The BIP: You Probably Know More Than You Think You Know

Tami Stroud

BIP is an acronym that stands for “Basic Infertile Pattern.” It refers to a pre-ovulatory pattern of vaginal discharge (or cervical mucus observations) which indicates hormones are at baseline, the cervix is blocked with a G mucus plug, and the charter is infertile. 

People often associate the term “BIP” with a “Non-Dry BIP” or “BIP of Discharge.” This is when there are no dry days before ovulation, but from the charted pattern of sameness in the CM observations it can be established that there is a Non-Dry BIP.  However, it is also a BIP when a charter experiences dry days before ovulation, it’s just a Dry BIP. Both of those are just different kinds of BIPs. 

So, all the stuff you know about Dry Days. This is also stuff you know about BIPs. You might not know how to establish a Non-Dry BIP at this time, but once correctly established, a Non-Dry BIP is functionally the same as a Dry BIP. 

Let’s talk about the Dry BIP. 

The Dry BIP is the default BIP. If we don’t know anything about a charter’s cycle pattern, we will assume she has a Dry BIP until her charts show otherwise. If the charter has regular cycles of less than 36 days and experiences dry days before ovulation, then she has a Dry BIP. No need to look for any other possibility unless we observe that her cycle pattern changes. She has one BIP and it is a Dry BIP. 

A Dry BIP is a very specific, discrete CM observation pattern. The CM observation must be both nothing felt AND nothing seen to be a Dry BIP day (aka a dry day). If through vulvar sensation something is felt, then it’s not a dry day. If something is seen, then it’s not a dry day. 

It’s perfectly ok if it’s not a dry day. Just because it’s not a dry day, doesn’t definitively mean it’s not a BIP day. It just means it’s not a Dry BIP Day. That non-dry observation that disqualifies that day from being a dry day might simply be part of that charter’s Non-Dry BIP and we just need more charted data to establish if that’s the case or not. 

A Non-Dry BIP is a specific CM observation that is unique to an individual charter. It is NOT a specific, discrete observation for all charters. What’s one person’s Non-Dry BIP could be another person’s Point of Change (POC). For those in regular cycles, a Non-Dry BIP is established by a recurring pattern over at least 3 cycles. So, it takes time, diligent charting, and instructor follow-up to establish. 

How to teach charters to chart dry

When starting out with teaching a new student, it is not uncommon for instructors to encounter student charters who will initially incorrectly identify dry days, because she will dismiss something seen or felt. For example, say she didn’t see anything, but felt a little damp during parts of the day. Or she didn’t feel anything, but often noticed something flaky on her underwear.

Days with these observations should not be charted as dry days. This is why it’s so important in follow-ups to ask about and review the observations for each day, even the days that might seem straightforward, like dry days. Don’t forget to check with the charter if anything was felt or seen on dry days. Their answers may surprise you. 

However, your student’s desire to chart those non-dry days as dry days can often say more about her intuition about her own BIP than about her diligence as a student. It’s probably not that she is ignoring your instruction, she likely just needs your help, as her instructor, with following evidence based guidelines for how to safely establish a usable BIP that’s not a Dry BIP. 

A big part of guiding students through establishing a Non-Dry BIP is learning to listen to students and helping them to learn to trust in their own brain’s ability to pattern-make from their own CM observations that they, themselves are making. Charters often have an intuitive, yet ambiguous guess about their own fertility status.

However, to be highly effective at avoiding pregnancy a charter needs to be able to clearly determine if a day is safe/usable or not. We, as instructors, help our students discover and clearly define this individual CM pattern of infertility through following evidence-based parameters that help us safely delineate the BIP from other CM observations, thus allowing the charter to make truly informed decisions about her fertility.