From Unexplained Infertility to Charting Experts: Meet Logan and Emma
- Rachel Persson
- Aug 12
- 5 min read
**Note names have been changed for privacy, and charts have been summarized with much detail removed.
I first met this adorable couple through a Facebook group of all places. I was just beginning my student teaching for my certification and needed to find couples to teach so I posted out asking for volunteers and Emma slid into my dms.
She told a story that made my heart ache for her and I knew I had to work with them. Emma explained that her reproductive knowledge was lacking and while she knew that missing periods was not good, she didn't really know why. She and her husband had been trying to conceive for about four and a half years when she initally reached out to me and had already experienced one early loss around six weeks. She'd seen a few doctors, but all of them came up with "unexplained infertility" and sent her on her way. I am in the midwest and they are located in California, so I completely forgot about the time change. After a hiccup about time zones, we jumped in with gusto! I taught them to chart and Logan did a fabulous job with the actual charting part. He took over so that Emma was able to focus on learning to make her observations properly and she was doing super well right off the bat. Emma informed me that her cycles were irregular, but once we started charting we were pleased to see that they were not as irregular as she initially thought! Her first cycle chart was ripe with estrogenic activity, which led me to anticipate a shorter-than-ideal luteal phase would be coming.
We can see above in the graphic representation of the chart from cycle one that she was experiencing lots of spotting and tons of estrogenic activity. We are missing a clear, identifiable peak day and luteal phase. Emma said after session one that she was having some confusion with identifying and classifying the different types of mucus, so once we cleared that up a bit, her second chart looked much clearer! This Chart has a clear peak day and luteal phase!
Between cycles two and three, we discussed some simple lifestyle changes that could have big impacts and the couple started implementing them straight away. I truly think those small changes led to the big change we were able to see on her next chart of ovulation. Emma's third cycle was even more clear. You can see the progression of how her observations improved as her confidence in identifying cervical mucus rose. Her third chart has a great mucus buildup, normal period and on the short-end of normal luteal phase.
Emma and Logan conceived on this cycle after only three ovulations! I was so excited for them, knowing how long they yearned for a baby. We knew from her charts that she likely would have a low progesterone issue and so we set to finding a medical provider as soon as we could. While they did end up losing this baby around 6 weeks, the data gained from their cycle charting helped them to find a medical provider willing to look more in detail at why they had not successfully brought a child to birth. For their privacy, I will not speak about the conclusions of their treatment, but our specially-trained medical provider did find multiple imbalances that are known to cause miscarriages. With some lifestyle changes and help from a FEMM trained medical provider, Logan and Emma gave birth to a healthy baby boy this spring. You can hear from them in their own words below. It brings tears to my eyes to hear it from their perspective, as I also feel like we've become friends for the duration of time we're spent together, though we have not met in person!
Emma, 30, CA:
"We had struggled with infertility for about 5 and a half years when we stumbled upon Rachel and the FEMM approach. I, like many woman, was never really taught much about my cycle other than it should last around 28 days. I did a lot of researching and studying on my fertility journey but only learned basics...I knew that progesterone played a key role in staying pregnant. And learned that I could do LH testing strips for ovulation timing. I also knew there was a fertility window but honestly had no clue how to really know when that was happening. Charting was so empowering! I was amazed at how much information I was getting from it. I learned that I had too high of estrogen and low progesterone and so I was able to do some lifestyle changes and take some supplements to help with that. I also learned I bled too much! Which was something that never occured to me! Through charting I was able to see these things, adjust my lifestyle, and then see how my cycle got healthier each month. While it takes a few months to feel super confident in it, you can know where your body is at by these biomarkers. And after a couple months of charting we became pregnant. All before that it felt like such a guessing game. While we lost that baby, Rachel did everything to help me find progesterone. Within a couple more months I was pregnant again and I already knew how to get the progesterone I needed. I became pregnant right after I had a picture perfect cycle again and I now get to hold my sunshine baby boy! Not only has charting empowered me and lead to easily getting pregnant again after years of trying (because I knew my fertile window as well as the health of my cycles) but Rachel has become a beloved friend who helped me out in ways no one else had on my fertility journey. I cannot recommend learning to chart enough! I will be making sure any daughters I have learn this!"
Logan, 30, CA:
"Going through the classes brought the abstract concepts of "fertility" into tangible and measurable data points. The accumulation of those data points helped my wife and I identify things such as her fertility window but also probable hormonal causes which contributed to not conceiving. Now when we're taking a break before the next baby this knowledge helps us both monitor my wife's health as well as give insight into when it's "more safe" to try."
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