The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize Your Fertility Paperback – January 16, 2019

As a curios 21 years old man, I am very excited about having read this book. I can not imagine how exciting it might be for a women, who can take her health, cycles, and fertility under her full control, starting tomorrow.This is one of those books that made me angry that this information is not thaught from the first grade.I love that it is a fully scientific book, but it also has the warmth of an amazing women speaking to other people, not like a cold scientist, but rather like a beautiful human being.I will gift this book to any of my future (and maybe past) girlfriends, and also to my mom and any woman in my life.I am very grateful to have access to this wisdom basicaly for free. Take advantage of this era we live in.Thank you, Lisa, for your service!

I loved this book. I learned so much about my body & menstrual cycle. This gave me extra confidence to get off hormonal birth control. I finally feel like myself again. This is a must read for all young women.

Women and men should read this book! Idk how we are allowed to go through life without some of the most basic knowledge presented to us in this text. Aside from that I swear my third eye is opened after this book. So much amazing, useful, and applicable information that I wish I would have known years ago. This book serves as a reference guide, women’s bible, and the support you need. Just get it and see for yourself!!

This book has been incredibly helpful for learning about fertility and how my menstrual cycle works. Every woman, girl coming of age, or partner to a woman should read this book. It is such a good resource and helps clarify what is actually going on! Couldn’t recommend more. It’s also pretty easy to comprehend. Not too science-y for the average reader.

I have previously read Taking Charge of Your Fertility and Cycle Savvy (before gifting it to a young woman to ensure it was age appropriate) and loved both. I learned SO much from those titles and am continuing my journey of education on the female body and fertility health.I just finished reading The Fifth Vital Sign and it is definitely a MUST READ. You do not get this education from school. Even doctors are not taught about any of this, and it is a detriment to our health. This is vital information we should all know.I spoke at length about what I was learning with my husband and we agreed that the information in this book is incredibly valuable to both women and men. Yes, this focuses on fertility health for women and there is a lot of information about the female fertility cycle and organs, however, this also contains a wealth of information about nutrition and health that pertains to men as well. It is also full of information that men should be aware of and know so they can be a true partner to their woman, and have real informed conversations about sex and barriers/contraceptions. My husband said to me that if he knew then what he knows now about women's fertility health and hormonal contraceptives that he would NEVER have wanted any of his girlfriends to take hormonal contraceptives.I will refer back to the nutrition information often. I have learned about how to use my charts to determine any underlying medical conditions that may need to be addressed. I am more confident in my overall health and wellbeing, including but not only about my fertility and my cycles. It is highly empowering as a woman to learn this information and understand how to use it to be fully informed about my overall health.

I purchased this book after coming off of hormonal BC per my doctor's recommendation.The pros: For me, this book was a great resource to learn body signs and signals. My main purpose for reading was for information, not a new bc regimen. I learned a lot and appreciated the amount of research that went into this book. There are also great recommendations for diet changes and supplementation, some of which I have used in my daily regimen. The author is also quick to point the amount of work required to make this regimen effective, which I appreciated.The cons: This book is not for the easily swayed for a few reasons. The author is actively and fully anti-hormonal BC and does not give a full picture of why one might want to stay on hormonal bc (social, economical, time restrictions etc.). This method requires daily tracking of multiple body functions, for example checking body temperature every morning while in bed at approximately the same time. Not every person will have the bandwidth for this type of tracking.I also found that you should make sure to do your research before following the recommended dosage of supplements listed in this book. After reading side effects of the supplements at certain dosages, some of which were not listed in this book, I either decided to skip the recommendation or use the supplement at a much lower level. Another red flag for me was the recommendation of yoni baths, a homeopathic treatment which is not recommended by most OBGYNs.Overall: I recommend this book for in-depth learning about the female cycle and for those ready to commit to a non-hormonal tracking method -- as long as the reader is willing to do their own research before implementing every recommendation listed.