What is Natural Family Planning?
Or do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your
own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. – 1
Corinthians 6:19-20
Natural Family Planning, or NFP, is fertility
awareness. It goes hand-in-hand with responsible parenthood, or the married
couples’ responsibility to discern whether or not to have children. It also
calls married couples to have an openness to life.
There are several NFP methods. My husband and
I are currently using and training to teach the Sympto-Thermal Method. But
there are also the Creighton Methods, the Marquette Method, and more. You can
choose what is right for you. I’ll mostly be referring to the STM since that is
the one I am most familiar with (cuz I’m teaching it and all).
STM involves taking a woman’s basal body
temperature, or the lowest body temperature during rest (in this case sleep),
each morning at the same time and comparing that against the characteristics
and sensations of cervical mucus (icky word, but something completely natural,
clean, and necessary to create life. Let’s be grown ups here J).
Basically your body goes through three phases each menstrual cycle. Phase 1 is
a mostly infertile time, Phase 2 is a fertile time, and Phase 3 is an infertile
time. The temperature and cervical mucus tells a woman what phase she is in, a
pretty good estimate of when ovulation occurs, and many other things about the
condition of your body.
NFP has a 99.6 percent method effectiveness
and a 98.2 percent user effectiveness[1].
Method effectiveness means you assume it was perfectly used, or you followed
all the rules to the letter. User effectiveness is based on the actual
practices of the couple using the method. For example, if you are taking
hormonal birth control you would be using the pill incorrectly if you did not
take it at the same time each day, resulting in a lower user effectiveness than
the 99.7 percent method effectiveness. For the STM, it would mean saying, “It’s
my birthday, and I don’t care if it’s Phase 2!”
So if these are so close in effectiveness,
why does it matter which a woman uses? Health issues. Your body is your
dwelling place for a (hopefully) long time on this earth. Treat it like the
temple it is. One of the most popular hormonal birth control pills, Yaz, lists
the following as common side effects on its website. “The most common side
effects were headache/migraine, menstrual irregularities, nausea/vomiting,
breast pain/tenderness, fatigue, irritability, decreased libido, weight gain,
and mood changes.” So if you are going on the pill to have sex anytime you
want, you might be drugging yourself out of the lacy underwear and into sweat
pants. Also, I don’t know many women who would trade acne (one of the positives
of going on birth control) for weight gain.
Other
more serious side effects listed on Yaz’ website include: renal impairment (aka
kidney failure), adrenal insufficiency (doesn’t allow the adrenal glands to
produce the chemicals necessary for certain organ function), arterial and
venous thrombotic disease (fancy talk for blood clots), undiagnosed abnormal
uterine bleeding, breast cancer (other estrogen- or progestin-sensitive cancers),
live tumors, liver disease, and pregnancy. Yes, pregnancy is listed as a
potential side effect.
According to the 2009 study Risk Factors for
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Women under the Age of 45 Years, after taking
oral contraceptives for less than one year, a woman’s risk of this type of
breast cancer is increased 2.5 fold. After more than one year, it has increased
4.2 fold and goes up each year after that[2].
NFP is 100 percent organic and has NO (N-O) side
effects (BTW pregnancy isn’t a side effect, it’s a child, but that’s another
post J). Why not treat your body like the temple it is and learn about
its magnificence. A woman’s body has a predictable cycle that can tell a woman
everything she needs to know if she is ready to start nesting or isn’t quite
ready for 3 am wake-up calls complete with messy diapers. Also, charting a
woman’s cycle can indicate other health issues that a woman might be
experiencing, such as thyroid deficiencies, stress, and infertility. It also
clues a woman into when her body is experiencing changes, such as menopause.
This is not a comprehensive look at NFP. If anyone wants to learn
more about NFP, one option is to visit www.ccli.org,
and sign up to participate in their classes. Classes consist of three, 2-hour
sessions. You learn the majority of what you need in the first class and the next
two have additional information and offer the couples an opportunity to go over
their charts and ask questions.
[1] P.
Frank-Hermann, J.Heil, C. Gnoth, et al. “The effectiveness of a fertility
awareness based method to avoid pregnancy in relation to a couple’s sexual
behaviour during the fertile time: a prospective longitudinal study,”Human
Reproduction, 2007, 1-10
[2]
www.1flesh.org/argument_page/pill-breast-cancer-undeniable-link/
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