The Garden of Fertility: A Guide to Charting Your Fertility Signals to Prevent or Achieve Pregnancy--Naturally--and to Gauge Your Reproductive Health

414 Pages·2004·17.1 MB·English

by  Katie Singer

Praise for The Garden of Fertility
“Every woman interested in her own health—not just those who want to conceive or to avoid pregnancy—
needs a copy of this amazing book. Filled with solid information, thoughts of love, a fine feminist
viewpoint, and great real-life stories, it is a feast of Wise Woman ways, guaranteed to empower everyone
who reads it.”
—SUSUN WEED, author of Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year and New Menopausal Years
the Wise Woman Way
“The Garden of Fertility bridges the facts of biology with feminine powers of daily observation. It
encourages each of us to know how our reproductive systems work, and to use them well. It is an icon for
medicine in the new century.”
—LARRY DOSSEY, M.D., author of Healing Beyond the Body and Healing Words, Executive Editor of
Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine
“Katie Singer has read widely and deeply. She offers this thoughtful, clear, informative discussion of
Fertility Awareness in all of its ramifications, linking our personal health and womanly cycles to the greater
world around us. Her book provides a basis for self-knowledge that enables us to understand our menstrual
cycles and choose health care wisely.”
—THE BOSTON WOMEN’S HEALTH BOOK COLLECTIVE, authors of Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New
Century
“This book’s chapter on food and reproductive health succinctly presents the nutritional keys to creating
regular, ovulatory cycles that are free from PMS, PCOS, progesterone deficiency, thyroid, and other
gynecological problems—and that will ensure easy pregnancies and healthy children when they’re desired.
The keys that Katie Singer presents are the ones Dr. Weston A. Price discovered nearly a century ago in his
remarkable studies of healthy, nonindustrialized peoples. At last, this information is available for
contemporary women (and men) who want to create strong reproductive health through diet.”
—SALLY FALLON, author of Nourishing Traditions, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation
“This outstanding book teaches you how to interpret your menstrual cycle’s signals and how to gauge your
gynecological health, how to determine when you are fertile and infertile each month, what you can do at
home to avoid or heal common problems, and what different health care systems provide when you need
help. Katie Singer has done a brilliant job of integrating these complex subjects into one volume that is as
delightful to read as it is comprehensive. If every woman read this book, I imagine that health care would be
profoundly changed.”
—DAGMAR EHLING, D.O.M., author of The Chinese Herbalist’s Handbook

Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual
reader. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for
consulting with your physician. All matters regarding health require medical supervision. Neither the author
nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss, injury, or damage allegedly arising from any
information or suggestion in this book. The opinions expressed in this book represent the personal views of
the author and not of the publisher.
All stories presented in this book are true. Names and identifying characteristics (excepting the names
of health-care providers) have been changed to protect peoples’ privacy.
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at
the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for
changes that occur after publication.
Most Avery books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchase for sales promotions,
premiums, fund-raising, and educational needs. Special books or book excerpts also can be created to fit
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Copyright © 2004 by Katie Singer
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Published simultaneously in Canada The author gratefully acknowledges permission to reprint the
following: A description of The Work of Byron Katie, adapted from Loving What Is by Byron Katie,
Harmony Books, © 2002 by Byron Kathleen Mitchell.
An excerpt from Gay Becker, PhD, The Elusive Embryo: How Men and Women Approach New
Reproductive Technologies, © 2000 by The Regents of the University of California.
An excerpt from Michael Borkin, ND, “Women’s Hormones 101,” published in the September 2000 issue
(37) of Alternative Medicine, www.alternativemedicine.com.
Drawings © 2004 by Suzann Gage.
“Prayers for David” © 2004 by Johana Moore.
“A Meditation for Encouraging Spiritual Resolution After Miscarriage” and “Nina’s Story,” excerpted from
Ended Beginnings: Healing Childbearing Losses by Claudia Panuthos and Catherine Romeo, © 1984 by
Bergin & Garvey; reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, Conn.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Singer, Katie, date.
The garden of fertility : a guide to charting your fertility signals to prevent or achieve pregnancy—naturally
—and to gauge your reproductive health / Katie Singer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-101-66259-5
1. Menstrual cycle. 2. Fertility, Human. 3. Natural family planning. I. Title.
RG161.S55 2003 2003057943
612.6’62—dc22
To Kyce Bello,
poet, herbalist, Fertility Awareness teacher, RN, twenty-two-year-old midwife to
this book
To Andrus Brooke Pyeatt, whose observations about the seasons and all things
fertile daily fill my empty bowl
We know ourselves to be made from this earth.
We know this earth is made from our bodies. For we see ourselves.
And we see nature. We are nature seeing nature.
—SUSAN GRIFFIN
Contents
Praise for The Garden of Fertility
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Justina Trott, MD, FACP, President of the American College of
Women’s Health Physicians
Introduction
A Note About Reading The Garden of Fertility
PART 1 Fertility Awareness
1. A Woman Is Like the Earth: Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology
2. How to Observe and Chart Your Fertility Signals
3. The Rules for Using Fertility Awareness to Prevent Pregnancy
4. Fertility Awareness While Breast-feeding
5. Enhancing Your Chances of Conceiving
PART 2 Fertility Awareness and Gynecological Health
6. Gauging Gynecological Health by Fertility Signals
7. Common Products That Can Be Hazardous to Reproductive Health
8. The Six Steps of Healing
9. Healing Childbearing Losses
10. Night-Lighting and Reproductive Health
11. Food and Reproductive Health
12. Natural Remedies for Reproductive Health Problems
13. Women Conducting Research
APPENDIXES
The Many Names of Fertility Awareness
How to Find a Teacher
If You Want to Teach
Principles of the Fertility Awareness Institute
Studies About the Effectiveness of Fertility Awareness
Testing Your Understanding of Fertility Awareness
Resources
Glossary
Blank Charts
Endnotes
Index
Acknowledgments
A
COMMUNITY OF PASSIONATE PEOPLE created this book. Collecting and writing
up the information has been my privilege. For their contributions, I give thanks:
To Donna Taylor, who generously teaches me Fertility Awareness with love,
clarity, and infectious enthusiasm; To Justina Trott, MD, Dorian Wilkes, Anne
Robinson, and Delores Roybal, who gave me the green light to teach FA at
Women’s Health Services, making it one of the few nonprofit clinics in the
United States to provide such classes; To Suzannah Doyle, who dazzled me with
her enthusiasm for using charts to gauge gyn health, then gave me her library;
To Dagmar Ehling, DOM, who weaves Chinese and Western meridians,
regularly introduces me to new modes of healing, and gave this book (and me)
indispensable research and support; To Leah Morton, MD, whose friendship and
ecological vision of health care encourage me deeply;
To Judy Norsigian, Jane Pincus, Wendy Sanford, and the rest of the team of
women who created Our Bodies, Ourselves—without which I’d have had a very
different life; and again to Wendy, whose editorial help on this book was crucial;
To Suzann Gage, L Ac, RNC, NP, and the Federation of Feminist Women’s
Health Centers—their book, A New View of a Woman’s Body, was also one of
my first teachers; and again to Suzann, whose original view of female
reproductive anatomy makes this book sing, and who told me about Weston
Price just when I began to teach Fertility Awareness; To Toni Weschler, whose
book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, continues to break ground—along with
her passion and generosity; To Wendy VanDilla, ND, who helped teach me;
To Louise Rubin, web designer extraordinaire, whose desire to post
www.gardenoffertility.com set this book in motion; To Laura Wershler, who
first named Fertility Awareness a life skill;
To Ilene Richman, coordinator of the Fertility Awareness Network, whose