Natural birth control
Learn natural birth control properly, one-to-one, over twelve weeks. You leave knowing how to read your own body well enough to rely on it. No hormones, no guessing, no app deciding for you.
Wherever you're starting from
There is a method of birth control that uses no hormones, no device and no side effects. It works by teaching you to read the physical signs your body produces when you're fertile, so you know which days you can get pregnant and which days you can't. It's called fertility awareness, and the version I teach has been studied more thoroughly than most people realise. Keep reading, I'll explain the whole thing.
And you've been charting on your own from a book or an app without ever quite trusting your own charts: skip to "Could I just teach myself?" below. That section is for you.
Does this sound like you?
Maybe it's the mood, the low libido or just a feeling that something's been switched off. But every alternative you've been shown seems either riskier or less reliable.
You're not going back. But you're also quietly anxious around the middle of every cycle, doing mental arithmetic you're not confident about.
Or you've been ruled out of hormonal options, and nobody offered you anything except a coil or a shrug.
And calling it a system when honestly it's luck with better presentation.
And your chart looks nothing like the tidy examples. Your temperatures wander. Your fluid doesn't do what the diagram says. You can't tell whether that's your body or your technique.
And every article says fertility awareness isn't for you, which lands like being told your body is the wrong shape.
Not one of those means you can't do this. Most of them mean doing it alone has stopped making sense.
Book a free call →What you'll actually learn
The fertility awareness method (FAM) works on one fact: you can only conceive during a limited window each cycle, and your body gives clear, observable signs of when that window opens and closes.
An app estimates that window from averages. It works from what your last few cycles did and assumes this one will do the same. Fertility awareness reads the window from you, in real time, this cycle. That is the difference between a prediction and a method.
You'll learn the symptothermal method, which combines two primary signs with a set of rules for turning them into a daily answer. It's the most thoroughly researched form of fertility awareness there is, and when it's taught properly and followed consistently, it's one of the most effective forms of contraception available.
A small, measurable shift after ovulation. You learn to take it, chart it and read it.
Changes through the cycle in a pattern you can recognise once you know what to look for.
An optional third sign that confirms what the other two are telling you.
An optional fourth sign. Useful as a cross-check when your fluid observations are hard to read.
The signs on their own are just data. I teach you how to combine the signs into a clear answer, every day: fertile or not fertile.
The largest study of this method followed 900 women across more than 17,000 cycles.
0.4 in 100
Followed the rules and avoided intercourse during the fertile window. Pregnancies across a year.
0.6 in 100
Followed the rules and used a barrier method during the fertile window instead.
1.8 in 100
Everyone in the study, including women who knowingly took chances on fertile days.
So: 99.4 to 99.6% effective when the rules are followed. Around 98% across real people living real lives.
I give you both numbers on purpose. The first tells you what this method is capable of. The second tells you it's only ever as good as what you do with it on a Tuesday night in your fertile window.
Everything about how I teach is built to close that gap. Twelve weeks rather than a weekend. One-to-one rather than a video course. Your own charts read by me, plus six months of being able to ask questions.
Frank-Herrmann et al., Human Reproduction, 2007
Book a free call →Could I just teach myself?
There's a well-known book on this, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, and it's genuinely good. If you're going to self-teach, teach yourself from that rather than from Instagram. Some women read it, chart carefully and get on fine.
What a book can't do is look at your chart.
It shows you a textbook cycle, and then you have a cycle that isn't textbook, which is most of them. It can't tell you whether that ambiguous fluid on day 11 is the start of your fertile window or nothing. It can't tell you whether the temperature rise on day 19 is a real shift or one bad night's sleep.
The difference between understanding the method and trusting it enough to rely on it. Those are separate skills.
And there's one gap a book structurally cannot close. The first skill you can get in a weekend. The second comes from someone reading your real charts, more than once, and telling you what they see.
If you've been charting a while and you still hedge on your fertile days, that's what you'd be paying for. Not information. Confidence you can act on.
In their words
Working with Mary opened my eyes to my body in a way I never had before. It's been so empowering to finally feel connected to myself.
I'm so much more in tune with my body now. I notice the small signals it gives me every day, the ones I used to not see and even ignore.
I understand my body and my cycle so much better, and I genuinely look forward to every call to learn more.
How the 12 weeks work
Before we start
Right after you sign up, you answer a few questions in your client area: where you are now, what you're using, what your cycles are doing and why you want to learn this. Then you book a 30-minute call with me, and we go through it all before the first session.
Week 1
How your cycle actually works, what each sign means, and exactly how to observe and record it. You leave with your chart set up and start tracking the same day. This first cycle is for building the skill and getting your baseline, so you'll use a barrier method or abstain throughout it.
Week 5-6
We go through your first cycle together, line by line. What's clear, what isn't, where your temperature shift is and how to find it in a chart that isn't tidy. By the end of this session you can identify a confirmed ovulation in your own data, which is the milestone that opens up the post-ovulatory rules.
Week 10-12
Second chart review, then the complete rule set including the edge cases. This is where you stop learning a method and start running one.
You're not on your own between calls. Send me a chart, a question, a "wait, is this normal?" and I'll answer. Private support runs for six months from the day you sign up, so it covers the programme and the three months after it.
What's included
A short questionnaire and a 30-minute call with me before we begin
Structured to cover two full cycles of charting
All education, chart reviews and guidance, with me, not a video course
From the day you sign up. Questions, charts, reassurance
A handout after every session, plus printable charts. Download them and they are yours to keep
In Read Your Body. The app I chart in, and the one I'll review your charts from
Investment
You learn this once. You'll use it coming off hormones, through deciding whether you want children, through trying for them if you do, and in the years after. It isn't a subscription and it doesn't expire.
Best value
€395
One payment
Everything included. Paid once at sign-up.
Lowest total price
€205
per month, 2 months
First payment at sign-up, second one month later.
Total €410
€139
per month, 3 months
Spread over the length of the programme.
Total €417
Every option includes the full programme: three live sessions, chart reviews, six months of private support and all materials. Payment is handled securely by Stripe. After paying you get your client area straight away, with a few intake questions and a link to book our 30-minute start call. Not sure yet? Book a free call first.
Who this is for
FAM is a method, and it only works as well as it's taught and followed. That's why this is one-to-one, over twelve weeks, and not a PDF.
Why learn with me?
I knew almost nothing about my own cycle for most of my adult life. Coming off hormonal contraception was the first time I actually learned how my body worked, and the first time I felt I could trust it.
I'm a trained fertility awareness educator with a background in psychology. I teach this the way I wish someone had taught me: thoroughly, without judgement, and with someone to ask when you don't understand your chart.
Questions
When the symptothermal method is taught properly and the rules are followed consistently, it's up to 99.6% effective, making it one of the most effective methods available. Effectiveness drops when it's self-taught or the rules are bent (self-taught efficacy hasn't even been formally studied). That's the whole reason this is a 12-week one-to-one programme.
This is a tricky question. If you're taking hormonal birth control, you most likely will not ovulate. The fertility awareness method is based around tracking our ovulation. Thus, no ovulation = no ability to track. The information you gain in this course can still be used if you're planning to go off hormonal birth control in the future. The handouts and charts are yours to download and keep, so you can come back to them when you do come off.
However, the 1:1 personal guidance you receive throughout the duration of this course, will most likely not benefit you right now. To make the most of the course, I suggest having been off birth control for at least 3-6 months, but this is entirely up to you. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions.
The classes will take place online, using google meets. The date and time will be agreed with you. The classes will be private.
I teach the sympto-thermal method, which combines cervical mucus with basal body temperature tracking. I also include information about LH testing and Cervix position.
We start with a 30-minute call, after you have filled in a short intake questionnaire. Then we have three live sessions of 2 to 2.5 hours each. You also have unlimited message support from the day you sign up until six months later.
Yes, definitely! It's great if your partner wants to join, so you can both be active participants in FAM. I believe there's so much power in knowledge, and having your partner there will help so that both of you understand the guidelines and procedures. Plus, having that extra support can even help you better use the method. They can attend all calls for no extra cost, and can watch all the sessions with you.
Yes, you can!
If you struggle with PCOS, Endometriosis, amenorrhea, and other menstrual cycle issues you can absolutely track your cycle. Learning to read your chart will not only empower you to know what's happening with your hormones but will tell you when you need to talk to your doctor and get labs done. Just note that it can be frustrating in the beginning when you are starting to learn the method.
There's currently a lot of fertility/cycle apps on the market, which I absolutely love, as it means that it's getting easier for women to track their cycle. However, most apps are guessing your fertile window based on your past cycles and their algorithm. Studies show apps are typically only correct about 21% of the time (!). This means they work for some, but definitely not for everyone. Don't leave it up to chance! With FAM instruction you aren't guessing, you will know exactly when you're fertile and when you're infertile and also why this is the case, giving you back control of your fertility, without having to depend on an app or anything else.
You can change your mind within 14 days of signing up and get a refund, as described in my Terms. Once the programme has started, payments aren't refunded, but if you aren't satisfied with something, please just send me a message. I'm always open to feedback and want to provide the best service possible to my clients.
Absolutely! FAM can give you an understanding of what is going on, in your body and with your hormones, so you'll receive information about your ovulation. I think it's such an amazing tool to have if you do experience irregular cycles, as you'll know if and when you are ovulate and subsequently when your period will arrive. Thus: no more guessing when your next bleed will come!
You can reach out to me at anytime by emailing hello@maryarianne.com. I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Yes, absolutely! The same skill that tells you when to avoid, also tells you when to try. Many women use it for both at different points in life.
A basal body thermometer (I will give you advice on which one to buy) and the printable chart or the Read Your Body app. That's it!
How the free call works
Final step
Book the free 30 minute call. We'll talk about where you are, what you're using now, and what's making you hesitate. You get a sense of how I work. I get a sense of whether I can genuinely help.
If we're a good fit, we go from there. If not, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.
Free, online, 30 minutes. No obligation.