But I do know women who use the fertility awareness method (FAM) successfully, not just when they are trying to conceive but all time. It is a legit way to prevent pregnancy, but it requires women to know their bodies really well and track changes over time. There are particular methods within this method (charting temperature and mucus, standard days method which only works for women with a particular cycle duration, and so forth). One stat I pulled looks like fewer than 1-5 out 100 women get pregnant with perfect use of this method within the first year, so it is just as effective as any other. It takes some time to learn and get used to, and consistency, but there are apps now that help make it easier, like I know of someone who is developing an app that takes info directly from your thermometer.

Contrary to popular belief, women's bodies are not some mysterious voodoo magic. From a young age girls have been discouraged from learning about their bodies, and to even be afraid of them. Basically encouraged to be ignorant about what's going on, and I think my health education class in school could have been much more productive if, instead of fear mongering, we had been taught all these things and basic charting skills. Even if you don't want to use it as a primary birth control method, I think it's still good to be informed about your own body, and many women learn it anyway when they decide they want to conceive. In my opinion we come from a culture where people don't care so much about women, especially in medicine, and so much is unknown because of that, and it's good for women to take their health in their own hands and realize there is so much to know about themselves. Since the dawn of time in every patriarchal society, women have been taught that their bodies are an enemy that must be battled or feared. And I would argue this is still prevalent today, for men also but especially women. FAM is not for everybody, especially if you want to have sex whenever you want to or you cannot commit to daily tracking, but I think a lot of girls and women do not even really know about, let alone regard it as a serious birth control method.