Maggie Rozycki Hilter
If she had it her way, Ashley Annis’ office would be located in a women’s restroom.
“In my ideal world, I would be able to go into a public restroom and the people around me would feel comfortable saying, ‘Oh hey, fertile fluid over here!’ or ‘I’m having a terrible period, who’s with me?’ or whatever,” says Annis, a fertility awareness educator. “We are so ashamed of our bodies, and I don’t think it needs to be that way.”
In 2013, Annis started Lovely Fertility, a small business based in Madison aimed at educating women about their bodies. Her work focuses on cycle awareness and fertility awareness, a natural approach to family planning.
Annis, 27, first became interested in fertility awareness in 2011. She was in a new relationship and not satisfied with the standard menu of hormone-based birth control options. So she began researching alternatives. After reading Toni Weschler’s Taking Charge of Your
Anda Marie
Ashley Annis advocates fertility awareness: “We are so ashamed of our bodies, and I don’t think it needs to be that way.”
Fertility, Annis says she “fell in love with the idea of charting your cycle.”
“It blew my mind,” she says. “It changed the way I thought of myself.”
Annis says she realized how disconnected she was from her own body as well as well as how the topic of cycles, birth control, fertility and sexuality are rarely discussed openly.
Today, after two years of fertility awareness teacher training and four years of personal experience using fertility awareness as her own birth control method, Annis is sharing her knowledge with other women.
Certified as a fertility awareness educator by the Association of Fertility Awareness Professionals, Annis started teaching last year and currently offers online and in-person classes. Most often, the women she advises are looking for a natural birth control option, but others are trying to conceive. Annis stresses that working with women struggling with infertility isn’t her area of expertise: “I’m not a fertility doctor and I’m not a ‘natural fertility specialist.’ Birth control is my thing.”
At the heart of fertility awareness is getting to know one’s own body. Daily observance of basal body temperature and monitoring of cervical fluid are essential. Annis’ website, lovelyfertility.com, provides charts for keeping track of this data throughout the month. By understanding the natural changes that occur each month, women learn to understand when they are, and aren’t, fertile.
Fertility awareness isn’t the same as the “rhythm method,” which has a reputation for being ineffectual. “The rhythm and calendar methods are based on the idea that all women ovulate around day 14 and have 28-day cycles or the idea that your cycle doesn’t change from month to month,” Annis explains. None of these notions are true, she says. Instead, fertility awareness claims to monitor fertility in “real time,” which allows women to know, on a daily basis, whether or not they are fertile. No guesswork needed.
Annis knows that getting started with fertility awareness can seem overwhelming. “It’s a big commitment,” she says, emphasizing that it comes with a learning curve. “It takes a little time to get in the habit of taking your temperature every day, of looking for cervical fluid and remembering what you saw,” she adds. “But then, after a while, it just becomes part of your daily life.”
In addition to presentations for student groups and such organizations as Planned Parenthood, Annis offers individualized classes for women interested in learning more about their bodies and natural birth control.
Her fees work on a sliding scale, but for about $150, women (and their partners) can take a one-on-one class with Annis. This two-part class begins with building a thorough understanding of the menstrual cycle. In the second class, Annis explains how to observe and record two important fertility signals, temperature and cervical fluid, and talks through using the data gathered. Afterwards, her clients monitor a cycle or two and report back, sending her their completed charts for Annis to review.
In addition to her classes, Annis provides educational resources to women at no cost, including a month-long email course focusing on understanding the menstrual cycle. On July 11, she’s also hosting a free introductory workshop on natural birth control at Rainbow Bookstore.
“I believe this information is our right; it should be available to whoever wants it,” Annis says. “I consider myself more of an activist, and that mindset gives me more freedom. I get to give away information, my website is full of information on natural birth control, and I think that’s how it should be.”
