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Today I’m going to talk about the Justisse Method of Fertility Awareness.
What is that, you might say? Don’t worry. While many people have heard of FAM, and a few people have heard of the Creighton Model, I haven’t encountered anyone that has heard of the Justisse Method. Which is really a pity, because it is my personal favorite.
Finding the Justisse Method
I have been charting my cycles using the Fertility Awareness Method, or Sympto-Thermal since I went off the pill in April of 2012. In June 2012, I began taking classes about the Creighton Model. Since then, I have continued to use both methods. My husband can easily interpret my Creighton charts thanks to the colorful stickers and I like the standardization of it. But I could never give up recording my basal body temperature with FAM. During each cycle, especially long ones when I had multiple mucus peaks, my basal body temperature assured me of whether I had actually ovulated with that peak or not, which let me predict my period despite widely irregular cycles. Even now that my mucus buildup is more standard, I appreciate the security that comes with that second layer of data.
As you can imagine, even though I was using two different charting methods, I continued to read about natural family planning. How could I not! I am fascinated by the topic and I always want to learn more.
Around the time that I discovered the Justisse Method, I was also researching a variety of different options for continuing education as well as searching for a solution to my lack of ovulation and fertility (thankfully both of these things are returning!). I believe it was a combination of all of these things than led me to the Justisse website. I was instantly in love.
The Best of Both Worlds
The reason that the Justisse Method is my favorite method of Natural Family Planning/Fertility Awareness is that is combines everything I love about the Creighton Model and STM. It uses the exact same mucus charting methods as the Creighton model, right down to the same abbreviations. Except that it gets even more specific! One of the things I struggled with with the Creighton Model was that I do not have the standard mucus build up and dry up. While the “yellow stamps” of the method help with this, the Justisse Method not only has these yellow stamps, but it uses two different colors to distinguish between non-peak type fertile mucus and peak type fertile mucus. When staring at a chart that has two weeks straight of the same fertile mucus stamp, this is a very welcome feature.
Justisse also has a place for recording cervical position and temperature, like with FAM/STM. As mentioned above, recording basal body temperature is very important to me, so having a place to do that on the same chart as my mucus charting is incredibly helpful. One less set of charts to keep track of!
Learning the Justisse Method
I was lucky in that I was able to jump right into charting using the Justisse Method of Fertility Awareness due to my self-education of FAM and my instruction in the Creighton Model. Those two things made this the perfect method for me: combining the best of the two methods and making it even better.
However, if you are not familiar with the Creighton Model, the Justisse Method also will likely require instruction. You can purchase the book about this method, which contains really good information about the reproductive system, how to chart, and how to use the Justisse Method. I love the pictures it contains with examples of cervical mucus. Their online charting app will also help instruct you on how to use this method of charting. It can still be a confusing method, though, and there is not the strong community surrounding it as there is with FAM. To thoroughly and confidently learn the Justisse Method, it is recommended that you work with an instructor.
If you do wish to self-teach the Justisse Method, I would recommend purchasing Taking Charge of Your Fertility along with Justisse Method. As Taking Charge of Your Fertility is designed to be a resource for self-teaching Fertility Awareness, it will help give you a very thorough understanding of how to detect, chart, and interpret your fertility signs, which can then be applied to the Justisse Method.
Have you heard of the Justisse Method? Would you be interested in trying it?
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I recently have found Justisse method. It looks very similir to Creighton, and I love to see how some of my ideas are already implemented — for example different stamps for peak type mucus and non-peak type mucus. However, all they can say about efficiency of method is ” The Justisse Method technique is based on the Creighton Model and has the same effectiveness”, I haven’t found one article where effectiveness of Justisse method is evaluated. Also their book includes many parts of Creighton user manual and even some teacher materials. Therefor I would not use this method. Effectiveness to avoid conception is not proven and if I want a baby, Creighton is better option because of NaPro — doctors are trained to read Creighton charts, not Justisse charts.
While the method itself has not been evaluates, since charting mucus is taken directly from Creighton, it will have the same effectiveness in that regard. For me, adding the extra stamp and the temperatures makes me feel even more comfortable in the ability for it to avoid pregnancy than with Creighton. And again, since the mucus charting is exactly the same, I’m sure a NaPro doctor would understand Justisse charts. However, each woman needs to pick the method that works best for them and makes them comfortable.
Charting mucus in Justisse method isn’t exactly like in Creighton model. For example instructions regarding mucus on womens underwear are different. Therefore you can’t claim the same effectiveness: it could be similar but it’s not proven yet.
Well, like I said, every woman has to find her comfort level. This is why I have presented so many different methods. I personally am more comfortable with the effectiveness of Justisse than Creighton, so that is what I choose to use. If Creighton is where your comfort level lies, that is wonderful. I’m glad to hear you are charting and have found something that works for you.
And I’m not comfortable with unproven effectivness. It’s one thing to mix several methods and guesstimate efficency for my use and competely another to sell these guesstimates.
Haven’t found my perfect method yet, I’m considering Marquette. Maybe I’ll wait few years while they will develop something cheaper.
Where did you get your printable chart? I’ve use both CrM && STM and am interested in possibly combining both just for my own knowledge.
The chart in the picture I copied out of the Justisse book. I also created my own version of it in Excel, which you can download here: http://www.howweflourish.com/best-natural-family-planning-method/