Nadine McMillan, Author at Fertility Science Institute

What’s a Guy to Do? Postpartum

I tell all new fathers to take credit for the first nine months of being a dad, because, after birth, things get a lot harder. The actual birth was a great dad-highlight. I got to help our midwife catch our firstborn. We had taken Bradley Childbirth classes. We had read books. We were informed. We…

Expecting the Unexpected: Perimenopause

Originally published in Family Foundations. Gini was 35 when she began experiencing cycle irregularity and spent the next several years hunting for clarity. Finally, at age 39, a blood test came back with the answer. Menopause. “Suddenly a lot of my other symptoms made sense!” she says. Perimenopause simply hadn’t been on her radar, in…

Fertility Awareness and Finding Peace

Written by Grace Emily Stark From using everything possible to postpone pregnancy, to desperately trying anything to overcome infertility, our culture deeply misunderstands human fertility—and is addicted to the fight against it. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a planner, and I like to feel like I’m in control. Within days…

Building the FSI Directory

Originally written by Annie Roettker and published in Family Foundations in January 2022. Couple to Couple League (CCL) has taken its experience teaching a scientifically based, all-natural fertility awareness method and combined it with other professionals’ gifts and talents centered around the same mission and created the Fertility Science Institute (FSI) and FSI Directory. FSI…

3 Reasons We All Need Our Own NFP Tribe & How To Find Yours

Living the natural family planning lifestyle can sometimes feel like a solo hike up a steep mountain. We start off excited, convicted (by the science and Church teaching), and as prepared as we can be for this beautiful endeavor. A few miles in, we are facing an unexpected obstacle, nursing an old bum knee, and…

Supporting Fertility Through Food

Sometimes fertility can feel very outside of our control – like something that happens to us, rather than for us. But our fertility is truly a gift and an invitation: an invitation to awareness of how our body responds to stress, to thoughts and emotions, as well as to the foods we eat. Fueling our…

NFP: Backed by Solid Science

For most people learning NFP is a time of observing, recording, and trying to interpret so they can understand when they are fertile and when they are not. But NFP, or more accurately living the NFP lifestyle, is much more than observing fertility changes; it impacts our daily lives in ways that most of us…

Infertility 201: Basic Information All Couples Should Know (Part 2)

From the Family Foundations archives. An excerpt from The Infertility Companion for Catholics: Spiritual and Practical Support for Couples, by Carmen Santamaria and Angelique Ruhi-Lopez, reprinted with permission from Ave Maria Press. Second Infertility Secondary infertility is defined as the inability to become pregnant, or carry a pregnancy to term following the birth of one…

Infertility 101: The Basic Information All Couples Should Know

From the Family Foundations archives. An excerpt from The Infertility Companion for Catholics: Spiritual and Practical Support for Couples, by Carmen Santamaria and Angelique Ruhi-Lopez, reprinted with permission from Ave Maria Press. What causes infertility? About a third of the time, infertility can be traced to a cause within the woman. In another third of…

Self-Help for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Written by Marilyn Shannon From time to time I have been asked to offer nutritional suggestions for women who have contacted me about polycystic ovaries. Most often, their charts have displayed long to very long cycles, with less fertile mucus patches interspersed with more fertile mucus. The levels of the preovulatory and postovulatory temperatures have…