The Church has always taught that our bodies are good.
So why do so many Catholic girls & women feel completely in the dark about theirs?
Pearl & Thistle is here to change that — with body literacy education rooted in faith, built for real life, and designed for lifelong incremental learning.
If you've heard the term "body literacy" before, it was probably in the context of NFP — charting your cycle to avoid or achieve pregnancy. And that's part of it.
Body literacy means knowing how to observe and understand your cycle.
It means learning to actually listen to your body — and respond to what it's telling you.
And for Catholics, it means something more: recognizing that our bodies speak a language God designed on purpose, one that tells us something true about who we are and how we're made.
Most of us were never taught any of this.
Pearl & Thistle exists to change that — with a lifelong education model built from the ground up to give every Catholic woman, man, and family the foundation they deserved from the start... regardless of vocational status.
✓ age-appropriate,
✓ incremental,
✓ lifelong body literacy model
...beginning even before a girl's first period—extending into adulthood for single women— and continuing with fertility education for couples through perimenopause!
Our resources are rooted in the Truths of our Catholic faith, touching on all THREE aspects of body literacy in various ways as we grow & change.
You deserve programs & resources you can trust!
Girls, women, and couples all deserve accurate education about menstrual cycles and fertility!
For all ages and stages, we have resources to help you learn about God's design for the goodness and dignity of our bodies, whether you are a:
parent of preteens or teens
couple wanting to learn NFP
single woman wanting to chart for health
perimenopausal woman
Bring body literacy to your communities!
We are stronger when we learn together! By offering this support, organizations can help build communities where the nature and dignity of our bodies is known, love, and respected. Catholics of all ages and stages can know they are not alone!
Our group-based resources allow organizations like parishes, schools, scouting troops, health centers, campus ministries, or even small groups to share body literacy in community settings.
Providing you beautiful, ready-to-go materials to easily share!
You got into this work because you genuinely love helping people understand their bodies. You did not get into it to spend forty hours building slide decks.
We've done that part.
From polished slide decks and speaker notes to program facilitator training, Pearl & Thistle has the tools cycle educators need to make a big impact!
Our materials allow educators to focus on connecting with their audience, rather than reinventing the wheel.
Hi, I'm Christina, and I never thought I'd become the Catholic menstrual cycle lady, but here we are.
In my decade+ of being a fertility and cycle educator, I've worked with so many women felt unnoticed by the Church when it comes to body education.
The conversations tend to center around family planning and chastity, which are two extremely important topics, but don't always match our own experience and needs (or our children's).
My experience? Learning so much about my body as an adult that I should have learned about as a teen. Becoming an NFP instructor to fill the educational gap. Navigating conversations about periods and fertility with my own daughters... all while wrestling with heavy, painful periods and my own body questions along the way!
And I wanted to create a space - and resources - for others experiencing these same things.
Here's what we actually believe at Pearl & Thistle:
Your body is good. Your cycle is good. Your fertility is good. God designed all of it on purpose — and that includes the hard parts, the confusing parts, and the parts nobody talks about at church.
Body literacy isn't just for engaged couples doing their pre-Cana NFP requirement. It's for your twelve-year-old daughter who just got her first period and has no idea what's happening. It's for the single woman in her thirties who has never once been invited into this conversation. It's for the perimenopausal mom who thought she was done navigating all of this and is discovering she's not.
When women understand their bodies — really understand them — they don't just know themselves better. They know God better. That's not a small thing. That's the whole point.
— for myself, for my daughters, for the women I was teaching. Resources that were genuinely Catholic, genuinely honest about the body, and genuinely useful beyond the wedding day.
I couldn't find them all in one place. So that's what Pearl & Thistle became: a model that meets Catholics — girls, women, couples, whole communities — exactly where they are.
Rooted in Catholic teaching. Everything here is grounded in the Church's vision of the body — the theology of the gift, the goodness of God's design, the dignity of every stage of life.
Built for the whole life, not just family planning. Our lifelong model starts before a girl's first period and continues through perimenopause — providing lifelong education and support for all the ups and downs of our cycling years!
Designed for real people, asking real questions and solving real problems. Whether you're a parent, a parish leader, or a cycle educator, our materials are designed so you don't have to start from scratch.
At Pearl & Thistle, we provide education for Catholics about menstrual cycles, periods, and fertility at all ages and stages.
We believe that body literacy takes time, so we've curated everything according to developmental stage.
Our lifelong body literacy education model:
Begins with accurate (age appropriate!) cycle education even before girls get their first period...
Extends to charting for health...
Invites young women to learn and reflect more maturely as they grow...
Adds in fertility for NFP...
And continues in the form of robust parish support to meet all the changing needs of couples through their fertile years.