Is the Natural Cycles app okay for married Catholic couples?

[Holly3278]

Hey everyone. I am engaged and will get married to my fiance on May 30, 2020. Because of this, I have been thinking ahead about family planning. There is an app that I can put on my smartphone called Natural Cycles. It’s approved by the FDA and it works by the patient taking their basal body temperature every morning. Using this data, it calculates when you are most likely to ovulate and thereby be fertile. Based on that, it tells you when you can engage in marital relations without getting pregnant and when you cannot. To me, this sounds like the same thing as Natural Family Planning that the Catholic Church endorses but I want to be certain so I thought I’d ask everyone on here. Would using this app be a moral way to practice Natural Family Planning according to Catholic teaching? Thanks in advance!

 

[TheLittleLady]

As long as you are not using contraception, the method of NFP you choose is up to you.

That app you selected promotes one method of Natural Family Planning known as the Sympto Thermal Method. There are apps and tech that support this method. Some of the newest tech for STM is:

Your fertility tracker Daysy - 100 % natural and reliable!

and

Ava Fertility Tracker - AvaWomen

In my experience, seeking an instructor is important. Looking at different methods was important for me, for many reasons STM was not reliable with my body.

I choose a mucous only method.

 

[jlc2k2]

I agree with TheLittleLady. Apps can be helpful but they are not perfect and can get things wrong. It’s better for you to learn the rules of your chosen method yourself so you can double check the app at the very least.

 

[1ke]

There is an app that I can put on my smartphone called Natural Cycles. It’s approved by the FDA and it works by the patient taking their basal body temperature every morning.

Hmmm, if it’s only BBT then I’d take instruction in Symto-Thermal and use the app to chart and cross check. Using BBT only would be difficult/dicey/not recommended if you wanted to have intercourse in Phase I. Because BBT only shifts after ovulation.

The proprietary algorithm sounds intriguing but I’d still learn traditional Sympto Thermal and compare.

Using this data, it calculates when you are most likely to ovulate and thereby be fertile.

Meh, I wouldn’t put my eggs in that basket. Calculating when you are “most likely” to ovulate versus observing when you actually do plus observing the presence or absence of fertile mucus— the latter is much more accurate.

To me, this sounds like the same thing as Natural Family Planning that the Catholic Church endorses but I want to be certain so I thought I’d ask everyone on here.

Remember NFP is simply information. It’s morally neutral. The decision to engage or abstain from intercourse can be based on this information. No contraception = moral.

This system is actually a version of the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) as it’s recommends either abstaining or barrier contraception on “red days”. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it.

Oddly they list FAM as being less effective, when it is probably better since FAM uses BBT and mucus. Honestly it sounds like a lot of marketing to sell you their in-app purchase and their BBT thermometer (you can get a BBT at Walmart or any pharmacy).

You can use it or another app, or you can make a spreadsheet.

Would using this app be a moral way to practice Natural Family Planning according to Catholic teaching?

There is nothing in Catholic teaching that prohibits the use of technology to track your cycle.

There is no sin in gathering information.

Sin would enter to picture of a couple contracepted.

 

[Jen7]

Sounds like very kosher NFP! This said… please take a class on the Creighton or symptothermal method. The app is going to assume a certain level of regularity in your cycles, esp as it gets more info from you over time. This “pattern” will NOT always be accurate. Stress, sickness, travel, an early miscarriage - these and more can throw off your cycles. Being able to determine “what’s up” in the old fashioned way of personal observation is going to help you decode these unusual times. I have used an app as “back up” at times… but I don’t recommend it as a primary source. Same with the super-easy Marquette method - it’s better as a “backup” than as your primary method. Nothing beats the info you can glean with your own observations after a scientifically-solid class!

Congrats on your engagement & upcoming marriage!!

 

[Anicette]

@Holly3278,

I am late, but…

• first, on the strictly moral perspective, there is nothing immoral to use this app, as long as you don’t use barrier contraceptives, or any sort of sexual activity in the fertile periods if you wishes to avoid children. The same for unfertile periods, you should’nt use contraceptives to make the method less “risky” to bring you a child.
  I said that, because the sailors of this app would say you can do it.
  And in doing it, you are more likely to have children anyway, because if the contraceptive fail in a fertile period, you have more chances to becoming pregnant.
• Second, on the effectivness of the method… Well, it is not because it is FDA approved, or approved by the European Union as a “contraceptive method” that it is the best method. It has its own deficiencies.
  Why?
  BBT on self observation is only accurate for:
  • confirmed you that the ovulation had happened.
  • confirmed that you are very very likely to be pregnant.
    So if a couple ONLY used this sign as a way to avoid pregnancy, they should have relations ONLY in the lutheal phase, which gives them a window- depend of the woman- of something like 5 to 12 days per cycle.
    But this app does not limit the “safe days” to the luteal phase. Why?
    Because they used others parameters such as the lengt of the cycles of the woman, theorical sperm’s survival… And the algorithm calculate a theorical window of fertility. This is only rythm which involved higly sofisticated calculation but not a reflect of the real fertility found day by day. It is anticipation.
    So maybe it would work for a woman with regular cycles, but if it is not the case, you have to know that you are taking chances.
• third consideration: the cost of the app. The first nfp methods were cost free (such as Billings). it was an argument versus conraception. Now more costy alternatives exist that reassure some people. Are you confortable to use money for it?

You have to decide if you want to use it, consider others alternatives, or use this app with another method because you prefer to have an external look on your observtion. Or even if don’t want to use something at all (something that need to be discuss with the fiancé).

Good luck! Best whishes.

 

[Anicette]

If I can add, because I have look at your age on your profile.

Maybe you would want a child right now, and maybe another one after. And breastfeding can offer some delay between births.
That is possible that the possiblity of avoiding children would not come after some years. Not every couple need to avoid children at any time. For some couples, NFP may be more useful for trying to have children.

Just my thinking, I hope not to offense you in anyway.

 

[oxford]

This is absolutely the weirdest comment I have seen on this website. She was asking whether she can use an app that helps to identify one’s fertility window, not apocalyptic visions or prophecy.