Posted on 05/14/2014 2:25:09 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Natural family planning is gaining support with some women because of health concerns about hormonal birth control. (FOTOLIA)
"Women start to realize if I’m eating organic and I’m drinking out of glass, and I’m making all these efforts in every other aspect of my life, why would I manage my fertility with a carcinogen?" — Karen Murphy Corr, Serena BC
Natural family planning is gaining popularity with those who have no religious reasons for abstaining from hormonal birth control.
“I would say that there is a shift of people using NFP for reasons other than faith,” said Kristen Gilbert, director of education at Options for Sexual Health.
As the only birth control method permitted by the Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations, NFP is often confused with the rhythm method.
“It is a scientific method, it’s not the rhythm method or the calendar method — it works,” said Karen Murphy Corr, provincial coordinator at Serena BC, which offers NFP services.
There are many different NFP methods, but they all revolve around tracking one or more of the following — basal body temperature, cervical mucus and position of the cervix. These are all signs of the hormonal changes that occur throughout a women’s menstrual cycle. Couples then record this information on a chart or a smartphone app and abstain from sex entirely or use a barrier form of birth control during the women’s fertile phase.
There are still many misconceptions about NFP, Murphy Corr said, and that’s part of the reason women interested in the method are often steered away from it by medical professionals.
The safety of hormonal birth control has been called into question following 24 recent deaths with possible links to the Yaz and Yasmin pills.
Studying the pill’s side effects is something that led Holly Grigg-Spall, author of Sweetening the Pill, to advocate for alternate forms of birth control.
"Sex-positive advocates should be the biggest fans of fertility awareness methods,” she wrote in a recent blog post.
In addition to preventing unplanned pregnancies, experts say NFP allows women to learn more about their bodies and it improves communication between couples.
I’ve known women who were very irregular in their cycles, and this resulted in them having some significant elevated problems from time to time. The pill brought that under control for them. I would have to support that therapy, if it worked successfully. In many cases, it does.
That’s not to say that women who don’t have this problem would be better off if they were on the pill. Different strokes for different folks.
Like you, I don’t like taking anything I don’t have to, and if I was a woman I would try to use that same philosophy.
I was put on the pill at 16 because my periods were ridiculously out of cycle. I could go 60 days without one. When I tried to get pregnant I found out I have PCOS. As it turns out, the pill did not cure my problems it only eliminated the symptoms. The root of the problem remained. I will never go back on it. I know now about its abortifacient issues, plus I don’t think that it’s healthy.
Wonderful words. The teachings of the Church on human sexuality are right on so many levels.
Irregular cycles aren’t caused by a lack of birth control pills. They’re caused by something else. Far better to determine that cause and fix it than cover up the symptoms of that with the birth control pill.
I know several women put on the pill to ‘fix’ their PCOS. It nothing of the kind. It masked it long enough for them to develop raging t2d in their early 30’s. Had they actually worked to solve the problem (lower carb diet, insulin sensitizers, etc) they could have had regular cycles, normal fertility and avoided the t2d.
Just sayin’.
There's a whole different approach called Naprotechnology (LINK) which concentrates on careful diagnosis of the woman's actual, underlying problem which is causing the cycle irregularities. Sometimes it is nutritional; or stress-related; or a symptom of an underlying pathological condition (like polycystic ovarian conditions, tumors, or the like.)
Naprotech takes the time to make a careful diagnosis based on total endocrine/hormlnal health, not just covering up symptoms.
It is the only sensible approach for attaining normal physiological function, clearing up pain and cramp problems, restoring normal fertility cycles and thus being able to either achieve or avoid pregnancy via natural methods.
Talk about "controlling your own body." This is it.
What is t2d?
What kinds of problems do irregular periods cause, for instance?
In the cases I have observed (and I am not a physician), the women have little or no period for several months, and irregularity at that. Then they can have a very heavy flow that is physically hard on them. It’s not a good situation, and it’s one that can be avoided. The use of a birth control pill regulates them, they get normal small periods, and the large physically draining ones vanish.
I obviously can’t say this works in everyone, and there may be good cause to avoid birth control pills for some women. They would have to, and should consult their physician regarding this sort of thing.
Some physicians may actually be against it. I just know what has worked for the women I have known who had this problem.
The Pill is a carcinogen that kills women and is designed to murder babies.
It should be banned.
Well I appreciate the alternative opinion. I can only tell you what worked for the women I knew. After a number of years of being off the pill, they went back on it to get regulation. Their physician tried to pinpoint alternative fixes. They couldn’t find a problem. Going back on the pill helped.
Thank you, but I’m going to have to go with the physician’s workup on this. I appreciate your alternative view, and I would ask folks to take it into consideration along with my comments. I don’t have a problem with folks using your advice, if it works for them. The physicians of the women I knew were unable to find a problem. When the women were put back on the pill, things leveled out for them short and long term.
If the doctors really can't figure it out, but they can mitigate the pain and problems, they're of course justified in going for mitigation. But it's just disturbing, over the years, to see how quickly doctors go for the masking of symptoms rather than finding out what's going on.
It's analogous to the artificial reproductive technologies which are called "fertility treatments" which actually don't cure infertility at all. They just substitute an extremely unnatural "something" as the "new normal." IVF. Reproductive surrogates. It shows a disturbing readiness to look for a substitute for natural female physiological function, a substitute for an actual restorative, therapeutic approach toward wholeness.
No judgment implied if, in some cases, a particular woman just quickly needs symptomatic relief as the only possible option.
Type 2 diabetes.
PCOS often progresses to t2d.
I had tubes tied after 3rd child- about 10 yrs later, had massive bleeding that went on for 14 days. Went to Dr, they put me on the pill for a month to straighten out hormones. Worked great, solved the problem. Dr told me some women will “have a massive shredding of Uterine lining” at least once or twice in their lives. At least that was his explanation.
I know you are thoughtful, DO, so forgive my tone, if it’s rough.
The Pill is a go to and much more than other pharmaceuticals, which are way overused.
The cases you are talking about are not epidemic. And there is little being done to expose the amounts of phytoestrogens in our diet, which is unprecedented in its vast amounts of non nutritive substances, hence entire cities of way overweight people esp women, who are naturally built to put on weight .
In any case, the Pill in no way addresses the underlying cause of the irregularity of the periods for these women. When they go off it to become pregnant, they are in trouble with the same situation plus the infertility, however temporary.
Here are just some facts from studies on the Pill that come to me from Catholic sources, as the Catholic Church is very honest about the Pill, though a majority of CINOs are not:
The Pill is a carcinogen of the same class as tobacco. Look at the incidents of brest CA in women prior to say, 1950.
The pill can cause strokes.
The pill, in a majority of cases, causes abortion, bringing the reported surgical abortion rate of 54,000,000 since 1973, in this country alone, to u\above 300,000,000. that is a CDC number.
The Pill causes a woman’s phermones to become pregnancy quality.
THis means that men are not attracted chemically to women on the Pill. Where does the predatory behavior come from in teen girls? their immodest dress?
this doesn’t mention the idea that women become sex objects on the pill. THe divorce rate is much higher among pill users. The Catholic Church has those statistics.
Divorce rate among couples who utilize Natural Family Planning is 1% (one)
Nonsense. The Pill suppresses ovulation so no eggs are released every month. No eggs released, no potentially fertile eggs. There is no murder nor aborted embryos.
I appreciate both of your positions here. I’m not a licensed individual, and I merely wanted to add a voice. I think folks should get a wide variety of opinions, and then seek what works for them. As long as they know there are options, what can it hurt.
Thanks to both of you. I’m not here to shout down either of you.
Interesting. Thanks for the mention. I’m sure others appreciated it as well.
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