Today I’m sharing a piece of personal history of how I got pregnant in my 30s using fertility awareness. I want to explain why I’m so excited about cycle charting. Cycle app tracking are the thing nowadays but my own fascination started many years ago.

By the way, I think I should call myself a trendsetter by now. So many of today’s top trends have been in my life for ages. Like menstrual cups. I got my first in Madrid in 2011. Wearing all red? Have been doing that since like 2005 and still going strong.

Same with cycle charting. I became interested in the topic as a sex educator in Poland many years ago. I soon began my own cycle observations and later attended a teachers’ course in the Roetzer method.

Today there are so many different menstrual and lunar cycle groups and projects online. Women have taken renewed interest in their cycles.

Fertility awareness is no longer a domain of premarital courses in the Catholic Church. It has become a symbol of sexual awareness and even feminism. I’m very happy about it!

How I got pregnant in my 30s

But back to pregnancy. If you are a woman, chances are you have heard or read that, as you age it gets harder to achieve it. “Hurry up girl or it will be too late!”, “The biological clock is ticking!”. It’s so annoying, isn’t it?

Not all women are lucky enough to find the perfect candidate to be the father of their children (or a woman to start a family with) right after leaving school or university.

I got married at the age of 33 and soon after we started trying for a baby. And what? Bingo! I got pregnant on my second cycle. And it’s not so obvious because a healthy couple may try up to a year to conceive and it’s still within the normal range.

I preferred to help nature a little bit and observed my fertility signals to know when it’s the best time to get down to bed. I lost this first pregnancy, unfortunately, but as soon as I felt better we started trying again. And it didn’t take long to see those two lines on a test again. This time it happened in the 4th cycle. After nine months our son was with us, earthside. Two pregnancies within a year at the age of 34 is a pretty good result, right?

Get Pregnant Faster With Cycle Tracking

Of course, I know that many women and couples have to deal with infertility and it’s not always so easy.

But if you are healthy and are trying for the first time, I highly recommend cycle charting.

It can help you achieve pregnancy even six months faster than it would happen if you were just to go with the flow.

An additional plus is that if you don’t conceive within half a year while fertility tracking, it will be an indication to seek out testing. You won’t need to wait the whole year because if you time sex in your fertile days you are increasing your chances of getting pregnant. So 6 months trying with no success is enough of a sign to get tested.

5 minutes a Day to Learn About Your Body

I got so hooked on fertility awareness methods that I’ve charted even during pregnancy (even though there is no actual cycle but I was curious) and I’ll probably continue until menopause. Why?

Because it helps me avoid unplanned pregnancy (in combination with condom use) and understand my body and sexuality better. I also know that I can catch the early signals of illness or hormonal problems this way. And it takes less than 5 minutes a day so it’s no biggie.

All you need is a paper chart like this or a cycle app on your mobile. And a basal thermometer.

Would you like to start observing your cycles more closely but don’t know where to start? Sign up for a free consultation with me. About 3 sessions are enough to master the basics of fertility tracking and use this knowledge for the rest of your life!

Photo: Iwona Bukowska-Jarosz