Cervical Mucus: What’s Normal, What’s Not, and How to Check (Episode 415)

Full Transcript: Episode 415

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack:

Welcome to the Fertility Friday Podcast, your source for information about the Fertility Awareness Method and all things fertility. I’m your host, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. I’m the author of The Fifth Vital Sign and the Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Journal. I’m a certified fertility awareness educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner with nearly 20 years of experience teaching women to connect to their fifth vital sign through menstrual cycle charting, balancing hormonal health, and optimizing the menstrual cycle without hormones. I’m outspoken about hormonal birth control and its impact on fertility and overall health because you have the right to know how your body works, and how artificial hormones disrupt that natural process. I teach women’s health professionals how to utilize the menstrual cycle as a vital sign in their practices, and I host live coaching programs to help you achieve optimal fertility and health, because it’s important to have healthy menstrual cycles regardless of whether or not you want to have babies. I’m also a wife and mother of two beautiful boys. I know, I’m a busy girl, but I managed to fit it all in. This podcast is designed to empower you to take full control of your cycles, your fertility, and your overall health. And I’m so excited that you’re here with me today.

Today’s episode is all about cervical mucus. I’ve been getting a ton of questions about cervical mucus. It’s one of the most important signs to understand when trying to understand your menstrual cycle, trying to identify your fertile window, whether you’re trying to conceive and you’re trying to time sex accurately. It’s hugely important and whether you’re trying to avoid pregnancy, it’s also hugely important. So cervical mucus is really a central part of understanding your cycle and identifying when you’re fertile, when you’re not, and being able to identify when you’re ovulating. All of these kinds of things — cervical mucus is really, really important. So I’ve had a ton of questions about mucus and it’s one of the topics that of course I really focus on with my clients in my one-on-one sessions and group sessions because it really does help to solidify your fertility awareness knowledge. So I can’t promise you that in one episode you’re going to be a total expert, but I am going to go through some of the most common questions about mucus and we’re going to do a deep dive together today. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and jump right in.

So I thought a good place to start would be to identify what is cervical mucus. So I use the words cervical mucus and cervical fluid interchangeably. So first and foremost, if you hear me saying cervical fluid, I am talking about the same thing. So what is cervical mucus? Cervical mucus is a hydrogel that is comprised of a really high percentage of water and other proteins and enzymes and a variety of different compounds. The most important thing to know about cervical mucus is that it is a perfectly healthy and normal fluid that you produce in a healthy cycle as you approach ovulation. And if you’ve listened to the podcast for a while, you’ll already know that cervical mucus is a sign of fertility in your pre-ovulatory phase. And so when you’re observing cervical mucus, it can look like creamy white hand lotion. It can look like raw stretchy egg whites. So if you think about, you know, stretching it between your fingers. And for some of you, you may notice a feeling of wetness around a certain time of your cycle or and or when you wipe, it feels lubricative. So it feels really slippery. So those are the three main ways that cervical mucus shows up for most people. And cervical mucus — again, that creamy white hand lotion, the raw, clear, stretchy egg whites, and or that sensation of lubrication when you’re wiping. And so a couple of fun facts about cervical mucus. Cervical mucus can keep sperm alive for up to five days. So many of you have heard that sperm can live in your body for, you know, up to five days, but it’s not just all the time. It’s during that fertile window when you’re making cervical fluid. So cervical mucus also changes the pH of your vagina. So outside of the fertile window, the vagina is very acidic and it kills sperm, essentially. So your vagina is a killing machine, the majority of the time, but in the fertile window as you approach ovulation, when you’re making cervical fluid, it really does change the pH of your vagina and make it into a hospitable environment for sperm. A couple other fun facts about cervical mucus. Cervical mucus actually screens out sperm that is of poor morphology or motility. And so our cervical mucus actually acts as a screening tool so that only the optimal, better quality sperm actually make their way through. And so for those reasons, it’s very important for fertility. And not only does it help to give the sperm a home away from home, to screen them, it rapidly shuttles them into the cervical crypts. So it plays a really important role in fertility.

So I’ve already mentioned the types of cervical mucus but I’m just going to go through them again just to be sure because there’s different charting modalities and there’s different ways for mucus to be classified depending on what type of fertility awareness-based method you follow. So what are the different types of mucus? So I teach the Justisse Method and in the Justisse Method you are basically dividing cervical mucus into two different types which is peak mucus and non-peak mucus. So peak mucus is mucus that’s clear or stretchy or gives you that lubricative sensation when you’re wiping and non-peak mucus is basically the lotiony type. So the creamy white hand lotion type mucus. Now depending on what charting system you’re following, many of the charting systems do kind of like a sticky creamy egg white wet scenario. And in that scenario, it can be a little bit more tricky because some of those categories are a little bit more vague. So for example, sticky — well, that can mean different things. And so I think sometimes with that system, vaginal cell slough or things that are not necessarily mucus can fall into the category of sticky. And then wet as a category is a sensation or feeling. And there are other scenarios that can cause wetness. So whether that is wetness in your underwear or wetness on the tissue when you’re wiping that is not necessarily mucus. So it can make it a little bit more confusing and potentially it can create a situation where you may be seeing something abnormal but you just think it’s normal. And I think wet would be a category of that. So we’ll get into that in a little bit, but the way I teach it and approach it with clients is that there are two broad categories of mucus that we see and observe when we’re checking and we have peak mucus and non-peak mucus. So we have the clear stretchy and or lubricative sensation when you’re wiping. So it would involve wiping to determine if you have that lubricative sensation, but those are the basic descriptions of what we would call peak — clear or stretchy or lubricative. And then non-peak is everything else. So basically the creamy white, lotiony type mucus.

And so a couple of points just to put out there — everybody doesn’t necessarily see the same things. So I think when you’re looking at fertility awareness resources, you’ll typically see the perfect chart in the book if you’re reading a book and it’ll look like you have your period and then you have a couple of days that we would call dry days before you start to see cervical fluid. And then in the books, it’s like you see the non-peak. So you see the creamy, lotiony, and then you move into the peak, which is the clear stretchy. So just to put it out there, not everybody sees the same thing. There are some women that go straight into peak mucus, meaning they might have some dry days after their period, but some women never really see the lotiony stuff. They go straight into the clear stretchy, and that’s completely fine, so that’s okay. Other women don’t necessarily see a lot of the peak mucus. They might see more of the lotiony, although most women do see some peak mucus, but not all women have copious amounts of it. So not everybody has the clear stretchy that they can actually stretch between their fingers and make it form a thread. So some women would have that lubricative sensation, but not necessarily have mucus that they can like pick up and check with their fingers. So those are the types, the broad categories.

So I’m going to move on. Next question, how do you check for cervical mucus? So I’ll start by saying that there’s not necessarily a right way and a wrong way, but there are different ways. Again, depending on the method of fertility awareness that you are using. And so in my practice, I teach women to wipe externally. And basically what that means is you take a piece of toilet paper, you fold it flat, and you wipe from front to back. And so there’s been a lot of interesting conversations on my client calls over the past several months because some women naturally wipe from the front, meaning front wiping basically means that you’re just reaching down and wiping from the front. And then other women reach around to the back and wipe from front to back that way. But either way, the method that I teach my clients is to wipe. So wipe from front to back and feel for a sensation and then identify if there’s anything on the toilet paper and go from there basically.

Another common way to check is essentially internal checking where you would simply insert one of your fingers into your vagina. Maybe you do this when you’re checking for your cervix. You pull it out and see what you see. So when I first started charting my cycles, I had read Taking Charge of Your Fertility. And so I started checking the way that it is described in that book, which is essentially internal wiping. And what I found personally was that when the book would talk about dry days, I never understood what that meant because I never had a day that was dry. So I would always have something on my finger when I would check. And there would always be some sort of wetness or moistness or something like that, maybe a little bit of creamy. And I think that is where that terminology of sticky comes in often. So I still was able to tell when I had peak mucus as I defined it before, but there was never a dry day, and I remember thinking that maybe I just don’t have those. And so, that was my experience. So when I learned the Justisse Method and learned the external wiping method, that really helped me to identify when my window really was. So I thought my cervical mucus phase was very very long because I never had any days that were dry. But when I started external wiping, then I was able to actually finally differentiate a dry day. And so for those of you who have been experimenting with this, essentially a dry day or a dry observation would be when you take the toilet paper and you wipe and the actual sensation feels dry. So the toilet paper kind of feels scratchy. You don’t really feel like there’s a whole lot there. Whereas when you have cervical fluid, typically you’re feeling as you wipe more of a smooth sensation or it’s really lubricative and that would coincide with actually seeing something on the tissue in those cases when you actually have cervical mucus.

So bottom line basically is that there’s different ways to check and I wouldn’t go so far as to say there’s a right way or a wrong way, but there are different methods, different modalities and different ways to do it. And so one of the positives about external wiping is that it can help you to really identify the difference between the mucus days and the dry days whereas internal wiping can make that a little bit more confusing because you never really have the dry day. But I do hear a lot of women complaining that they’re not necessarily seeing a lot of mucus and so they feel that they have to check internally, but those are basically the two different options for checking.

So next question — you know, what is normal? What is abnormal? So let’s get into that a little bit. I think the most important thing to know is that healthy cervical fluid is first and foremost the colors that we’ve talked about. So it’s going to be white — not white like a paper, opaque, but it’s going to be a white color. So similar to hand lotion. So the non-peak mucus is kind of similar to hand lotion. Peak mucus is clear. You can have a combination. You can have mucus that’s cloudy and clear. But basically that’s the first thing — the color. The second thing is when you’re seeing it in your cycle. So what’s normal in a healthy cycle is to have mucus anywhere from two to seven days and so it can vary the types during that time, but two to seven days as you approach ovulation. And then you would expect that once you ovulate, the mucus goes away. So in a healthy cycle, we’re not seeing mucus every single day. And again, this is where the external wiping with a toilet paper to check can come in handy because if you are checking internally, then you will see something every day.

So in a healthy cycle you’re making cervical mucus in response to rising estrogen as you approach ovulation. So then it would stand to reason that you’re making cervical fluid in that fertile window as you approach ovulation and then once you ovulate that’s when your progesterone rises and the progesterone shuts down the mucus in a healthy cycle. So if you’re seeing some sort of discharge every single day or if you continue to see cervical mucus throughout the second half of your cycle after you’ve confirmed ovulation it’s helpful to know that that’s not necessarily optimal or ideal and it could mean something else.

And one of the things I find with my clients is when I teach them the external wiping method, what many of my clients find is that they actually have less actual mucus than they thought because they’re potentially getting other observations. And maybe they’re including what they’re seeing on their underwear and those kinds of things so that it really seems like they’re having mucus all the time. So in a healthy cycle, you really would have a window where you see mucus, but there would be most of the time you would actually be pretty dry.

So that brings us to then what is abnormal. So I kind of alluded to some of those things. Although again, a lot of this stuff is really common, but something being common doesn’t necessarily make it normal. Something that we would consider abnormal would be to actually have some sort of cervical discharge every single day. So for example, if you’re wiping and you’re seeing the lotiony stuff, if you have lotiony stuff every single day and after you ovulate you still continue to have it, then that can be a sign of an issue. For example, it could be a sign that you have a yeast infection or yeast overgrowth or there could be something happening hormonally. So that’s something to be aware of — it’s not normal to have that kind of white discharge every single day. We would expect to have it during a certain window of time and then kind of go away. So in addition to having discharge all the time which we would call continuous mucus, it’s also although common not normal for mucus to be yellow.

One of the things that I think I’ve mentioned here and there on the podcast is that there are many different groups online, there’s different Facebook groups, there’s different websites, there’s all kinds of stuff out there now where you can go and view pictures of cervical mucus. And what’s interesting is that not all the mucus that you see on there is healthy. And so one thing to just be aware of is that yellow mucus, although fairly common, is not normal. So if you’re checking and the mucus itself is yellow on the toilet paper and it’s regularly yellow all the time, it can be a sign potentially of an infection. And what’s interesting about that is that I’ve had a number of clients who have yellow mucus, but they don’t necessarily have any itchiness or irritation or anything like that. And it’s literally just the mucus that is telling them that there could be something wrong. So if you’re seeing mucus that is yellow on a regular basis, then it is worthwhile the next time you’re in your doctor’s office to request testing. And the magical words are, “I have concerning discharge.” That’s how you get the test. And basically ask them to do a swab for STIs, bacteria, different microbes and things like that just to make sure that everything’s okay.

So in addition to yellow mucus, mucus that we would call gummy. So gummy is a descriptor and basically normal healthy cervical mucus as I mentioned could be the creamy white lotiony type or it could be the clear raw egg white type. And so gummy would be like actual gum. So if you think about it, if you were chewing gum and you pulled it out your mouth, if you were to try to stretch it it’s kind of hard to stretch. It might snap back. It might form a little ball. And so that’s what it means when we say gummy. And so that type of mucus again also is fairly common but again not normal. So that could be a sign of cervical inflammation and again you might just want to just have it checked the next time you go to your doctor’s office and ask them to do a swab for you just to check that out.

So one last abnormal observation that is very common is a dampness, wetness, and or gushing. And so again this is what I was talking about towards the top of the episode when I had mentioned the sticky creamy egg white wet descriptors — because wet is too general and it doesn’t necessarily allow us to distinguish between mucus and other types of potentially problematic discharge. So what is normal if you’re experiencing wetness would be around ovulation when you have high estrogen levels which are stimulating the cervix to produce your cervical mucus — when you’re producing peak cervical mucus. So the clear stretchy stuff. And so there are times when the water content of your mucus might be so high that you wipe, it feels really, really slippery, but you can’t necessarily pick anything up off the toilet paper. So you’re wiping and it’s like the toilet paper is kind of like wet or soaked. It’s really, really slippery though, and that tends to happen around ovulation. So if that’s you and you have this wet feeling around that time and it’s really really slippery when you’re wiping, then that’s a sign of peak mucus and that’s actually normal and fine.

Now the issue that can arise is there are many women who experience a dampness or a wetness that is not lubricative when they wipe because it’s actually not cervical mucus. It’s kind of like a cervical drip that can happen if you have abnormal cells on the surface of your cervix — also referred to as cervical dysplasia. And some women have in addition to just this kind of drip dampness — so meaning their underwear might be damp, when they’re wiping they might notice that the toilet paper is really damp, and also many women report feeling a gush of what they describe as water. So ultimately that is an observation that’s quite common, but it’s not something we would consider to be optimal or healthy. So again, the example of the gushing — one of the things to look for is if you’re experiencing this gushing of fluid. So it feels like fluid is gushing out of your vagina basically. One of the signs to look for is if this gushing is happening outside of your fertile window. So not when you’re approaching ovulation. Let’s say you ovulated last week but you’re having these occasional gushes of water or your underwear is feeling really wet but it’s actually not during the time of ovulation. So that would be a sign. So again this dampness, wetness, and or gushing can be a sign of cervical dysplasia. So in a case like that if you are noticing something like that and it’s happening regularly — again, not necessarily in the fertile window, it’s not lubricative, and it’s happening any old time — these types of abnormal observations tend to happen whenever. And so if that’s something that you’ve been observing, it is a good idea to consider getting — the next time you’re in your doctor’s office — asking for a pap. I know that in some places they’ve changed the rules on how frequently you can get them and all that kind of stuff. But again, just tell your practitioner that you’ve seen some concerning discharge and usually that’s enough for them to do the test when you need it.

So that kind of goes through what we would consider to be normal. I suppose I could also add it’s not normal to have vaginal irritation. It’s not normal to always be itchy down there or to feel irritated. It’s not normal to have those kinds of sensations. There is a normal scent that we all would have. Each person’s is probably slightly different. And if you are not on contraceptives and you are cycling normally around ovulation, your natural scent might be a little bit more heightened because you have more fluid down there and all those kinds of things. So that would be normal — you know, get used to your normal scent. But if you’re smelling a really strong scent, a fishy scent, or if you see any mucus that’s any other color, then you would note that. And I think this is one of the good things about fertility awareness cycle charting is that when you do get into charting, you start to see what’s normal for you. And so if there was a shift or a change from what you’re normally observing, that’s also a good sign to pay attention to.

So hopefully that’s been helpful. So there’s a couple other questions that come up a lot that I want to make sure I jump into. So the first is what about vaginal cell slough — how do I tell the difference between that? So I will say right off the bat that it’s a little bit trickier when you’re checking internally. I think still possible, but that would come with experience. With vaginal cell slough, when you’re wiping externally, typically you might feel a dry or smooth sensation as you’re wiping and see a little bit of shininess on the toilet paper — nothing that you can actually pick up. So with the wiping method, you can actually reliably tell the difference between cell slough and mucus because you do have more of a line in the sand — whereas your mucus days, you’re going to see something that you can actually pick up and stretch and play with a little bit.

What is vaginal cell slough? I know that I’ve had that question from some clients because not everyone knows what it is. But if you think about — if you were to take a bath or something, there’s like a ring around the tub. So throughout every day we’re shedding our skin cells and in the same way our vagina is constantly cleaning itself and also shedding just cells and skin and things like that. So there is a difference between that normal shedding versus cervical fluid because the cervical fluid is coming from the cervix. So the vaginal cell slough is often what you might see in your underwear. You might see that kind of crusty white stuff or crusty, even a little bit of a tinge of yellow — that’s a little bit different to what we were talking about when you’re checking for mucus. But ultimately that kind of stuff in your underwear — that can also be how cell slough shows up for any of you who’ve ever kind of seen that crusty stuff on your underwear. And also if you’re externally wiping you might notice that bit of a shininess. So that’s vaginal cell slough and again the difference between mucus is mucus is happening around the fertile window in response to estrogen and typically you’re actually seeing enough to be able to pick up and test. So again the lotiony creamy white or the stretchy lubricative raw egg white type.

So another question I get quite a bit is, you know, how do I tell the difference between arousal fluid and cervical mucus? And so that’s one of the things that I think you may have to play with a little bit. So arousal fluid — one of the big differences between arousal fluid and mucus — again, mucus you’re producing at a certain time of the cycle typically, whereas arousal fluid can be any time and it’s typically in response to arousal. So that’s just a broad category difference where you, in a healthy cycle, you wouldn’t expect to see cervical mucus all the time. So then if you’re aroused outside of that window and you see some fluid, then that could be a clue. So arousal fluid is not produced in the cervix. It’s actually pushed through the vaginal walls, and it’s really interesting. And some practical differences between arousal fluid and mucus is that arousal fluid tends to be lighter, it tends to dissipate quicker — like evaporate faster. And so for example, arousal fluid can still be clear, it can still cause a lubricative sensation, and you can often stretch it between your fingers as well. But typically it snaps faster. It won’t be able to stretch as many times and typically if you were to rub it in your skin a little bit, it’s really going to kind of disappear faster.

So one of the tricks you can try if you have been charting your cycles for a while and you’re wanting to tell the difference — if you do notice a clear mucus pattern in your own cycle where you do see mucus as you approach ovulation and it tends to dry up after you’ve ovulated, then when you’re in that second half of your cycle in the post-ovulatory phase you can consider just — that’s kind of like your playground. So if you do happen to be aroused or notice that you are aroused or plan to be aroused in that second half of the cycle, then you can make a point of checking it and paying attention to it and playing with it at that stage of your cycle when you’re much less likely to have actual cervical mucus. And that can be one of the ways for you to practice, if you will, and learn a little bit, play with it a little bit and find out the difference.

Cervical mucus tends to have more staying power — it doesn’t just evaporate off of your hand. If you were to pick it up with your fingers and stretch it, it’s not like you can continue stretching it forever but you usually can stretch it a few times. If you were to try to rub it into your hand, it’s not just immediately going to disappear or evaporate. So there is a bit of a difference in terms of its staying power.

Now lastly, another question that I get quite a bit is how to tell the difference between semen and mucus. So for example, if you are having unprotected sex with your partner, then the following day it can be harder to identify if it’s mucus or if it’s semen because you had sex. And so then when you start to observe what looks like mucus, it could very well be semen. So to be honest with you, I don’t have the best way to describe and explain the difference between mucus and semen. I think in general semen may have slightly different color, might have slightly different scent, but ultimately it’s hard to tell. So what I share with my clients is semen elimination, which is a technique where you basically after sex at some point go to the bathroom and let the semen kind of fall out of you. So for example, if you were to have sex today, let’s say you don’t have to jump up immediately, but within let’s say 10, 15, 20 minutes or something like that, you get up, go to the bathroom, let it fall out, and kind of like engage a little bit, wipe, get all of it out — it kind of falls into the toilet. Then what happens is the following day, you can then be more confident about your observations.

So the best way to really differentiate is instead of trying to actually figure out the difference between the two of them, is to get rid of it after you’ve had sex so that the following day you’ll be able to trust your observations. Alternatively, if you’re not comfortable with that strategy or if it’s not something you want to do, then the best case scenario is when you see what appears to be cervical fluid the day after sex, you just have to treat it as though it is. So if it looks like mucus and you’re having a hard time telling if it is or not, then you would want to just assume that it is — especially if you’re trying to avoid pregnancy. It can make things a little bit more complicated if you’re trying to conceive because then it’s hard to identify what’s mucus and what’s not. So that’s part of the reason that you would consider eliminating it to clarify all of that.

All right, so to recap what we covered today — we went through what cervical mucus is, what are the different types, how to check for cervical mucus, how to know what’s normal versus what’s not normal. And then we went through a few of the abnormalities that are common. And so that includes continuous mucus, yellow mucus, gummy mucus, and also that wet, watery discharge and or gushing that can happen. We talked about vaginal cell slough, arousal fluid, and semen and how to tell the difference between those. And so hopefully today’s episode has given you a better understanding of mucus, what to look for, and at least get down some of the basics about checking mucus, starting to identify what’s normal, what’s not normal, and maybe hopefully gotten at some of the myths or misconceptions you may have had about mucus.

I talk extensively about cervical mucus in The Fifth Vital Sign. If you haven’t grabbed a copy, you can head over to the fifth vital sign book dot com. It’s also available on Amazon and chapter three of The Fifth Vital Sign is all about cervical mucus. And so not only do I cover everything that I cover here today, but there’s a lot of other details and interesting pieces of information about mucus that can be really, really helpful. Also in chapter 11 of The Fifth Vital Sign, I do delve into specific strategies for boosting cervical mucus production. So that is also really helpful because I know that’s a really common question. And if you go back and listen to my recent episode on coming off the pill, that’s one of the most common reasons that I see in my practice for women having limited mucus observations — if they’ve recently come off the pill and that has temporarily suppressed their mucus production and or if they’ve ever had a history of cervical dysplasia, abnormal cervical cells, and or cervical surgeries. So there’s a lot of different situations and reasons that can contribute to issues with mucus and abnormalities and especially limited mucus, but there are a number of practical strategies that you can employ as well.

So a few words of encouragement. If you are new to fertility awareness, and so you’re just starting to chart your cycles and starting to pay attention to your mucus and starting to understand what’s normal, what’s not, how to identify which days are fertile, which days are not — I just want to let you know that it’s totally possible. This is something that you can do. At first there’s a lot of details. And I really like the analogy of learning to drive. I mean, when I learned to drive, I had to read this book with all the signs and all the stuff, and there was a lot to learn right off the bat. But once you learn it, it’s not like the street signs have changed. I’ve been driving for a really long time now and the street signs are still the same. So once you put in that initial effort to learn and to get comfortable and to get into your groove and to figure out what app you like and which method you want to use and all that kind of stuff, once you figure that stuff out, it doesn’t really change. Your body’s doing what it’s doing and over time you just get more confident at identifying the different signs.

So I just want to give you some encouragement. You can do this and it’s really interesting. If you’re into fertility awareness, if you’re into this stuff, then it’s not a hassle to check for your cervical fluid. It’s actually typically quite interesting and can even be quite exciting — especially when you see, let’s say, peak mucus for the first time and you know what it means and then you ovulate and it’s like, “Wow, this actually happens. It actually is real. It makes sense.” And so with each cycle that you chart, you can continue to build confidence in your ability to do this and understand it. And I do know that cervical mucus is one of the bigger challenges. But again, just take it day by day, cycle by cycle. You can do it. You got this.

Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with a friend. You’ll find the show notes page for today’s episode over at fertilityfriday.com/415. I hope that you enjoyed today’s episode all about cervical mucus charting. I hope that it helped to answer some of the questions that you might have or helped to reinforce some of what you already knew or just gave you more confidence in identifying the different types of mucus, and what I also hope is that it helps you to identify what’s normal versus what’s not normal so that we can kind of pick up on some of these things that might have been just there and then letting it slide.

One of the things that is really important about learning how our body works and how our cycles work and how ovulation works and even learning about mucus, is that it really does set us up to understand what to look for when there’s a problem. So I think one of the benefits that is not always talked about is that when you’re tracking your cycle and you get a good sense of your baseline — you know, what’s normal for you — that if something negative ever does happen, whether it’s an infection or something else that is abnormal that’s outside of your normal, it really helps you to pick up on it faster. And the longer that you chart your cycles, the longer that you see what’s normal for you, the quicker you’re going to jump on something that doesn’t seem right.

Today’s episode should also give you a sample and idea of some of the topics that we really dive deeply into in my Fertility Awareness Mastery Live group coaching program. Because the goal is to help you to really master the three main signs of fertility that we pay attention to. So that includes cervical mucus, basal body temperature, and cervical position. And so we go through all of these topics and more in a ton of detail so that you can really figure it out finally — so you can really figure out what’s going on and feel really, really confident about identifying which days are fertile in your cycle, which days are infertile, and also if there are any potential signs of an issue, and to support you in getting those signs to be optimal as much as possible.

So with that said, I hope you have a wonderful week — weekend — whenever you’re tuning into the show and of course, as always, until next time, be well and happy charting.