Posts in Fertility
Intro to Basal Body Temperature Charting
Intro to Basal Body Temperature Charting

Women's hormones change so significantly during the course of their cycles that just by looking at graphs of daily temperatures you can see when ovulation occurs, if implantation has taken place, or when the period is about to start. It can even spot subtle signs of hormone imbalance, for example, if enough there's not enough progesterone being produced to sustain pregnancy.

Not just any temperature though, specifically our basal body temperature (BBT) is what must be measured to better understand what our hormones are doing. Basal refers to the bottom, in this case it's the lowest our temperature gets each day. For most people, that happens to be when you first wake up in the morning, after your body and metabolism have been resting several hours.

I wrote earlier about the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM,) which uses temperature charting as a major component of tracking the menstrual cycle and determining a woman's fertile window. Click the link above to learn more about FAM and if it's right for you.

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Cycle Health, Hormonal Imbalances, FertilityJacqueline GabardyBBT charting, fertility awareness method, fertility, infertility, menstruation
The Connection between Acupuncture & IVF
The Connection between Acupuncture & IVF

Acupuncture is an ancient holistic medicine that creates balance in the body through gentle treatment with minimal side effects. In vitro fertilization (IVF) and other Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) are ultramodern medical techniques that manipulate conception with hormonal medications and surgical procedures.

One is aggressive and invasive, but very precise; while the other is holistic, calming, and nourishing. Much like Yin and Yang, these medicines are built on very very different foundations, but nonetheless compliment each other quite well. In fact, many Reproductive Endocrinologist (aka, fertility doctors) make room in their busy clinics for acupuncturists like me to treat patients at key points during the IVF process.

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Fertility, Hormonal Imbalances, Uterine HealthJacqueline Gabardyacupuncture, IVF, infertility, embryo transfer, egg freezing
What is the Fertility Awareness Method?
What is the Fertility Awareness Method?

If you're trying to conceive, or even if you're not but you don't use contraceptives such as birth control, it's super helpful to understand when you're most fertile and when you aren't. The goal of the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) is just that, to track your cycle and ovulation to best predict how fertile you are on any given day.

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Cycle Health, FertilityJacqueline Gabardyfertility, infertility, fertility awareness method, BBT charting, rhythm method