by Brook Myrick BSN, RN, LAS & Kelly McCallister BSN, RN, LAS
The second article in a series of three bringing an emphasis of fertility awareness to equip and empower those in pregnancy help and ensure women understand their bodies to make informed choices in their healthcare.
The Pregnancy Help Medical Clinic (PHMC) has been endowed with the privilege of empowering women through Fertility Awareness education. Education empowers women to make an informed choice as an active participant in their healthcare decisions. Women deserve to know the truth about their medical options and after measuring the benefits and risks, determine which healthcare option best suits their circumstances.
Medical Professionals within the PHMC can provide women with compassionate and caring support through honest answers, medical facts, and fertility awareness education.
Why is education within the PHMC important?
Women will benefit tremendously from basic education on female anatomy, hormonal involvement, and how both interconnect within their designed functions to contribute to not only her reproductive health, but also her overall health.
In a survey of 2,000 women, it was revealed 42% wished they knew more about what different organs do, 46% could not identify the cervix, and 38% wished they knew more about menopause and perimenopause.
Within the PHMC, women can be educated on the reproductive cycle, including the hormones involved in each cycle and how these hormones directly impact their health.
When educating women in the Pregnancy Help Medical Clinic, it is most helpful to communicate with her in terms that she can understand and with information she can retain. The hope is that the education provided is also applied in her life. Education, including detailed medical terminology, would most often not serve the needs of women most efficiently for their future application in their lives.
What female anatomy and hormonal education could be helpful to her?
A basic understanding of her body empowers her overall awareness and future involvement in her healthcare decisions. Her body and anatomy are directly impacted as she considers contraception options. Additionally, this education can even impact the life and death decisions that are often made within the PHMC as she considers parenting or aborting.
It can be shared with her that the female body contains two ovaries, a uterus, and fallopian tubes as part of her reproductive system within her pelvis. This reproductive system matures and eventually leads to an ovulation cycle that will occur approximately every 24-36 days. A healthy reproductive cycle typically results in the release of one mature egg, and her body is then prepared to achieve and support a pregnancy.
Each reproductive cycle is governed by hormones that impact the health of not just the reproductive system, but the entire body. There is a widely misunderstood conception that reproductive health is primarily relevant to reproduction and childbearing years, yet it plays a crucial role in the overall health of the woman throughout her entire life.
Hormones are messengers that carry a message from the anterior pituitary gland in the brain to the ovaries. In each reproductive cycle, hormones must reach sufficient levels to signal the release of the next hormone. In other words, each hormone must function as it is intended for the next step, the next hormone, to take place and be released.
The first hormone in a woman’s cycle to be released by the brain is the Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) to the ovaries to stimulate the follicle and cause the egg to grow. The ovaries will then produce estrogen. Estrogen levels will begin rising as the egg grows and matures and reach a peak level. The peak levels of estrogen will then signal it is time to release the Luteinizing Hormone (LH) from the brain. The LH then carries the message to trigger the ovary to release the egg and for ovulation to occur. After the release of the mature egg from the ovary at ovulation, the ruptured follicle then becomes the corpus luteum and secretes progesterone to maintain the thickened uterine lining and stabilize the pregnancy, if pregnancy is achieved, until the placenta takes over at approximately 10 weeks of gestation. Ovulation is the timeframe for when pregnancy can be achieved or when it can be avoided.
Once ovulation has occurred, the egg is then swept into the fallopian tube. A fertilized egg takes approximately 4-5 days to reach the uterus, where it will implant in the endometrium (uterine lining). This process takes approximately 6-7 days after ovulation has occurred. If fertilization does not occur, the mature egg will die and dissolve within a 24-hour timeframe, and the uterine lining will then shed during menstruation approximately 12 days later, and a new cycle will begin.
What are some resources that could assist Pregnancy Help Medical Clinics as Fertility Awareness Education is put into action?
