About Pius XII’s Allocution to Midwives–I just looked it up, and he does not say that *only *medical, eugenic, economic and social reasons are good enough for using abstinence to avoid conception; he says serious reasons suchas medical, eugenic, economic and social reasons are needed. In other words, those four categories are just examples of the kinds of reasons that can justify using periodic (or even permanent) abstinence.
Additionally, you may check with your physician about testing for a luteal phase defect. I had a lot of the same symptoms you did when I first started using NFP after our first child. But it wasn’t until after my second child that my doctor saw enough frustration in me to try testing for the Luteal Phase Defect. It involved drawing blood 5 times during Phase III and it tested levels of progesterone…turned out that I needed to take a supplement during Phase III that increased my progesterone levels…
Oh yes, one other thing…do you drink Tap water? I found that when I stopped drinking tap water and drank distilled water, my mucous signs cleared up and my cycles regulated…now I did this about 4 months after starting my progesterone supplementation, so my improvements are also partially explained by the added progesterone in Phase III.
And also…not trying to have an instance of TMI here…but if you use tampons during your period, this also causes inconsistencies in mucous. I was a religious tampon user before baby number 2. During my second pregnancy, I read about the effects of using tampons on mucous quality in a Family Foundations article (CCL publication). So, I decided to go without tampons after that…and I notice a CONSIDERABLE positive difference in mucous observations.
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