Natural Family Planning?

[Anonymous]

Hey - what happened to that posting by the doctor on Natural Family Planning? I wanted to find out more. I like what was said about it.
Can you help me find it or find out more about it?

Maria

[Anonymous]

Taking Charge of Your Fertility--this book isn't NFP (it allows for birth control during fertile periods), but give you loads of good info.

[Anonymous]

TCOYF is a good book, but using birth control during the fertile period is a risky maneuver. Remember, it is the FERTILE period and artificial birth control is NOT perfect. Therefore, if a couple is using condoms, diaphragm or some other artifical form of birth control when the woman has fertile mucous, and she gets pregnant, it is the condom or the diaphragm that fails not NFP.

With NFP or fertility awareness methods, you can chart your signs to learn when you are fertile and when you are not fertile, Then as a couple you can choose when to have sex depending on whether you are trying to get pregnant or avoid pregnancy. For couples that are struggling with infertility, sometimes learning how to chart your cycles can be enough to help with them achieve pregannacies. Also, there are some of the newer (or maybe better studied) methods of fertility awareness that combine charting with checking hormone levels and other tests, like ultrasound, to actually diagnose and then treat the underlying cause of infertility. This can be very helpful, because once you treat the underlying cause of infertility, couples can have a better chance of getting pregnant, not only the first itme, but also the second or third time around.

[Anonymous]

Here is what I want to know...I want to do what is safe, natural and organic. I've had trouble getting pregnant and want to go the natural and healthy route...and want something simple.

How do I find out more? Is there a doctor or instructor I can go to? Is it expensive?

Thanks so much!
M

[Anonymous]

You know, I think there was a post about this a few weeks ago, but I can't find it now. I know there was a link to a web-site because I clicked on it and it seemed interesting. It is based on more natural methods, but you have to chart your cycles and see a specially physician trained to interpret to help diagnose the underlying cause and recommend the appropriate treatment. Sometimes it is medical, sometimes surgical, but either way it appeared safe and definitely natural.

Does anybody else remember seeing this thread? I am almost positive it was in this forum because it focused more on addressing infertility using natural methods and not so much on using fertility awareness methods for preventing pregnancy.

[Anonymous]

The fertility charting method you are talking about is the Creighton Model of FertilityCare. There are at least three "NaPro" medical consultants and four or five FertilityCare Practitioners (they teach the charting method) the DC area. The national website is FertilityCare.org and includes local contacts. This approach is as effective as IVF (see recently published study by Stanford, Parnell, Boyle) and focuses on diagnosing and treating the underlying causes of the infertility. Because they won't do IVF, the've been forced to go beyond the quick fixes to find out and treat what's really going on.

[Anonymous]

Interesting... so if they go beyond the quick "fix" and actually treat the underlying causes of infertility, I imagine it would make it easier to try for a second or third child if you were successful treating the underlying problem the first time around.

More importantly, it would be good to know or at least have some understanding about what's not working physically. That's one of the things that I find frustrating about this whole process. It seems like doctors just want to skip over figuring out what's wrong and go straight for the quick "fix." And as much as I would love to have children, it seems crazy to not figure out what is wrong either with my own health or my husband's health that is causing the infertility. I mean what if it is something more serious or could potentially have other impacts on my health other than just the infertility?

By the way, PP, do you have a reference or title of that article you mentioned? I would be curious to see if it really measures up. Not that I can understand the numbers, but my husband is taking statistics for his graduate school work, so I am sure he can make some sense of it

[Anonymous]

Wow! Thank you! i had no idea about this stuff.
ok, I gotta get back to work.
M

[Anonymous]

My husband and I have been using NFP for the past year and it has worked well. We are both on professional tracks so a pregnancy would be hard right now, so we've been trying to avoid pregnancy. A lot of people are skeptical about it but it seriously works - we've always been able to identify our fertile window using my body's signs. Granted, it's not always easy (takes a bit of the spontaneity away) but it's definitely manageable, and it's nice having a honeymoon every month. It also helps us talk about a lot of stuff as a couple. My husband also likes it because it's so "organic." As a couple who eats organic, tries to bike everywhere, etc., this method of family planning is more in line with our "vibe" as a couple. I'd definitely recommend it.