Women May Ovulate More Than Once a Month, Study Says

Yahoo News/Rueters ^ | 8 July 2003 | Maggie Fox

[Lorianne]

No wonder the rhythm method does not work so well for birth control -- scientists in Canada said on Tuesday they had found women sometimes ovulate several times a single month.

Their finding, if verified, would overturn the traditional wisdom that women produce an egg cell once a month. It would also help explain why "natural" methods of birth control, based on the idea that ovulation can be predicted, often fail.

The women's hormone levels did not match this activity, Pierson said. "Hopefully this will help women explain how they got pregnant when they really didn't want to be pregnant, and it certainly will help us design better fertility therapies."

Apparently, measuring hormones in the blood is not enough to predict what a woman's reproductive system is up to.

"The hormones do what they are going to do and the ovaries just follow their merry path," Pierson said.

"We always thought that menstrual cycles and ovarian cycles were one and the same. It turns out they are just like two political parties -- sometimes they go along hand in hand for the good of the country and sometimes they go along their separate ways."

[Lorianne]

Holy moly! If true this is big news.

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[CONSERVE]

I could have told them years ago that pms was more often then once a month. My ex-wife was always a pain.lol

[ElkGroveDan]

My wife used to try and tell me about her cycle and I never paid attention because I'm not into bike riding. No wonder we have so many kids.

[Cicero]

Recent methods of Natural Family Planning, for instance as taught among Catholics by the Couple to Couple League, as opposed to earlier "rhythm" methods, are said to work very well. In fact NFP is said to be more effective percentage wise than artificial contraception.

I suspect that not too many women ovulate more than once a month, but I also suspect that whatever these investigators are seeing is probably covered by NFP. The "rhythm: method mentioned in the article is no longer widely used.

[Polycarp]

If true this is big news.

Some discussion of this article is going on here.

I'm somewhat skeptical because of my points on that thread.

[Polycarp]

Recent methods of Natural Family Planning, for instance as taught among Catholics by the Couple to Couple League, as opposed to earlier "rhythm" methods, are said to work very well. In fact NFP is said to be more effective percentage wise than artificial contraception.

Here's proof of your claim: British Medical Journal: Natural Family Planning= Effective Birth Control Supported by Cathol Church

[Polycarp]

I also suspect that whatever these investigators are seeing is probably covered by NFP.

With the symptothermal methods, this is guaranteed. The Couple to Couple League has hundreds of thousands of chart histories from the last several decades, and if the findings of this new study were an issue, since I teach NFP I would know about it from the CCL already.

These findings affect NOTHING regarding the practice of the symptothermal methods of NFP. What affects it is couple motivation.

So-called NFP failures are 99% NFP foibles, i.e., the couple knew darn well they were taking chances, but to save face they blame it in the method, not their practice of it. I know this from firsthand experience with couples using NFP. When directly questioned, they ALL admit it was NEVER a failure of the method.

The writer of this article is grossly ignorant about NFP. Unfortunately, so are the researchers quoted. When they make such gross errors about NFP, I find it hard to give much credibility to the rest of their work.

[Polycarp]

No wonder we have so many kids

Old joke: "My parents had so many kids, they kept the diaphragm pinned to the headboard. Didn't help, not sure why."

[Slainte]

The rhythm is gonna get you...

[Way2Serious]

Since women are born with all the ova they're ever going to produce, it would be interesting to see the fertility rates vs. age for these semi-monthly ovulators. I suspect that the phenomenon may be more of a contributor to early infertility than a help for infertile women.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Geeez, when I think of all the times I relied on a girlfriend's period cycle for birth control ...

[hellinahandcart]

It would also help explain why "natural" methods of birth control, based on the idea that ovulation can be predicted, often fail.

My girlfriend batted 1000 with her ovulation-predictor kit. Got pregnant every single time she tried. She was four for four.

Since it works so well when women want to get pregnant, I don't see why it wouldn't work equally well to avoid getting pregnant as well.

[DainBramage]

This stil doesn't explain how my ex-wife still got pregnant after I was fixed. :^)

[Adam-ondi-Ahman]

This stil doesn't explain how my ex-wife still got pregnant after I was fixed. :^)

Did the kid look like you?