Breaking down yellow Stamps: What every educator should Know

BY TAMI STROUD

Different methods teach different things about what yellow stamps mean and when to use them on your fertility chart. Many instructors and charters are very nervous about using yellow stamps on charts, and some methods don’t teach any use of yellow stamps (or anything akin). 

Personally, I think yellow stamps are a fantastically clarifying designation to use on your chart. I think anybody who ovulates can use yellow stamps on their chart to enhance their chart’s readability. 

Before jumping in, I do want to clarify that I am simply using the term “stamps” to mean a color designation on the chart, nothing more. Some methods actually have little stamp-like stickers that can be used on their paper charts to give a color-symbol designation to a day. So, a yellow stamp day would mean to assign the cervical mucus (CM) observations for that day a yellow color, whether that be digitally, with a colored pencil, or with a colored stamp-sticker, etc. 

Should I teach my clients to use Yellow Stamps?

There are a variety of ways various methods teach to use yellow stamps. Some recommend using yellow stamps as a designation or flag for something the charter is unsure about. By all means, it’s a good practice to note something on your chart that you’re unsure about and want to ask your instructor about, but that’s not how I recommend using yellow stamps. Some use yellow stamps to designate a specific CM observation throughout all phases of the cycle. I do not recommend that approach either.

Here’s my recommendation for how to use yellow stamps:

I use yellow stamps to designate non-dry (CM) observations, which are in some ways also known to be infertile observations. 

There are two ways to identify non-dry infertile CM observations: one way before ovulation and another way after ovulation. Both observations, which result in yellow stamp designations, are non-dry infertile, but we identify that differently depending on if the observation is before ovulation or after ovulation. 

Most of us understand that generally any non-dry CM observations would be automatically considered potentially fertile. However, we also know that are some circumstances where we have another reason to know that the non-dry CM observation is actually infertile. Yellow stamps on the chart help us to see that clarifying designation of non-dry infertile at a glance. 

For example, one way to use yellow stamps is on all non-dry CM observations that are in the infertile luteal phase. 

If you’ve seen a few real life fertility charts, you will quickly notice that it’s very common to experience non-dry CM observations at some point during the luteal phase. Instead of assigning those observations the same color designation as the fertile ovulatory phase, assign those observations a yellow stamp, which will quickly communicate that those observations are non-dry, but also non-fertile (infertile). We know those non-dry observations are infertile, because they are in the infertile luteal phase. There will be no more fertile estrogen rise buildups to ovulation until a new cycle is started with the next menstrual bleed. 

I recommend all charters should use post-ovulatory yellow stamps to clarify their charts. If you are able to confirm ovulation in your chart, then you are able to use post-ovulatory yellow stamps on your chart. 

Yellow stamps before ovulation

Yellow stamps can also be used in the pre-ovulatory phase to designate non-dry CM observations which have been identified as infertile, because they adhere to an established, individual non-dry basic infertile pattern, also known as a non-dry BIP or BIP of discharge.

This individual CM pattern of infertility only applies to CM observations before ovulation. After ovulation we know non-dry CM observations are infertile not because of the pattern, but because we correctly identified ovulation has passed. Before ovulation all non-dry CM observations are considered potentially fertile unless we can establish a pattern which identifies a specific CM observation as infertile in the pre-ovulatory phase. 

A non-dry BIP should be established under the guidance of an instructor trained to correctly identify it. Once correctly identified, a non-dry BIP observation can be treated the same as a dry BIP observation (also known as a dry day). 

If your instructor does not know how to establish a non-dry BIP, or you, as an instructor, do not know how to establish a non-dry BIP, then simply don’t use yellow stamps before ovulation. You can still use them after ovulation, though. 

To recap: before ovulation, only a specific, established non-dry BIP observation (individual to that charter) may be designated yellow stamp. However after ovulation, all non-dry CM observations, whether they match the pre-ovulatory BIP observation or not, may be designated as yellow stamp. 

Yellow stamps and hormone patterns

Assigning yellow stamps is not so much about the specific CM observation, but more about also having a definitive reason why you know this non-dry CM observation is infertile for this charter at this time in her cycle. With yellow stamps, be sure you can always answer the question: How do I know this non-dry day is infertile?

So, just like it is useful and clarifying to give dry BIP days (dry days) a stamp designation different from a day with a potentially fertile non-dry CM observation, it is also very clarifying to designate non-dry days, which have been established to be infertile, a specific designation to clarify that on the chart. 

By using yellow stamps in this way, as a designation for non-dry infertile CM observations, it is so much easier to read the chart and see the phases of the cycle, as shown through the CM observations, throughout the cycle.