Are you ovulating? Know what your basal body temperature (BTT) is? Or are you completely lost right now and mildly turned off? It might not sound sexy but oddly enough, is the ultimate sex education – knowledge of your own female body and the natural cycles within.
That’s the basis of Choice Fertility, a Beijing-based service that aims to educate women about their bodies and how to maximize or minimize their fertility based on their choice to procreate or otherwise. Paula Kelleher is the woman behind the holistic reproductive business, and this is important business indeed.
“I think that all women should know how their bodies work, don’t you? It’s a really powerful thing to chart your cycles and know, for example, that you’re in your luteal phase which is the second half of your cycle when your progesterone levels are higher. You have less energy due to lower levels of estrogen and so could benefit from more reflection, self-care, and rest during this time. “ shares Kelleher.
So knowing where you are in your cycle could help explain why you just don’t feel like heading out to the brunch that you scheduled a week ago with your friends, and could actually help prevent such incidents because you are more in sync with your body and its needs. That sounds pretty good to me!
Originally from Ireland, Kelleher has lived in Thailand, South Korea, Japan and has been in Beijing since 2016, where she now resides with her Beijing-born-Japanese-citizen husband. Her holistic health journey started when she had a horrible reaction to birth control pills and a copper IUD, which resulted in all manner of side effects including but not limited to depression, anxiety, cystic acne, acute hair loss, and pain. She learned about the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) from a friend and then chanced upon the Justisse Method – a standardized system for learning fertility awareness in a way that allows for self-management of reproductive health and birth control needs.
Kelleher describes, “The Justisse method is an entirely user-dependent method. You have to have that awareness and connection to your body and you have to be willing to check your cervical mucus and take your basal body temperature (BTT). That’s why you need to have somebody who is a trained practitioner to guide you. It is possible to learn it yourself but for the highest efficacy you should have a trained professional to work with you.”
As for doubters of the system, FAM methods boast a 99% effectiveness rate, when practiced correctly of course. The Justisse Method specifically uses the symptothermal method that looks at 3 biomarkers of fertility – cervical mucus, BTT, and the position of the cervix. Kelleher says that after years of getting intimate with her cycle, she is now able to pinpoint her cycle just by identifying how her cervix feels. It almost sounds like a superpower to someone like me, who still has to guess whether she’s spotting or menstruating.
Kelleher’s journey into female fertility is just beginning – she will complete her training to be a fully-certified Justisse Practitioner this June and afterward add another title as Maternal Support Practitioner (MSP) with Bebomia to become a fertility, birth, and postpartum doula. Her hope is for women to understand their bodies more and make informed decisions about their reproductive health. “I really just want women to know there’s an alternative to hormonal birth control. You may still choose it, but please know that are other alternatives that are side-effect free. I want them to feel empowered to trust themselves and their intuition.”
With her growing expertise, we can only imagine that all her knowledge will come in useful as she plans to expand her family unit with little ones in the next few years. If you would like to get in touch with Kelleher to take charge of your fertility today, scan the QR code below!
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Images: Pexels, Courtesy of Paula Kelleher
