Your experience with the different types of NFP

[BelovedDOG]

So my last thread was deleted before any questions were answered or insight given. This is not an advertisement… As a soon-to-be bride, I am weighing the different types of NFP and what would work best for me. I have had irregular periods almost all the time, sometimes going without them for three-four months. Due to this, I don’t know whether to seek Creighton or the Sympto-thermal method. What are your experiences with either/both methods?

 

[Em_in_FL]

My FIRST piece of advice is… go see a doctor. Obviously something is going on… there has to be an underlying cause for* that level of irregularity*. I highly recommend finding someone who is NFP-friendly (you can find a list of doctors here…onemoresoul.com/nfp-directory), or find a specialist (like a Reproductive Endocrinologist, NOT your “regular” OB) who will look to the underlying issue rather that simply trying to slap a bandaid on with the pill.

NOW, with that said… NFP can be used with “irregular” cycles… and by that I mean “not exactly 28-day cycles” (ie varying from 25-40 day cycles can still fall into this category of using NFP with ease). Missing cycles for multiple months indicates there’s probably something more going on, and finding a solution to that underlying problem is going to make things SO MUCH EASIER in the future. In fact, your issue may even prevent you from conceiving when you and your husband feel that NFP is no long needed.

Either way… both the Creighton Model and the Sympto-Thermal method are tried and true methods. Some people find that one method works better for them than the other, but we (as internet message board outsiders) are not going to be able to tell you which is best for you. I suggest learning one (I personally love the sympto-thermal because I love having lots of “data” to work with) and seeing if it fits your lifestyle. If not, try another. Never stop learning and re-educating yourself in your method. Don’t settle for something that doesn’t feel right.

Prayers you can find your underlying issues with ease… and many prayers for you and your future husband!

 

[agapewolf]

If you have health issues, Creighton is the way to go. It’s connected to NAPRO, and is the only scientific observation method.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

So my last thread was deleted before any questions were answered or insight given. This is not an advertisement… As a soon-to-be bride, I am weighing the different types of NFP and what would work best for me. I have had irregular periods almost all the time, sometimes going without them for three-four months. Due to this, I don’t know whether to seek Creighton or the Sympto-thermal method. What are your experiences with either/both methods?

I think that you should treat yourself. I think those periods are not healthy. And that could be a problem for your future health.

But I am not a doctor and I know there are dozens of causes and with hormonal fluids is better be careful.

My humble opinion.

 

[anp1215]

If you have health issues, Creighton is the way to go. It’s connected to NAPRO, and is the only scientific observation method.

What do you mean by “only scientific observation method?”

OP, I too advise you to see an NFP only doctor to find out what’s wrong. It is not normal to miss periods for that long. I hope you get some answers.

 

[agapewolf]

Scientific observation means that observing must be done in the same way, all the time, every time, no exceptions. There are steps to this observing that must also be observed, every. single. time. Creighton is the only method that uses this. If you omit even one aspect, it is considered to not be using the method to avoid pregnancy anymore, but to achieve.

 

[chris138]

I have PCOS and missed periods like that(had cycles about every 90 days or so), this can be dangerous because the endometrial lining builds up and it can eventually cause cancer. It needs to be addressed. I too suggest a NFP, catholic doctor, they understand cycles so much better. I was put on metformin(aka: glucophage) and never missed a period after that.

You realize that less cycles means less ovulation and less opportunity to conceive. So you may end up with fertility issues, I did(secondary infertility, we have 1 bio child–our miracle). We used NFP in reverse to try to conceive. My dr, who is catholic and does not prescribe ABC likes the Creighton Method, but I had already had the NFP class and did not want to take another class. I never did get pregnant and have adopted 2 beautiful babies. Fertility is such a gift but like so many other things in life you don’t appreciate it unless you loose it!!!

 

[Em_in_FL]

Scientific observation means that observing must be done in the same way, all the time, every time, no exceptions. There are steps to this observing that must also be observed, every. single. time. Creighton is the only method that uses this. If you omit even one aspect, it is considered to not be using the method to avoid pregnancy anymore, but to achieve.

You could say the same for properly following the rules with the sympto-thermal method…


But I agree that Creighton is a great method for those who have fertility problems… I know many have found it a great method under those challenging circumstances…

 

[agapewolf]

You could say the same for properly following the rules with the sympto-thermal method…


But I agree that Creighton is a great method for those who have fertility problems… I know many have found it a great method under those challenging circumstances…

Nope. STM does not follow this strict rule. The observation of mucous is not done in steps, and can be done either internally or externally (different ways of observing), not with strict rules of all the time every time, temps can be omitted, “adjusted”, and abandoned. Cervix checking is optional. This is not scientific observation.

 

[manualman]

Em gave you fantastic advice as someone net yet married (which I assume means not sexually active). Get qualified and motivated medical advice now so that you have learned to understand your cycles NOW while there is less pressure. It will make a world of difference later on when mistakes can cause much more stress!

 

[Rita77]

I agree with EM_in_FL

I’ve used both Creighton and stm.
Recommend reading “Fertility, cycles, and Nutrition” by Marilyn Shannon rent it from the library if you can. it great info for all nfp methods. Also I 2nd finding a nfp doctor for a check up.

 

[sherimarie]

I h@ve h@d the s@me problems, long cycles etc. w@s di@g. w/ PCOS, used Gluc@phege (sp?), got pregn@nt. We use NFP, couple to couple le@gue, I found it very helpful in underst@nding my fertility, but there w@s so much w@iting involved in my long cycles th@t i w@s temped to le@rn Creighton.
Do try to be open to @ b@by right off, i know it’s sc@ry but it’s true wh@t the others s@id @bout infertility problems @nd the he@rt@che th@t goes with it. My PCOS w@s helped @fter my first pregn@ncy.
Look into the B@rnes @w@rness" for Hypothyrodism, or Just t@ke your temp. 3 times @ D@y for 4 d@ys. See if your temp. tends to be low (97.4) or so, th@t could indic@te @ poorly working thyroid, which is h@rd to di@g. by blood tests. E@sy to tre@t though w/ iodine supl.
Highly reccomend, M@rlyn Sh@nnon’s Fertility Cycles" 4th ed.

 

[JDB823]

Our experience with Creighton was abysmal. The problem with Creighton is that it relies exclusively on one symptom, the cervical mucus, putting all of your eggs in one basket so to speak. Furthermore, without any cross check, it is difficult to know if the woman has actually ovulated, so the couple is constantly charting and constantly concerned throughout the cycle.

My wife could not make heads or tails of her symptoms and our professionally trained instructor was of little help. She did NOT want us looking for other symptoms and wanted us to try harder to interpret the mucus. Two unplanned pregnancies later, we were through with Creighton.

Overall, Creighton seems to be best for achieving pregnancy and perhaps for diagnosing irregularities, but IMHO it is not the best for TTA. On the other hand, some people love it. YMMV.

No experience with Billings, but it seems like a simpler version of Creighton. (Or more accurately, Creighton is an OCD version of Billings.)

The Couple-to-Couple League teaches sympto-thermal method, which tracks all symptoms. This gives more information, but our experience is that the information is not well presented and the teaching quality varies widely. CCLI seems more interested in teaching theology than biology. Some instructors are poorly trained while other do not take couples’ struggles with TTA seriously, saying “maybe God wants you to have another baby” or “abstinence can be a blessing in your marriage” when a couple has trouble avoiding.

Toni Weschler’s Taking Care of Your Fertility is THE definitive book on the subject. (Over 400 5-star ratings on Amazon.) She is not Catholic, but you can easily ignore the parts that are contrary to Church teaching. (She allows the use of condoms during the fertile period, but recommends abstinence due to the failure rate of condoms.) The presentation is simple and straightforward. Her book also comes with software and you can sign up to track your cycles online. After reading Weschler’s book, my wife FINALLY understood what was going on.

A lot of people have said good things about the Marquette Model. The Marquette Model uses cervical mucus to determine the start of fertility, then a ClearBlue Fertility monitor to confirm it. This seems to be simple and accurate. The only downside is the initial cost of the monitor and the $10/month for the test strips.

Another option that is rarely presented is the Ovacue fertility monitor. The Ovacue is a fertility monitor with three components: An oral monitor, a vaginal monitor, and built in fertility software. The oral monitor determines the start of the fertile window, the vaginal monitor confirms ovulation and the end of the fertile window, and the software puts all the relevant information together to tell you when you are or are not fertile. Preliminary results are promising, but there has been no major study on the effectiveness of this to avoid pregnancy. Additionally, the Ovacue is not cheap, although unlike the ClearBlue, there is no need to buy additional test strips.

Creighton Method: creightonmodel.com/
Billings Ovulation Method: boma-usa.org/
Couple to Couple League: ccli.org/
NFP and More: nfpandmore.org/
Taking Charge of Your Fertility: tcoyf.com/
Marquette NFP: nfp.marquette.edu/
Ovacue: ovacue.com/fertility-monitors-and-nfp

 

[JDB823]

RANT

And now for the rant…

A big problem in the NFP community is that there are WAY too many “turf wars”. Everyone is sold on THEIR method and and will talk down the other, even going so far as to withhold information from couples that is not part of “their” method on the ground that it may be “confusing”. The Catholics don’t talk to the secular advocates and couples suffer.

The goal is for a couple to be able to accurately determine when the woman is fertile. Some may be able to do it with a simple cervical mucus check. Others may need a high tech fertility monitor. Couples should be given ALL the options, especially those who are struggling with one symptom.

Second, some in the NFP community forget that NFP is first and foremost MEDICAL information. This is not to say that theology isn’t important, but if a couple does not get accurate or sufficient medical information, they may ends up with multiple unplanned pregnancies and/or excessive abstinence. This harms marriages and makes the Church look cruel.

We were in this position and it took considerable independent investigation to figure out exactly what was wrong. The NFP community was of little help and the Catholic community was of no help.

I don’t know HOW many couples ran into this problem and posted about it in the forums. It seems there is one every few months. The get bad information/poor instruction. NFP fails. After a few unexpected pregnancies, the couple is frustrated and absolutely terrified of sex.

Is this REALLY God’s plan for married couples? I do not believe for a moment that it is.

 

[Em_in_FL]

THANK YOU for your posts, JDB823!

I completely agree that the NFP community can get way too hung up on the “turf wars” (so to speak) and defending the integrity of one method over another. We really need to all be on the same team and be open to encouraging those who are struggling to KEEP TRYING and not give up. There ARE other options out there. One may work for me, another for you… and that’s all okay and wonderful.
All methods should be willing to say, “If this doesn’t work for you, try something else. What can I do to help?”

 

[SummerSmiles]

THANK YOU for your posts, JDB823!

I completely agree that the NFP community can get way too hung up on the “turf wars” (so to speak) and defending the integrity of one method over another. We really need to all be on the same team and be open to encouraging those who are struggling to KEEP TRYING and not give up. There ARE other options out there. One may work for me, another for you… and that’s all okay and wonderful.
All methods should be willing to say, “If this doesn’t work for you, try something else. What can I do to help?”

I agree JDB823 and EM.

Just as no two women are exactly alike, the method that works for one woman may not work for another. It would be very helpful if the instructors for every method would be willing to say, “if this method doesn’t work for you, you might have more success with this method instead. Here is the name of the group/person who has more information on that method.” I definitely agree that too many people get hung up on “my method works SO well, you must be doing something wrong,” rather than helping the couple find something that works for them.

My husband and I use STM and we are very interested in becoming instructors in it someday. When we started talking to our parish priest about having an interest in it, he told us that we had to learn and teach Creighton, since that is what is taught in this area. DH and I are very happy with STM, we’re not that interested in learning a new method right now, and there are already many Creighton instructors in our area. I think it would be more helpful to the Catholic married community if people were presented with the resources to try different methods, rather than having to seek out that information for themselves once they get too frustrated with the method they are trying.

 

[JDB823]

I agree JDB823 and EM.

Just as no two women are exactly alike, the method that works for one woman may not work for another. It would be very helpful if the instructors for every method would be willing to say, “if this method doesn’t work for you, you might have more success with this method instead. Here is the name of the group/person who has more information on that method.” I definitely agree that too many people get hung up on “my method works SO well, you must be doing something wrong,” rather than helping the couple find something that works for them.

My husband and I use STM and we are very interested in becoming instructors in it someday. When we started talking to our parish priest about having an interest in it, he told us that we had to learn and teach Creighton, since that is what is taught in this area. DH and I are very happy with STM, we’re not that interested in learning a new method right now, and there are already many Creighton instructors in our area. I think it would be more helpful to the Catholic married community if people were presented with the resources to try different methods, rather than having to seek out that information for themselves once they get too frustrated with the method they are trying.

My own personal opinion is that priests should stick to theology and NFP instructors should stick to science and health. Play your position.

Of all the NFP resources, we found Toni Weschler’s secular material to be the best. Not only is Weschler’s book extremely well written, but she is not interested in pushing any moral agenda other than that women should be aware of their bodies. She is merely presenting the facts. We felt her tone was much more respectful toward couples.

Sadly, many of the Catholic sources–especially the more grassroots Catholic sources–can be very heavy handed and judgmental. They do not trust couples to make moral decisions with the information presented, yet they trust them to raise a child??? Their tactics are like some fundamentalist churches in my hometown in the Bible belt who would invite teenagers to a “pizza party”, only to have hellfire preaching and an altar call before serving the pizza. This is not to say that Catholic teaching should not be presented, but too heavy an emphasis on it, especially in the beginning, undermines long term credibility, especially among non-Catholics and skeptical Catholics.

Respecting the woman’s body by getting off the birth control pill and other physically harmful forms of contraception and is such a moral step forward that it is worth promoting even if the couple does not initially perfectly live the Church’s teachings on the subject. Once couples have had the real thing, everything inferior loses its appeal. Once couples understand how it all works, Catholic teaching makes sense. Go in too heavy handed, however, and many will walk away.

 

[Iheartcoffee]

My husband and I use the Sympto-Thermal Method from couple to couple league- but only because that was the class that worked with our schedule. We do really like it so don’t be afraid to give it a try!

If you have health problems I recommend Creighton because it is set up to work with health issues through all of the NaPro stuff, although I feel that most NFP-oriented doctors will probably be able to work with you no matter what method you choose unless your method hinders the data collection that they need to make a good diagnosis.

I feel it is great to have several methods to pick from and I do not understand the “turf-war” mentality of some that try to put down or promote certain methods over others. I think you should go with whatever works best for you.

 

[ryecroft]

RANT

And now for the rant…

A big problem in the NFP community is that there are WAY too many “turf wars”. Everyone is sold on THEIR method and and will talk down the other, even going so far as to withhold information from couples that is not part of “their” method on the ground that it may be “confusing”. The Catholics don’t talk to the secular advocates and couples suffer.

The goal is for a couple to be able to accurately determine when the woman is fertile. Some may be able to do it with a simple cervical mucus check. Others may need a high tech fertility monitor. Couples should be given ALL the options, especially those who are struggling with one symptom.

Second, some in the NFP community forget that NFP is first and foremost MEDICAL information. This is not to say that theology isn’t important, but if a couple does not get accurate or sufficient medical information, they may ends up with multiple unplanned pregnancies and/or excessive abstinence. This harms marriages and makes the Church look cruel.

We were in this position and it took considerable independent investigation to figure out exactly what was wrong. The NFP community was of little help and the Catholic community was of no help.

I don’t know HOW many couples ran into this problem and posted about it in the forums. It seems there is one every few months. The get bad information/poor instruction. NFP fails. After a few unexpected pregnancies, the couple is frustrated and absolutely terrified of sex.

Is this REALLY God’s plan for married couples? I do not believe for a moment that it is.

Actually, my big problem with the NFP is that the only way you find out is hasn’t worked when you’re not wanting to conceive is that you wind up pregnant. Not the best situation. I will agree about the turf wars though - it seems even some of the Priests (as even one of the posters mentioned) seem to get into this - not sure why they should care as long as it’s being used for the “right” reasons and not contraception just to keep from getting pregnant (i.e. not used for medical reasons) - I must say we have an Ovacue Zetek (which has already been mentioned) and it seems very useful - yes it was a little more than $300 (with the vaginal sensor) but you’re not buying the tapes every month. I highly reccomend it - as my husband and I have considered - when we can’t have a child for health or financial reasons (or whatever) - it’s a lot cheaper to have to buy the machine - I wish we had it years ago -I wonder if it would have helped with our shocking “suprizes” when we were using NFP as conservatively as possible. NFP does not always work -regardless of method. And for those who use NFP and are happy with it that’s wonderful - but not everyone finds their marriage improved by it.
God Bless
Rye

 

[Kelfa28]

I never knew there was so much contention within the NFP world until I came back into the Church.

I picked up Toni’s book “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” (as posted above) and thought it explained the methods in a simple and secular way. It’s easy to adjust to the Catholic teachings because she understands people are allergic to condoms and can’t use them anyway.

I grabbed her book before I had any idea of the church teachings on ABC and it was because I had read about NFP and wanted an alternative to filling my body with hormones.

Since I’ve come into the Church again and started my research…I’m actually afraid of NFP. I don’t want my marriage to be plagued with months and months of abstinence and I don’t want to feel forced into one type of method because the others “don’t work.”

I’m sticking with STM. I’m lucky enough to be blessed with regular cycles that have always been fairly obvious and I enjoyed the fact that STM compares all three signs and shows you how to chart everything and compare.

My only fear is the fact that I’m at the very end of my pregnancy and I know that I’m going to have to pay attention to my cycles and be patient for them to come back. I plan to chart right away as best as I can and keep my fingers crossed.
I might even start hunting for books on NFP for post-partem mothers.