“No, you’re not crazy!”

I have said this statement, most especially to women, about 2843820 times. Literally.

In my time as a FertilityCare Practitioner (FCP) with the Creighton Model System (CrMS), I said this. A LOT. I would be sitting there, reviewing a woman’s chart (more to come on this soon) with her or with her and her fiancee/husband, and she would look at me and realize that there was a real reason why she felt overwhelmed on certain days. A real reason why she had trouble sleeping. A real reason why she felt depressed. Or why she felt like she wanted to eat EVERYTHING in sight. Or why she just wanted to cry for seemingly no reason.

A typical conversation would go something like this:

Woman: “So you’re saying that my hormones may be the reason why I feel this way? …you’re telling me that I’m not making this up. …because sometimes I feel crazy. Or just off.”

Me: “No, you’re not crazy. Your body is experiencing fluctuations on a biochemical level as your hormone levels (typically including Progesterone) are dropping, and that affects everything, including your emotions.”

Woman: “…really?!”

Me: “Yes.”

Woman: “Oh, wow. Okay.” (…all said while breathing a sigh of relief)

Once they hear of the work I do, women often approach me to ask me questions about their fertility. (I’ll share funny stories soon. Let’s just say that I prefer to know your name when I first meet you, especially before you start describing your cervical mucus to me. …but to each her own, hahaha.).

The #1 resource I recommend in tandem with tracking your cycle is a PMS Symptom Chart. In my time working at Hope Woman’s Clinic as a Creighton Model Practitioner, we would offer these to our clients to use in tandem with their charts. Even if you use an app, I recommend tracking your PMS symptoms throughout your cycle. I will elaborate more soon on how charting works and why I think that every woman should track her cycle in some way. For now, I just wanted to share with you a tool that I have found helpful, both personally and professionally.

Yes, this requires discipline. Yes, this requires paying attention.

I just want to say, though, that you are worth it. You’re worth the time it takes (30-60 seconds) to mark this chart and monitor the symptoms you experience throughout the month. Maybe you won’t do it for forever. There are seasons in life, and some are more conducive to something like this. But why not try it for a month or two?

To help you along, here are two reasons why I think this is important and helpful.

1.) Self-Knowledge: To know yourself includes knowing and understanding the gift of your body and how it works. I will be writing many more posts specifically about this topic, but I just wanted to offer this simple tool to you today. Keep posted for more, but simply put, this is a tool that can help you to track some of the physical symptoms you are experiencing. They may be connected to your cycle; they may not be. But the only way to begin to find that out is by paying attention. So here is a little tool to help you pay attention to what you’re feeling. (And yes, how you feel physically affects everything: mood, spiritual life, energy, relationships, decision-making, etc. We are body-soul composite, and what a gift that is! Just give it a try!)

2.) Your Health: If these symptoms are actually connected to underlying issues within your cycle, they can help your doctor to understand better what is going on underneath the surface. A tool such as this helps you to monitor what your symptoms are, how severe they are, and how long they last. All three of these things are important when trying to understand what your body is trying to tell you.

So here you are, a PMS Symptom Chart! ::cue celebratory trumpet blasts::

Feel free to print it out or just to use it as a guide for what to look for and how to monitor your symptoms. Happy Tracking!

Note: Day 1 is Day 1 of your cycle, meaning the first day your period begins.

***Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and am not here to diagnose you. I am just speaking from experience as a practitioner who works with women and doctors to help them understand what is actually going on within a woman’s body. This tool can help you to navigate your health. PMS is normal for 2-3 days before you begin your cycle, and it should be something that does not interfere greatly with your day-to-day activities. If you experience PMS symptoms for more than 2-3 days and/or with a severity that disables you or keeps you from living your life as normal, please consult a physician. Because of its foundation in science and the options available with medical protocols, charting with the Creighton Model System is the first step I would recommend. See here for more details of the science behind it. Contact Hope Woman’s Clinic if you are interested in more information and in getting started with a FertilityCare Center near you!

Hello, friends!

This is my first post in over a year, and I am hoping to get back into the swing of things. I decided to provide a little life update and also inform you of my hopes for this blog (hip hip hooray!).

Recent pic with some of my favorites! (Yes, I still look the same, haha.)

Keeping it simple, I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about a year ago. I had accepted my current job as one of the Campus Ministers at Christ the King Parish and Catholic Center. My official and snazzy title, as given to me by Fr. Andrew (our wonderful pastor), is Intellectual Formator. I was blessed last year to teach a class at CTK for any women interested in learning more about the Vocation of Women. I am still working on writing a curriculum on exactly that topic, but I was given a classroom at CTK to pilot the beginnings of such a class. (After teaching high school girls for two years, I felt there was a lack in the resources and materials provided to them. That could take up a whole post, so I’ll elaborate on that dream soon.) Basically, young people are hungry for the truth, and they are so courageous in pursuing it!

During the first week of classes, on August 22 (the Feast of the Queenship of Our Lady), I asked Jesus to take down the walls I’d built up around my heart that were keeping me “safe” but not necessary anymore with the ways He had grown and matured me. Within an hour after praying that very specific prayer, I was HAVING A BLAST, playing an intense game of Ultimate Frisbee in the rain on the Parade Grounds at LSU. I was the only woman on the field at the time, and so my competitive heart was exploding with JOY!!!

…and then lots of little factors lined up as I made a certain play, and my right knee went in a direction it shouldn’t go in as I heard a very loud POP! I felt it and knew right away that I had just torn my ACL. ::womp womp::

I tore my left ACL throwing the javelin in high school, and so I knew what had just happened but didn’t want to believe it. Naturally, I kept playing (or really chasing people around in the background, doing tests on my knee and realizing I couldn’t cut or stop and had no stability in my knee whatsoever). Someone eventually noticed I’d stopped talking smack and playing hard, and they asked me what happened. I walked to get ice, and the rest is history. (Of sorts. This recovery has been much slower than the other one, unfortunately. Perhaps I’ll write a post on that one day, too, because I actually did research and wrote a paper in high school on how women are 5x-8x more likely to tear their ACLs than men. Crazy, but true and super fascinating.)

Anyway, so that + starting a new job + moving + finding a place to live + all the other things we do in life were too much for me to write much on a blog.

But! As this year begins, I am realizing more and more how much I would love to share with people the things that I have been blessed to learn through the years. Not everyone will care to read about the things that fascinate me…the many thoughts that constantly occupy my mind. …but I do believe that there are certain topics that many of you would like to understand more. My passions are women’s health, the writings of Pope St. John Paul II, Catholic Feminism, traveling, being outside, etc. If anything that I write interests you, I hope it can be a gift for you to have and carry in your own heart and mind as you live life.

Besides my current job, I still give talks about many different things (most recently in tandem with Dr. Susan Caldwell about the gift and beauty of a woman’s body–these are specifically geared towards high-school aged women and their mothers. The talk is called “Growing Up Gracefully,” and you can find more information here.). Sr. Tracey Dugas, FSP, and I are continuing to record our radio show “Daughter, Arise” with Catholic Community Radio. (They turn them into podcasts, so you can follow us online even if you can’t listen in your car. You can find us on I-Tunes, and I’ve also linked the shows to my website here, under “Podcasts.”) Primarily, I am focusing on my dissertation (more about that soon). I completed my first two years of doctoral studies (where I traveled back and forth to Rome for classes and exams), and I am in the beginning stages of my dissertation. (Pray for me please! …like for real.)

So now this blog’s purpose surfaces…

I really really really want to share with you the knowledge I have. People come up to me constantly, asking me really great and deep questions. People ask me to give presentations. People just want to learn and spread truth, and it’s so beautiful! Since I am only one person and really really really need to focus on writing a dissertation, I am not available for more presentations and conversations, no matter how wonderful they may be. (Yes, the power of “no” for the bigger “yes–difficult but super healthy.)

Anyway, so here’s my point! I am trying (really hard) to streamline my time so that I can offer my gifts to people in the avenues available to me, and I believe this blog can be one of those avenues in which to pour my (little) efforts.

I am not going to be able to reply to every question or comment. In fact, I will not be able to reply to most. But even if my gift is small, I want to offer it to you. Also, since my dissertation has to be 250-400 pages, it is really important for me to get back into the habit of writing.

I like to think of myself as a recovering perfectionist. Keeping that in mind, I am not going to shoot for perfect posts or even be able to answer every question related to each topic. I will offer what I can, though, and may it help whoever needs it most.

I love you all. Pretty please share this blog with anyone who may be interested in these topics. You can subscribe over on the right sidebar, and let’s just see where the Holy Spirit leads this thing, eh?

What Women Are

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No, You’re Not Crazy