The Other Birth Control

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Most people are familiar with mainstream birth control methods.  For example, you may have used the condom, the pill, the patch, or the diaphragm. However, natural birth control methods such as the Rhythm Method are often perceived by the general public as unreliable and too complicated.

I was curious about investigating other ways of regulating women’s fertility so recently I interviewed Amy Sedgwick. Amy is a Certified Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner and co-owner of Red Tent Sisters a holistic fertility, sexuality & contraceptive solutions store in Toronto.

Red Tent Sisters Owners: Kimberly (left) & Amy (right) Sedgwick

Amy was a long-time user of the birth control pill since her teens. After she gave birth to her daughter, she wanted to try the IUD (intrauterine device). However, some of theses devices contain synthetic progesterone, and women can have side effects such as mood swings. In order to determine if she tolerated this hormone, her doctor prescribed a progesterone-only birth control pill. After a few days, her daughter cried each time she tried to breastfeed her.  It was strange because until then, she had been successfully breastfeeding her daughter for three months.

Amy went to different breastfeeding clinics to identify the cause of this problem.  When she stopped taking the birth control pill, the problem suddenly stopped. Through her own research, she discovered that progesterone can increase milk production. This resulted in her daughter choking because of the great increase of milk flow from her breasts.

Soon thereafter, Amy’s sister (Kimberly Sedgwick) went to a Women’s Studies Conference in western Canada and was acquainted with the Justisse System. She gave a manual about the system to Amy who quickly became very interested in exploring this birth control method. She started to track her menstrual cycle and hired a Justisse trained Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner in Edmonton to teach her the method. Amy had monthly phone follow-ups with this Practitioner for a period of one year.

The Justisse System helped Amy better understand her health in general.  For example, she identified her food allergies, nutritional deficiencies, and how to reduce menstrual pains through a healthier lifestyle. Amy was really excited about this natural birth control method and decided to also become a Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner.

Amy was originally trained as an Occupational Therapist, had taken a few courses in counseling training, and work in that field for a couple of years. The Justisse Program is a self-paced distance learning program. It is a combination of home study, regular phone calls, and on-line exams.  It is a very intensive program, and it took Amy 4 years to complete. Shortly thereafter, she and her sister opened the Red Tent Sisters store. They have been in business for 4.5 years, and you can check their website here.

The Justisse System is different from the Rhythm Method in that the former determines the day-to-day signs of fertility whereas the latter looks at past menstrual cycles to predict a woman’s future fertile periods.

Women using the Justisse System can use 3 physiological signs to determine their fertile period: the presence of cervical mucus, the increase in body temperature, and the difference in uterus placement.

Cervical mucus is produced 3 to 7 days before ovulation because the vagina is naturally too acidic for the sperm.  This mucus coats the cervix and the vagina and makes these areas more basic.  Also, mucus has little channels that help the sperm get into the uterus.

The body temperature of women often increases by 0.3 to 0.5 degrees Celsius after ovulation because of the higher production of the hormone progesterone. This is important since the egg only survives about 12 to 24 hours after ovulation.  Therefore from 24 hours after ovulation to the start of menstruation, there is no risk of pregnancy.  The temperature is taken first thing in the morning at the same time, therefore the woman needs to have a regular schedule.

When women are most fertile, the uterus shits position and lines up more with the vagina. Therefore, there is more a direct route from the entrance of the vagina to the uterus. Additionally, the cervix softens and the little hole at the tip of the cervix opens up. You can check this alignment by inserting a finger and feel the cervical texture and the little hole.

It is important to understand that although the “standard” menstrual cycle is 28 days, few women fall in that category.  The last 14 days (luteal phase) of a woman’s cycle after ovulation is the same length for all women.  The difference is the duration of the period before ovulation or the follicular phase.  For example, if a woman’s cycle is regularly 24 days, she will probably ovulate on day 10 (24 days – 14 days for the luteal phase).

Two-thirds of Amy’s clients are only using cervical mucus signs and temperature increase to determine their fertility. No clients of hers check all three physiological signs. It is important to underline the fact that even if someone has a very regular menstrual cycle, it is recommended to still check for fertility signs.

The Justisse System is about 99% effective when followed correctly.  You can check the website about this system here.  You can read about the effectiveness of this natural birth control method here.

Most of Amy’s clients are in their early twenties to early thirties. But there are also women in their late thirties who are anticipating to start a family. This latter group of women wants to get off the birth control pill and be in optimal health before becoming pregnant. The partners of these women range from either being very supportive or totally rejecting the Justisse birth control method. As to be expected, supportive partners help speed up the learning process and the odds of successfully using the Justisse system.

Amy noticed that one of the bonuses of using the Justisse System is that during women’s fertile period, partners may try other ways to have sex besides intercourse.  Since women tend to have higher libidos during their fertile period, couples may become more creative about other ways to pleasure each other, which improves communication and intimacy.

Most women are acquainted with a limited number of mainstream ways to control their fertility.  Methods such as the birth control pill or some IUDs contain synthetic hormones that can have negative effects on women’s physical and emotional health.

The general public is often skeptical about natural methods of birth control because it has been presented as inconvenient and unreliable.  The Justisse natural birth control method challenges these preconceived ideas by fully involving women in effectively managing their fertility in just minutes each day. Therefore, the Justisse method can be a way to work with Mother Nature to manage women’s fertility while improving their overall health.

Literary Truths

Here are some points to keep in mind if you want to learn the Justisse natural birth control method at the Red Tent Sisters:

• It takes about 3-4 hours to learn the method. It can be a live class, but it can also be a teleclass for people out of the city or out of the country. The training can be slip into 1 hour/week for 4 weeks.
• There is a 9-month follow-up. It usually takes that long for women to get really confident with this system, and to sort out any health issues they might have (especially if these women just stopped taking the birth control pill).
• During the 9-months follow-up, there are 5 private consultations (1 on the first month, and 1 every 2 months thereafter).
• A bonus 1-hour long call to discuss ways to detoxifying the body before trying to get pregnant.
• There is a monthly Q & A call during which all clients can listen in and have their questions answered.
• Clients can ask questions via e-mail support, and practical information is sent monthly to help with the learning process.
• The teleclass cost is  $297.  This class will soon be transformed into an audio product so that women can download and listen to it on their own time.
• The 9-month program costs $697, and a payment plan is available.

References

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