Cyclewise
Your Body is telling a story.
Your Body in a State of Health.
Everything in your body is connected! This means that something that harms one part of your body harms your entire body. For our body to exist in a state of health, all of our body’s parts and systems must work together for the whole to function properly. We must be able to recognize how our body exists in a state of health. If you don’t know how your body exists in a state of health, you are missing the necessary foundation to understand the risks and benefits of any other healthcare decision.
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Decisions can be tough! Healthcare decisions don’t have to be. With access to accurate, reliable information about your body, you can be well-informed about the choices you are making. Remember how important our overall health is. We cannot address one part of our health without talking about our overall health. Our overall health is ordered toward optimizing our sexual and reproductive health. Medicine’s job in all of this is to support our bodies, not to take over our bodies’ natural capacities. The best medical support will find ways to work with your body’s natural capabilities, not override them.
The Wisdom of Your Body
Recall that our bodies are intelligent. Our hormones are constantly sending messages to direct all of our bodies’ activities, and most importantly, to keep us alive and safe. These hormones affect much more than our sexual health. In fact, they keep all of our bodies’ processes in check. The female hormone estrogen, for example, does not only affect our ovaries and our uterus—this chemical messenger affects every system in our bodies. We can see our bodies’ intelligence at work when we understand that everything is connected.
The woman’s menstrual cycle is one of the ways we experience different systems of our bodies working together. Our fertility is a capacity that is integral to the health of our whole body. Paying attention to the rhythms of our bodies puts us in tune with what is happening beneath the surface. During the phase of her cycle when a woman is able to become pregnant, her body produces an incredible work of nature—a specialized substance called cervical fluid. A woman’s cervical fluid patterns communicate valuable information with her about her fertility, which we will explore in a later lesson.
Intergrating Physical and Emotional Health
Our physical capacity to bring new life into the world and the health of our relationships go hand in hand. Bonding and babies, pregnancy and pleasure, go together in our bodies. Since this is the case, we must keep in mind that we get to choose who we share ourselves with and when, and this goes for both sexual relationships and relationships in general! We must also consider whether or not we are equipped to nurture a new life right now. We are most supported in our ability to respond well to new life when we are in a committed relationship with our sexual partner.
References:
1. Bastawros, Hala MD. Human Reproduction: A Clinical Approach. 0th ed., Iowa State University Digital Press, 2023. pp. 44-61.
2. Bennett, Lauren Elizabeth, and Lisa M. Brown. “Menstrual Cycle as a Vital Sign.” (2018).
3. Boddy, Amy M., et al. “Fetal Microchimerism and Maternal Health: A Review and Evolutionary Analysis of Cooperation and Conflict beyond the Womb.” BioEssays, vol. 37, no. 10, 2015, pp. 1106-1118,
https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201500059. Accessed 14 Feb. 2024.
4. Chen, Peng, et al. “Role of Estrogen Receptors in Health and Disease.” Frontiers in Endocrinology, vol. 13, 2022, https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.839005. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.
5. Hendrickson-Jack, Lisa. The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles and Optimize Your Fertility. 1st ed., Fertility Friday Publishing Inc., 2019, https://doi.org/978-1-9994280-1-3. p. 58.
6. Hendrickson-Jack, Lisa. The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles and Optimize Your Fertility. 1st ed., Fertility Friday Publishing Inc., 2019, https://doi.org/978-1-9994280-1-3. p. 95-119.
7. John L. Fitzpatrick et al., “Chemical Signals from Eggs Facilitate Cryptic Female Choice in Humans,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287, no. 1928 (June 10, 2020): 6, https://doi.
org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0805.
8. Kenney, Teresa WHNP. The Happy Girls Guide to Being Whole. 1st ed., Lumen Press and Media, 2021, https://doi.org/978-1-7352237-3-5. p. 10.
9. Kenney, Teresa WHNP. The Happy Girl’s Guide to Being Whole. Lumen Press and Media, 2022, https://doi.org/978-1-7352237-3-5. pp. 11-22.
10. Kenney, Teresa WHNP. The Intersection of Faith, Mental Health, and the Feminine Genius. The Hormone Genius Podcast. Season 1, Episode 19. https://www.hormonegenius.com/podcast/episode/c3bcab5c/
ep-19-the-intersection-of-faith-mental-health-and-the-feminine-genius-with-rachel-wong 1/25/2021.
11. Lavoisier, P., Aloui, R., Schmidt, M.H. et al. Clitoral blood flow increases following vaginal pressure stimulation. Arch Sex Behav 24, 37–45 (1995). https://doi. org/10.1007/BF01541987
12. Puppo, Vincenzo. “Anatomy and Physiology of the Clitoris, Vestibular Bulbs, and Labia Minora with a Review of the Female Orgasm and the Prevention of Female Sexual Dysfunction.” Clinical Anatomy, vol. 26, no. 1, 2012, pp. 134-152, https://doi.org/10.1002/ca.22177. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.
13. Sarit O Aschkenazi & Roger P Goldberg (2009) Female sexual function and the pelvic floor, Expert Review of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 4:2, 165-178, DOI:10.1586/17474108.4.2.165
14. Schjenken, John, and Sarah A. Robinson. “The Female Response to Seminal Fluid.” Physiological Reviews, vol. 100, no. 3, 2018, pp. 1077-1117, https://doi. org/10.1152/physrev.00013.2018. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.
15. Talluri, Thirumala Rao et al. “Biochemical components of seminal plasma and their correlation to the fresh seminal characteristics in Marwari stallions and Poitoujacks.” Veterinary world vol. 10,2 (2017):
214-220. doi:10.14202/vetworld.2017.214-220
16. Tucker, Abigail. Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct. Gallery Books, 2017, https://doi.org/978-1501192852. p. 5.
17. Harrington, Mary. Feminism Against Progress. Forum Press. 2023. p. 133-162.
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Special thanks to Rachel M. Coleman, PhD for her assistance in developing the concepts on this project.