Reading Group Guide
Introduction
Cycle Savvy is the first book specifically designed to teach teenage girls about the eminently practical benefits of charting their menstrual cycles. Bestselling author Toni Weschler, helps readers understand what is really happening with their bodies on a day-to-day basis, and answers questions that most girls (and even women) don't know the answers to, such as: If my cycles are never 28 days, is that normal? Will worrying about a late period only delay it?
Cycle Savvy includes charming illustrations, engaging brain teasers, easy-to-use sample charts, and first-person vignettes of moments every girl can relate to.
Questions for Discussion
1. What are some of the advantages of becoming familiar with your body, especially your reproductive anatomy?
2. Why is ovulation—and not menstruation—considered the "main event" of menstrual cycles?
3. Why do you think that many women consider their periods a "curse," or nuisance, rather than a biological wonder, and how would you characterize your feelings about menstruation?
4. What roles do reproductive hormones play in the physical changes many girls undergo during their teenage years?
5. Why might a girl who has no desire to be sexually active or to become pregnant want to keep track of her fertility signs?
6. What are the two primary fertility signs?
7. What is the fertility sign that indicates that you are about to ovulate? And what is the fertility sign that confirms that ovulation has occurred?
8. How might recording daily waking temperatures and cervical fluid enable a girl to better plan herschedule?
9. To what extent do the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) described in Cycle Savvy correspond with your experience of them, or with the experiences of those you know?
10. Why is respect an essential ingredient in any kind of romantic or sexual activity?
11. Why should any decisions about sexual activity be considered in light of one's life goals and personal values and beliefs?
12. What are some of the dangers associated with sexual activity, and how can those who choose to be sexually active lessen those risks?
13. Why do men and women experience sexual orgasm differently, and how can the timing of ovulation impact women's experiences of sex?
14. What was the most surprising or interesting aspect of female fertility that you learned about in Cycle Savvy?
15. Why does the author compare fertility cycles to fingerprints? To what extent do you agree with her analogy?
16. Of all of the personal vignettes in Cycle Savvy, which did you find you could most relate to and why?
17. How does the fertility information in Cycle Savvy make you think differently about the female body?