In @AmarseFoundation we concern about your reproductive health, and as you might already know, one of the best ways to take care of our health is by preventing. Because of this, and because to prevent we need to be informed, this time we are going to give an introduction about Natural Family Planning (NFP).

Natural Family Planning, what is that?

Natural Family Planning methods are different methods that try to postpone pregnancy by the use of the natural cycles of a woman`s body, in such a way that the couple is together intimately only when the woman is not fertile, trying in this way to prevent pregnancy until the couple feels really stable and ready to bring a child to the world.

One of the differences between NFP, and artificial contraception is that artificial contraception is supported by different artificial drugs or devices that try to avoid pregnancy no matter if the woman is in her fertile period or not.

NFP Methods check different signs and symptoms of the woman`s body

NFP Different Methods

Natural Family Planning comprises various methods that based on characteristics, signs or symptoms of the woman in such a way that can know with certain percentage of success the fertility and infertile days of the woman.

During the menstrual cycle, the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone cause some observable effects and symptoms:

Oestrogen produces alterations in the cervical mucus, which changes from thick, opaque and sticky to thin, clear and slippery as ovulation approaches.
Progesterone produces a slight rise in basal body temperature (temperature at rest) after ovulation. Otherwise, the function of progesterone on the cervical mucus is just the opposite effect of oestrogen — it makes the cervical mucus thick, opaque and sticky.

Observation of these changes provides a basis for periodic abstinence methods.

This is a list of the different natural methods that work with periodic abstinence (fertility awareness):

1-Rhythm (calendar) method: One of the most popular natural methods is the Rythm Method, being this one of the main reasons natural methods are believed as not succesfull, being the rythm methods one of the first methods discovered and that in many cases, suppose that the cycle of the woman is as regular as possible.

2-Basal body temperature (BBT) method: This method is based in the normal changes that your body experiment when is preparing itself to become fertile. For this reason is important to clarify that this method do not signal the first basic infertile period, as the temperature raises 12 to 24 hours after the ovulation process take place and not before, Once the egg is released by the ovarian follicle into the fallopian tube, the ovarian follicle becomes the corpus luteum and begins to release progesterone into a woman’s system. To use this method, woman takes her body temperature at the same time each morning before getting out of bed observing for an increase of 0.2 to 0.5 degrees C, If the BBT has risen and has stayed higher for 3 full days, ovulation has occurred and the fertile period has passed. Sex can resume on the 4th day until her next monthly bleeding.(5)

Temperature and hormones in the woman´s body.

3-Cervical mucus (ovulation) method: The cervical mucus ovulation method also called the Billings Ovulation Method, is a fertility awareness based method that relies on the concept that the cervical mucus plays an important role in the fertile phase of any woman, being also a sign of different changes at the hormonal level.

This cervical mucus is produces by the cervix, with the expel of mucus depending of the different levels of estrogen that is produced by the body in different stages, being those:

1- Dry and Sticky: This is cervical mucus after menstruation.

2- White, Creamy Color and Sticky: This is the mucus that comes during pre-ovulation.

3- Watery and Wet: Another pre-ovulation change that indicates ovulation is on the way. This is the time when a woman wants to increase her sexual intercourse in hopes of getting pregnant.

4- Egg White and Stretchy: Cervical mucus during ovulation is egg white in color, and it stretches between the fingers, too. This is cervical mucus before a period and during the fertile stage.

5- Dry and Sticky: This is the cervical mucus after ovulation and before your period begins. The amount of mucus decreases during this phase and becomes sticky until a point when is completely dry and this is a signal for the woman infertile period has been confirmed, because ovulation has happened.

The Cervical Mucus plays a very important role in Fertility

Do this Natural Methods Really Work?

When you talk to people about NFP methos it is very ussual to hear that this type of methods doesn´t work well because there is a high probability of getting pregnant, this thought is widespread because of people´s ignorance about this type of methods, how they work and the statistics behind of them.

This misconception is attached to the notion that all natural methods have the same probability of success, but really, this is not the case, for this reason we will talk about the statistics behind each method going in order of succes from lower to higher.

1-Rhythm Method: This method has a 91% rate of sucess with correct and consistent use, this means the method is followed as stated, without interrumptions and following the instructions stated by it. In the case of the rhythm method this means: Women monitor their pattern of menstrual cycle over 6 months, subtracts 18 from shortest cycle length (estimated 1st fertile day) and subtracts 11 from longest cycle length (estimated last fertile day). This not being the case, then we are talking about common use , which has a rate of 75% in average, this because people very often do not calculate the time correctly or do not follow the abstinece period when indicated for the method, being this one the most common case.(5)

2-Basal Body Temperature: In this case, we can see that the correct and consistent use rate is really high, with a 99.7% chance of success with consistent and perfect use, and a 97% of sucess with typical use.(6)

3- Sympto-thermal Method: With this method, women track their fertile periods by observing changes in the cervical mucus (clear texture) , body temperature (slight increase) and consistency of the cervix (softening). Statistics shown by the OMS state a very high chance of success in postponing pregnancy with a 98% rate with correct and consistent use and reported 98% with typical use (Manhart et al, 2013).

4-Billings Ovulation Method: This method is based on the cervical mucus of the woman, and signal to times when the couple can be together intimatley during the infertile period, this because it shows the two period when the woman is not fertile, being those the (BIP) Basic Infertile Pattern and the Complete Infertile Pattern. This method shows a perfect use of <99% rate of success and a common use with an average of 98%-99% rate of success.(7)