Choosing a Natural Family Planning method

[catholicmama]

My husband and I are Catholic converts, and up until now fertility wasn’t something we had to worry much about because I’ve been suffering with a health problem that has significantly (often completely) cut down on our intimate time, and even when we were able to be intimate, my body was in no shape to be growing babies apparently.

But now it’s becoming an issue that we need to start taking control of, and when I approached the NFP resource person at our church she mentioned several different methods and asked which I was interested in… I told her I’d have to get back to her. Sooooo… could someone please give me some tips of how one choose one over the other? Is there really more than one way to chart your temp or whatever? I guess I don’t understand how they differ, and how to determine which one would work best for me. I’m not in favor of online searches because I have no way of knowing whether the pages I randomly choose to click on are correct or not, and this is pretty important, especially for someone with my health history. Can anyone help me??

Thank you in advance!

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

The right one is whatever works for you. Honestly, you have to figure out which method works the best because you’re an individual.

Sympto-Thermal is the “cheapest”, Marquette requires a signfigat initial cost and Creighton tends to be the priciest in the long run. To me, Billings is only “half” as good as Sympto-Thermal since it deals with bodily fluids alone.

I have to say though, because of it’s ties to Na-Pro technology Creighton is probably the “best” if you can manage it. It has the best technology behind it and is a vital tool to ensuring good gynecological health.

If you choose Creighton you actually are entering the best field of reproductive technology that exists today. No other body of scientists is as dedicated to ensuring woman’s hormonal health as they are.

Before kids, we did sympto-thermal. It was great for us. Knowing what we know now? We will practice Creighton going forward should the need arise.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Another Creighton user here (or was until menopause).

Creighton is the most medical of the methods, in fact they have billing codes and it is covered by some insurance plans. If you don’t have a practitioner in your town there are many who will train you and consult via skype.

It works best for someone who does not always have a good sleep or someone forgetful I mean, the checks are done when you use the bathroom, it does not get much easier than that! I never had to worry about temping a the right time or losing my thermometer or having the battery die in my thermometer.

There are new technology out there, some where one sleeps with a device on their arm and the temps download to your phone. If I were in a very life and death sort of avoidance reason, I’d likely do Creighton and buy a device to wear as a second level of checks.

Edit to add: Creighton and Billings are “mucous only” methods. You simply observe what is going on with your discharge and keep note of it on a chart. All external observations.

STM uses temps and as a cross check you feel your cervix with your fingers.

Marquette method uses a Clear Blue Fertility monitor.

There are new devices to wear that will take temps from your skin overnight.

 

[1ke]

could someone please give me some tips of how one choose one over the other?

The are all good, to some extent it comes down to what you are comfortable with and your lifestyle.

I didn’t want to do temp because I travel for work.

I chose Creighton because I thought it would be easy and as I was older and knew peri-menopause was 10 years in my future I liked their “essential sameness” charting for that time of my life.

I know people have used more than one, moving between them at different points in their life.

 

[AdamP88]

My wife and I just use the Daysy device. It’s from the same company that makes LadyComp.

Basically you take your temperature with the device and it stores your temp data and calculates your fertile days.

It works well for us…we were using it to avoid for a while. We’re now using it for TTC.

 

[starlady]

My husband and I learned sympto-thermal before getting married. I have to admit, I don’t always take my temp at the same time, but for me, that hasn’t been a real issue… I have still been able to clearly see temperature shifts. Would like to eventually get one of those thermometers that take temp overnight. I like that two markers (temperature and mucus) are checked, so if one thing doesn’t seem right, you can check the other. And of course the cervix check is optional.

The Creighton method is intriguing to me, and I live in Nebraska, where the Pope Paul IV Institute is. Might look into it in the future, but for now, the sympto-thermal method works just fine.

I don’t really think one method is better than the other…it really just depends on you, your body and your preferences.

 

[Usige]

There are three main indicators used to track fertility. These are:

• Cervical Mucus
• Basal Body Temperature
• Hormones changes

Some less used indicators include

• Cervical Position and Feel
• Saliva Ferning

Almost all modern methods will use Cervical Mucus to one degree or another. This was pioneered by Drs. John and Evelyn Billings with extensive research on mucus function by Dr Erik Odelblad. This is what is known as the Billings Ovulation Method. A related (or misappropriated, according to the Drs. Billings) method is the Creighton Method. This was once called the “standardized” Billings Method as they use objective, versus subjective criteria for charting. There are subtle differences between the two, but they essentially are tracking the same changes in the composition of the cervical mucus. Creighton has the edge if you are concerned with any associated health issues as they are strongly tied to medical practices. On the other hand we have successfully taught people Billings who were confused by Creighton. Both work reasonably well if you have good mucus signs.

Sympto-Thermatic Methods (Couple to Couple League for example) take the mucus observation and adds charting of Basal Body Temperature. This is used to detect the tempurature rise caused by post ovulatory progesterone rise. Many women appreciate the secondary check and it works great if they can be consistent in the charting. It never worked for my wife because she has such a erratic sleep schedule and lying in bed to take her temperature was not going to happen. Some studies also say that 1/3 to 1/4 of women were not able to detect the post ovulatory BBT rise.

A third marker is hormonal changes. This is used in the Marquette Method using the Clearblue Fertility Monitor. This monitor is looking for the Estrogen and Luteinizing hormone (LH) rise that proceeds ovulation. Marquette uses cervical mucus, but can also use BBT. The LH can also be detected with ovulation predictor urine strips at a fraction of the cost of the Clearblue Fertility Monitor strips. While not part of Marquette, LH only strips along with newly developed Progesterone strips can help p(name removed by moderator)oint ovulation using urinary hormones.

Cervical Position is actually taught by Couple to Couple League as a third, but optional, sign. Many couples feel uncomfortable with having to insert their fingers to check cervical position, but it is another sign for those who like to cross check.

Less used are things like saliva ferning microscopes. This is used to find changes in saliva when estrogen rises. As the estrogen rises a crystalline structure can be seen in the dried saliva. As more high tech (and high cost) version of this is the OvaCue monitor that tracks changes is the electrolight composition of saliva and cervical fluids.

 

[Usige]

(continued)

So which is best? It really depends on you. What works great for one woman doesn’t work for another. Some women want multiple cross checks and for others it just causes confusion. My suggestion has always to been to start with the simplest and adjust as you need. While my wife taught Billings she also worked with Creighton, Marquette and CCL instructors if Billings wasn’t working for her student.

One thing I would avoid is an instructor that says their method is the one and only one you will need. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. A good instructor recognizes that and works with the student to find what works best for the student.

 

[catholicmama]

Thank you all… I appreciate all the information which really cleared this all up for me!