I am going to be honest and tell you that 4 years ago I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what a Fertility Awareness Educator was or what they did. I would maybe have thought that they worked in a fertility clinic or something like that. Even when I applied to The Well’s School of Body Literacy I had no clue that when I was finished I would be one! True story. In true Ashley fashion, I found a program that I not only needed for myself but also that I saw could serve the people in my community. After applying and being accepted I had an “oh shit” moment like, is this something I can see myself being? The answer in short was, YES! But it took some time and re-learning many things including my thought process, the way I taught, as well as what I thought I knew about the human body, specifically the menstrual cycle and hormones
So what is a fertility awareness educator(FAE)?
I liked the definition that Maven gave saying, “They’re experts who help you understand your body and fertility, as well as provide information about menstrual cycles, hormonal well being, contraception options, and reproductive health.”1 I wholeheartedly agree with definition and then also want to discuss how their is no governing body that regulates any training program for FAE’s. This really stood out once I started The Well’s School of Body Literacy program and started following different educators who all had different ways of teaching Fertility Awareness. Frankly I was so confused because there are so many different methods with different efficacies as well as different rules and practices. We’ll get into all the methods at a different time but lets talk about what distinguishes an educator from the next? The AFAP website(Association of Fertility Awareness Professionals) states that “each training program that does exist is independent and has its own set of standards.”2
As I’m going through this program that I so randomly applied for and got accepted into, I realized later how extremely lucky I was to get into such an esteemed program. I will list some reasons why this program is so good and what I love most about it as well as why I also honor and support those teaching other methods out there because this work is truly needed and variety is the spice of life!
Let’s start off with education and training.
Like I said, there is no regulating body on teaching fertility awareness based methods. There are also around 35 methods if I counted right and don’t quote me but that is a lot of variation so it makes sense that there are no regulations, I mean who wants to learn all of those methods then keep track of each educator. I have enough issues with renewing my nursing license and getting CEU’s. I digress. So going back to regulating this diverse group of educators. About halfway through my education of becoming a FAE, I was starting to understand that the program as well as a handful of others weren’t better perse but actually had core competencies within their own training that fit my own values and standards of what kind of program I would want to be associated with and education that I would be able to teach. To see those standards please visit the AFAP website here. This really helped me solidify any doubts that I had.
To sum up what a fertility awareness educator is in my own words and experiences is that I am a person that works with people on a very personal level getting to learn, understand, and identify reproductive needs throughout the lifespan. I am skilled with various situations one may have from both a reproductive standpoint as well as upstream factors that affect our hormones and reproductive health. There isn’t just one thing that can describe what a FAE can do because we are multifaceted caring creatures that thrive on education and learning at the same time. If you are looking to become an educator I highly recommend checking out this post by Nathalie who shares all sorts of info on becoming an educator.
If you aren’t sure what method is for you feel free to reach out to me and we can chat. I have another post about this coming soon as I will talk all about the method I teach or feel free to peruse and find an educator near you.
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mavenclinic_what-is-a-fertility-awareness-educator-activity-7105623530242801665-ev3N?utm_source=li_share&utm_content=feedcontent&utm_medium=g_dt_web&utm_campaign=copy ↩︎
- https://www.fertilityawarenessprofessionals.org/become-an-educator/what-it-means-to-be-certified/ ↩︎