Question about birth control and Catholicism

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Anon1993

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Is it ever ok for a practicing Catholic couple to use birth control? I suffer from a condition that causes reoccurring miscarriages, and the same condition makes NFP impossible because ovulation can happen at any time. I have tried every method and none have been successful. At this point my husband and I are just never intimate to avoid pregnancy. I understand all of the reasons we as Catholics practice NFP, but with this situation it seems circular that we would be taught that sex is a good and holy and important thing, but that we can’t take part in that because of health issues.
 
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I sympathize with your situation. Honestly, you really need to initially speak to your parish priest. If you are still unclear as to a course of action, try speaking to some Catholic health professionals who are faithful to the teachings of the church. A compassionate Canon lawyer might also help. Please, don’t take just one person’s response. Yours is a serious question and there are any number of schools of thought on the topic of this thread.

I really don’t know the answer to your question, and I think the answers you seek are beyond the scope of anonymous posters on such a forum as this. You’ll probably get answers from both the traditional and more progressive Catholics here on CAF.
 
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Ok for medical reasons, not ok for stopping pregnancy to avoid having children.
 
I strongly suggest finding a good obstetrician in your area who supports Natural Family Planning and approaches women’s health from a naturopathic and/or alternative method while retaining their medical background. It’s a shame that many of the OB’s today treat the symptoms, not the source by throwing ABC at women without taking the time to really learn, listen and treat the source.

I would talk to other moms of large families at your parish who are usually “in the know” of a good NFP OB in your area. Keep looking, learning, don’t give up hope! I beg you not to put yourself on ABC and close that door forever.
 
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Anon1993 said:
s it ever ok for a practicing Catholic couple to use birth control?
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Birth control, yes— i.e. spacing/planning children.

Periodic abstinence through observation of the cycle (NFP) as birth control— yes.

Complete abstinence as birth control— yes.

Contraception or sterilization as a method of birth control— no.
Anon1993 said:
the same condition makes NFP impossible because ovulation can happen at any time
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Medically, that is not true.

I encourage you to consult with doctor training in Marquette Model.
Anon1993 said:
At this point my husband and I are just never intimate to avoid pregnancy.
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I am sorry you are suffering with this heavy cross. It is one that many Catholic couples before you have had to bear. Call on holy married saints and blesseds to pray for you. Yes, you may be called to abstinence if your situation is very serious and consultation with an NFP doctor does not yield a solution.
 
I am very sorry for your pain. The reality is, Catholic are called to suffer and we can NOT ignore God’s wisdom. I know this is not going to help but Sarah conceived in her old age. We do NOT know God’s plan and we can not assume we know better than him

I echo it is sad that doctors are not really trained in these matters
 
Fertility awareness observes the signs that precede ovulation.

I would suggest you check the Creighton Model and the Marquette Method.
 
Getting a bit suspicious of this OP because of her lack of response, and because I find it odd or simply impossible her body would not exhibit fertile signs leading to conception. This would worry me, and I’m surprised there’s been no mention of a doctor’s opinion.At any rate, I’m still offering this link to NaPro

“NaProTECHNOLOGY identifies the problems and cooperates with the menstrual and fertility cycles that correct the condition, maintain the human ecology, and sustain the procreative potential. It has many applications, including family planning, the evaluation and treatment of infertility and other reproductive disorders, abnormal bleeding, abnormal hormone conditions of the menstrual cycle including premenstrual syndrome and recurrent ovarian cysts, the dating and beginning of pregnancy, and postpartum depression.”

In fact, it was their technology which was the only thing that was able to help my cousin navigate and conquer her dangerous postpartum depression. The other multiple OB’s were absolutely clueless apparently.
 
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Trust me, a lifelong catholic couple who have been married several years and had countless miscarriages understand all of the options. Have been to several catholic OBGYNS, am incredibly familiar with NAPRO technology, and still have no answers.
 
Perhaps you did not read my original post in its entirety. It is very insensitive to tell a woman who has had countless miscarriages and years of infertility that my condition is “medically untrue.” I assure you it is very true, and a cross my husband and I have borne for years now.
 
Did you read my post? I’ve been doing NFP for several years and have tried all methods I have ever heard of. Certainly have done both Marquette and freighting, neither of which were able to help us avoid pregnancy because of my condition. My question was not about how to observe signs that procede ovulation. But I do appreciate you taking the time to reach out and try to answer my question. God bless!
 
I could certainly have chosen to go into my entire medical history, give you the paragraph long list of all of the supplements, hormones, vitamins, and medications I am on, link to all of the NAPRO, Catholic, and NFP friendly doctors I have visited, and named my various conditions, but I didn’t think that was necessary or relevant to my question.
 
NAPRO technology is a wonderful thing that I wholeheartedly support and recommend, but as I said in a previous post, one that has not helped us have children.
 
Anon1993 said:
Perhaps you did not read my original post in its entirety. It is very insensitive to tell a woman who has had countless miscarriages and years of infertility that my condition is “medically untrue.” I assure you it is very true, and a cross my husband and I have borne for years now.
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I did not say your condition was medically untrue and I apologize for any misunderstanding. I have a good friend who also has a condition of repeated miscarriages, and I know it is painful.

What is medically untrue is that ovulation can occur “at any time”. There are definitely things that happen to lead up to ovulation, and once ovulation has occurred, there is an infertile phase that begins 3 days later.
 
God bless you, I am sure this is difficult. You may indeed be faced with either very limited times of relations or prolonged abstinence. It’s difficult, but not impossible. It does require a lot of grace and prayer.
 
I’m sorry, I misunderstood you! You’re right I apologize, I did speak with some hyperbole. Ovulation can not occur anytime, what I meant was that my hormone imbalance and other conditions prevent the common pre-ovulatory signs from taking place. I also false ovulate all of the time so the post-luteal phase is not safe either for avoiding conception. The only thing that we would be able to do is have follicular monitoring every single cycle to be able to confirm ovulation without a doubt but that is not feasible!
 
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