them as well.

Yellow stamps can be a double edged sword at first. They're a saving grace for managing tricky charts, but they take extra learning to implement, especially at the beginning. If you need yellow stamps, you'll definitely need extra follow ups and extra communication with your FertilityCare Practitioner to get them implemented properly. The Creighton Model System's yellow stamp protocols are very specific and need to be carefully followed for best results.

A need for yellow stamps is a big reason that women come to Creighton Model - it's known for it's ability to help manage difficult fertility situations. If you're frustrated with your current system of fertility tracking because of excess times of fertility, yellow stamps may help you out!

Also, if you're using Creighton Model but haven't talked with your Practitioner in while and your chart feels messy, it would be a great idea to schedule a follow-up - you may need yellow stamps!

If you're someone who needs yellow stamps, you may also need help from a Napro trained doctor for medical management as well. We can help connect you with great doctors that can help!

Charting examples taken from The Picture Dictionary of the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, 3rd Edition, Hilgers, et all, 2017