Your Cycle as the Fifth Vital Sign

For ages, healthcare professionals have relied on vital signs - (blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, and temperature) - to evaluate the health of their patients. However, when it comes to women’s health, so much of the reproductive health of a woman can be revealed by the health of her cycles. Even the smallest, seemingly insignificant changes or abnormalities to cycles can give a glimpse into a woman’s fertility status. Cycle patterns reflect the body’s internal balance—hormones, metabolism, stress, and overall well‑being.

The Creighton Method turns this concept into something practical. Creighton charts don’t just show when a woman is fertile—they reveal how her body is functioning. This makes the method a powerful tool not only for family planning, but also for proactive, personalized healthcare. By charting daily biomarkers (cervical mucus, discharges, and bleeding), the reproductive health of the woman can be assessed with good certainty. Biomarkers give us signs and information that point to what’s going on in a woman’s body beneath the surface.

In healthy cycles, we see a 3-7 day menstrual bleed that follows a crescendo-decrescendo or decrescendo pattern with moderate bleeding and little to no abdominal pain with menses, followed by either a few days of infertility/dryness and/or a healthy period of fertility/mucus buildup, finishing up with an adequate post-peak phase (8-16 day period of dryness/infertility before menses begins again), and no PMS symptoms.

In unhealthy cycles, we see abnormal biomarkers that signal a disruption or malfunction to normal health and fertility. Some of these red flags that we look for as FertilityCare Practitioners include abnormal bleeding, continuous mucus and abnormal discharges, inadequate/short post-peak phases, irregular/unpredictable cycles, long or short cycles, tail end brown bleeding, abdominal pain and painful periods, excessive dryness, limited mucus cycles, premenstrual tension syndrome, etc.

These abnormal biomarkers are your body’s cry for help, just like how high/low blood pressure, pulse, and temperature are warning signals that warrant further investigation and care. Abnormal biomarkers cue NaPro providers to test for things like hormone imbalances, cervical ectropion, thyroid issues, acute/chronic stress affecting cycles, PCOS, follicle formation/maturation/rupture issues, blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and other things that can cause reproductive health dysfunction and infertility. Biomarkers elicit investigation, investigation leads to answers and diagnoses, and diagnoses give rise to treatment, healing, and wholeness.

When women are taught how to chart their cycles, they gain the wisdom and confidence to understand their own bodies and health. They learn to listen to the alarms going off in their bodies, which, in turn, gives these women the ability to advocate for themselves to find the care and answers they need. 

If you are experiencing any of the cycle abnormalities listed above and have been told things like, “PMS is normal, painful periods are normal, heavy bleeding is normal, repetitive miscarriages and infertility is normal, you just have to push through it, birth control and/or IVF is the only treatment, etc. etc.,” but you know that something isn’t right, listen to your gut. None of these conditions are normal. Start charting your cycles and see how your body signals what’s wrong through your biomarkers. Allow a NaPro provider to assess your chart, do diagnostic testing, and give curative treatment to restore your health and fertility naturally and morally. You deserve answers and healing! 

If this resonates with you, get started by scheduling with one of our practitioners today. Honor your body’s natural reproductive health cycles and gain the gift of bodily knowledge and autonomy!