NFP technical help please

[Tiber_Swimmer_1]

1. I agree with you, they really need to update their website. They have said that this would be very expensive and that they lack the funding to do this. Still, I strongly agree with you that it is a problem that the latest information can only be found in the private forums.
2. When I recommend Marquette to anyone, I always emphasize that they should create a login to the forums and ask any questions they have in the forum and make sure they understand the protocol correctly. Unfortunately I think a lot of people find the main site through Google and don’t realize the importance of charting online and using the forums.

I encourage the original poster of this thread to create a login to the forums and see what the instructors recommend for her personal circumstances.

 

[PaulGH]

Also, there are no classes in my area. I checked – the nearest one is more than an hour away. I also tried searching Google for doctors that specialize in NFP here – no dice on that either.

Well, you *could *drive more than an hour for the class, if you are motivated enough.

As for finding an NFP doctor, you might have better luck on the following sites than on Google:

fertilitycare.org/ (Click on “Find a Medical Consultant” on the left side of the page.)

onemoresoul.com/nfp-directory

You still may find that there isn’t an NFP-only doctor in your area. But it’s worth a look if you haven’t tried those sites already.

My wife did not like getting up at the same time every day to take her temperature, and the temperature readings were all over the map – they didn’t follow the pattern that the book said they should. So we switched to a mucus-only method early on, and it has worked great for us. But it took a while to get it working well, to where we felt confident in the system, for two reasons:

(1) My wife had to establish the habit of checking her mucus every time she goes to the bathroom. (Sorry if that is too much information.)

(2) My wife had to learn how to categorize her mucus (e.g., stretchy, slippery, tacky, etc.). (Again, sorry if that is too much information.)

But with some practice and some good books for guidance, we fairly quickly got it working well for us. And though my wife used to have very irregular cycles when we first started using NFP, her cycles have become so regular now that we could almost use the rhythm method reliably. In other words, NFP has gotten a bit easier for us than it was in the beginning, since we know almost exactly when to expect her mucus to begin and end during each cycle.

 

[Rau]

The shortcut is buying a pack of condoms and telling my fiance to get over it

No, that’s not the shortcut, that’s the detour.

 

[Rau]

…Thermometers are a waste of time as they measure the increase in temp after ovulation has already started.

They are not a waste of time. The spike in temperature assists you to determine the end of the fertile time, not the beginning! The beginning is gauged from other types of observations.

 

[Rau]

…There is no difference whatsoever between the correct use of for instance condoms to avoid children indefinitely and the correct use of abstinence and NFP diagnostic signs to avoid children indefinitely. It is wrong to use condoms for SPACING children if NFP methods work for any particular woman but this is not the case for every women. So women should have the reasonable right to resort to condoms to space children if NFP does not work for them.

From US Bishops:
*
Is there really a difference between using contraception and practicing natural family planning?

On the surface, there may seem to be little difference. But the end result is not the only thing that matters, and the way we get to that result may make an enormous moral difference. Some ways respect God’s gifts to us while others do not. Couples who have practiced natural family planning after using contraception have experienced a profound difference in the meaning of their sexual intimacy.

When couples use contraception, either physical or chemical, they suppress their fertility, asserting that they alone have ultimate control over this power to create a new human life. With NFP, spouses respect God’s design for life and love. They may choose to refrain from sexual union during the woman’s fertile time, doing nothing to destroy the love-giving or life-giving meaning that is present. This is the difference between choosing to falsify the full marital language of the body and choosing at certain times not to speak that language.*
Couples - in general - should not be determining that they will seek to avoid children indefinitely. It is to be hoped that they review their assessment of their particular circumstances regularly (ideally, monthly), but there will clearly be circumstances when that assessment can be foreseen to remain unchanged.

Source: usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/love-and-sexuality/married-love-and-the-gift-of-life.cfm