Cycle Wise Menstrual Cycle Education

10/11/2021

https://www.instagram.com/p/CU5TbfHJg1y/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

10/06/2021

My next round of Cycle Sisters for girls starts October 30th! Early bird discount ends October 13th. Click the link below to read more and reserve a spot for your daughter. https://www.cyclewiselove.com/cyclesisters

09/09/2021

Online FAM charting support group! Are you a new charter? Do you want guidance from a teacher while making connections with other rare people who chart (aka unicorns)? Want to understand your cervical fluid, your temp shifts, and how to apply the rules? Come join us! First meeting is Friday September 17 at 10 AM PST. Click below to save your spot ✨

WHAT: A monthly charting support group to help you through the challenges, joys, and questions of charting, plus charting help from a Certified Fertility Awareness Educator.

03/18/2021

Do you want to learn more about how you can help your daughter feel excited, not bummed out, about having periods? Do you want to know some tricks for becoming a period-positive role model for your daughter? On March 27th, I'm offering a free live training for parents all about this very topic! I'll share some of my tried-and-true ways for helping girls feel more comfortable and positive about periods. Plus we'll have Q&A for all your questions. Click the link to save your spot!

Caitlin McMurtry is a Certified Fertility Awareness Educator, coming of age mentor for girls, and s*x educator for teens. 

11/10/2020

Have you been thinking about switching to natural birth control but don't know where to start, what's involved, or what you should know first? Check out my free 15-minute video so you can decide if it's right for you! https://www.subscribepage.com/whatisnaturalbirthcontrol

10/18/2020

How would your life change if you could step away from fake hormones forever and be the boss of your own fertility? ⁣

10/12/2020

FREE LIVE TRAINING! Come join me to learn how you can ditch the Pill, take control of your cycles and fertility, and learn natural birth control!

A Live Webinar starting at 16 Oct, 2020 @ 10:00 PDT hosted by Caitlin.

07/24/2020

PEAK VS NON-PEAK CERVICAL FLUID. How to tell the difference?!

Hint: on my left finger is non-Peak, and on the right is Peak.

Here are a few tips!

Peak cervical fluid is often clear, with high water content. It is the wettest type of CF that you make, and it will be unique to YOU. Peak CF is defined by the following characteristics: clear, stretchy, watery, slippery, and/or lubricative. Your Peak CF doesn't have to look like ALL of these. Your CF might just have one of those features, or some combination of all of them. Your Peak fluid might also be tinged with a little yellow, or some spotting.

Non-Peak CF is generally white or beige in color and has less water content. It doesn't stretch very easily and makes little clumps or mounds when you separate it between your fingers.

It's also normal to see a non-Peak type CF, like creamy, mixed in with some Peak type, like stretchy.

There is no right way for your CF to look! It is unique to YOU, and I'd love to help you figure it out.

I'll be talking all about the different types of cervical fluid you might see (while giving tons of visual examples) in my upcoming video course Cervical Fluid Simplified. This course will help you feel more confident to understand your own unique cervical fluid patterns, which is something that's really frustrating to try to learn from a book or online! I'm hard at work on this course every day, and can't wait to share it with you. See the link in my bio to be the first to know when the course is ready.

And please let me know what questions you have about cervical fluid! I'm accepting all the input I can get as I build this mini course, because I want to make it as helpful as possible for all of y'all!

07/22/2020

I made a zine all about the menstrual cycle just for youth and teens! 43 pages of fascinating and helpful info that your kids won't learn in s*x ed! Click the link to read more and grab a copy for some great summer reading for your family (PS - adults love this zine too). https://www.subscribepage.com/youthcyclezine

06/25/2020

Can you get pregnant on your period? Here is a visual to help you understand how this works!

To clarify, "getting pregnant" means that the fertilized egg implants into the uterus (implantation). It is extremely rare that you could actually ovulate and have implantation DURING your period, because a) our hormones are low during menstruation, and ovulation requires time and high hormonal levels to occur; and b) the fertilized egg takes about 7 - 10 days to travel down to the uterus and implant.

What CAN happen is that period s*x allows s***m to survive inside you until you DO ovulate after your period is over, but no more than 5 days later. This can only happen if your cervix is active and making cervical fluid.

Before ovulation, the cervix produces cervical fluid (CF) that is capable of keeping s***m alive for up to 5 days. So if you had s*x on, say, day 4 of your period, and then ovulated on day 9 of your cycle, you could get pregnant. Without cervical fluid, pregnancy is impossible. And in fact, it's fairly rare that you would be producing cervical fluid while bleeding, because your estrogen levels are very low at that time. Having an early ovulation is more common if you have short cycles (under 25 days), long periods, or if you're peri/pre-menopausal.

In this graphic you can see how period s*x can lead to pregnancy. Notice the blue clouds, which signify cervical fluid. If CF is being produced while bleeding is also going on, it can keep s***m alive until ovulation.

So is it ever safe to have period s*x? If you have cycles that are longer than 25 days, it is generally safe to assume the first 5 days of your period are infertile. However, to be truly safe, you need a more advanced system of tracking your cycles. Fertility Awareness is awesome for showing you all these fine details, and, if used as a birth control method, gives you 4 rules to follow that take into account all aspects of s***m survival, cervical fluid, ovulation, and other cycle factors (and no, it's not the Rhythm Method). DM me if you're curious to learn more!

06/01/2020

I know, I know, we've heard it a million times: eating sugar and starch and greasy foods is BAD! Don't do it! But as you're munching that bag of potato chips fried in canola oil, do you ever wonder WHY?

Let's talk about how junk food brings on period pain.

Studies show that people who eat more refined sugar, starch, processed meats, and vegetable oils like soy, canola, safflower, etc, have up to 5 times the amount of period pain as people who eat less of those things.

A big reason for this is that eating junk food creates high levels of inflammatory compounds called prostaglandins in your body, which love to build up in your uterus before menstruation. Prostaglandins are made from essential fatty acids - the fat you eat in food - and the ones that make your uterus crampy come from oils like canola and soy.

Another reason is that junk foods can deplete the body of nutrients needed to prevent cramps, like magnesium, zinc, and B vitamins, as well as simply being devoid of nutrients in the first place. A bag of potato chips fried in cheap oil is not going to deliver the same nutrients as kale sauteed in butter, for example.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I love a big ol' bag of chips as much as anyone! But balance is key, my friends. Just make sure you're nourishing yourself with high-nutrient foods along with the indulgences in order to keep your uterus happy.

Foods and supplements that your uterus will LOVE include wild-caught fish, avocados, evening primrose oil, cod liver oil, organ meats, coconut oil, ghee, magnesium, zinc, vitamin D, citrus, greens, and many, many more.

Want to learn more about the science behind cramps and how you can prevent them? Join me for a free online webinar on June 4th at 4:00 PM PST! Save your spot here:https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/t1i4q4

04/11/2020

What's one of the #1 important things NOT taught to girls and teens in s*x ed class?