Sidnee got her first period in 5th grade. No real conversation, no real explanation. She quietly told her mom, was handed what she needed, and then they moved on. Her cycles were irregular from the start, but no one helped her understand what that really meant. By the time she reached college, the irregularity could no longer hide in the background. She was student teaching, working a full-time job, and finishing her master’s in education when her body finally threw up the white flag.

One day she realized she’d gone over 150 days without a period! Looking back, she can see the stress all over that story. At the time though, it was easy to push it aside. She wasn’t trying to get pregnant yet, so did it really matter? Maybe you’ve asked the same question.

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Birth Control Will Help Regulate Your Cycle

Like so many women, when Sidnee brought her concerns to doctors, the answer was quick and familiar: “Birth control will help you regulate your cycle. That’s what you need.” No digging. No real curiosity about her long cycles. No discussion about stress, hormones, or root causes. Just a prescription.

So she did what she’d been told to do. She got on birth control before her wedding, because that’s the script many Christian women quietly receive: wait for marriage, start the pill a few months before, and trust that this is “responsible.” Except… it didn’t feel right.

A few months into marriage, Sidnee noticed how emotional she felt, how her weight was shifting, how off her body seemed. She and her husband decided together that she would come off birth control. They wanted children eventually anyway, and she didn’t want to keep living in a body that felt so wrong. That was November 2021.

Four years later, they’re still waiting to conceive.

The advice she heard even after marriage, when she had clear hormonal and cycle concerns was equally unhelpful – “If you’re not trying to conceive, you could just get back on birth control.” No wonder she felt angry. Birth control had not “fixed” her cycle, and her body was still crying out for a different kind of help.

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Learning to Listen: Seeing Real Change

In the middle of this long, confusing stretch, God led Sidnee to my podcast. She listened for a while, resonating with the stories and teaching, and eventually heard me talk about Fertility Framework. She had already done some work with a nutritional therapist and made progress with overall health. But she needed something that would:

• Focus specifically on fertility and cycle health
• Help her interpret her body’s signals
• Ground the whole process in Scripture and prayer

Inside Fertility Framework, Sidnee learned to chart her cycle in a way that finally made sense to her. It wasn’t just, “I’m irregular,” anymore. She learned to ask the right question such as:

• Which part of my cycle is too long?
• Is my period itself abnormal?
• How short or long is my luteal phase?
• What might my estrogen and progesterone be doing?

Charting gave her clarity. Instead of feeling vaguely “broken,” she could actually see where her body needed support. We also worked together in a one-on-one hormone support plan. Sidnee completed a gentle cleanse and did Whole30 for a month. The changes weren’t just on paper. Her skin cleared. The bloating she’d lived with for years disappeared. For the first time in over four years, the scale went down, almost 15 pounds. Her cycles shortened. Her periods lightened.

She told me, “My cycles are not perfect, but they’re definitely closer to what I’d like them to be.” Often, real healing looks like that: not an overnight miracle, but steady, measurable progress that confirms your body is responding to care.

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Meeting God in The Stories of Biblical Women

The physical changes were powerful, but there was another layer to Sidnee’s story: the Word of God.

Inside Fertility Framework, we spend intentional time in Scripture, walking through the lives of women who waited on the Lord for children. Sidnee found herself especially drawn to Sarah.

Early in their marriage, her husband was at work when he sensed the Lord stop him and say, “You’re going to have a lot of children.” He has carried that word with a quiet confidence, often reminding Sidnee when the wait feels heavy. Meanwhile, she has wrestled with a very understandable question: “Why did You tell him and not me?”

As she studied the stories of women like Sarah, Hannah, and others, she began to see a pattern of God’s faithfulness. His timing is rarely what we would choose, but His character is always the same. He keeps His promises in ways that bring Him glory. Hebrews 10:23 says: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

Sidnee didn’t want to be in her nineties when she saw the fulfillment of this promise. But she also knows the God of Sarah is still faithful today. The same God who remembered Sarah will remember her.

And He will remember you.

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When God Invites You to Take a Break

One of my favorite parts of Sidnee’s story is the season she’s in right now.

She and her husband are preparing for a mission trip and needed to receive a few vaccinations. As they prayed and talked, she sensed the Lord inviting her into a pause, a break from active trying, daily temping, and constantly checking her app. That invitation was scary at first. After four years of effort, it can feel like stepping back is the same as “giving up.” But as she’s leaned into it, the Lord has been so kind.

She described how much more fun their sex life feels now that it’s not tied to checking boxes in an app. They can enjoy date nights, eat with a little more freedom, and focus on simply delighting in one another again. Some of the healthy habits she built are now just part of who she is, but the pressure has eased.

I shared with her the picture of athletic “tapering”, when swimmers or runners train hard and then intentionally reduce intensity before a big event so their bodies are refreshed and ready. In a similar way, sometimes God invites us into a gentler season before the next stretch of the journey.

Pregnancy is a marathon. Building a human is beautiful and holy… and also incredibly demanding on a woman’s body. Sometimes a season of rest is not a step backward, but preparation.

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Does This Story Resonate With You?

Maybe as you’re reading this, parts of Sidnee’s story sound like your own – irregular cycles that started young, birth control handed to you as the only solution, weird symptoms, long waits, and confusing lab work, years of “doing everything right” and still not being pregnant, the tension between longing for a baby and needing a break.

If that’s you, I want you to hear this: You’re not broken. You’re not failing. You’re not alone. There are practical things you can do to support your hormones and cycles. Charting, nutrition, detox support, and root-cause work can make a real difference. Sidnee’s story is a beautiful example of that. Make sure to check out my podcast, For The Love of Hormones, to hear more stories of women walking through infertility, loss and healing.

There is a God who sees every single day of your 150-day cycles, every negative test, every baby outfit tucked in the back of your closet, and every whispered prayer you’re too tired to repeat out loud. He hasn’t forgotten you.

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Do You Need Support Like Sidnee Had?