{"id":6520,"date":"2017-05-07T17:39:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T23:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=6520"},"modified":"2017-05-09T17:34:59","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T23:34:59","slug":"couples-nfp-doesnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/05\/couples-nfp-doesnt-work.html","title":{"rendered":"So about “couples for whom NFP doesn’t work” . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3APackage_of_Lutera_Birth_Control_Pills.jpg;<\/p>\n

Three cases:<\/p>\n

First, couples who can\u2019t manage the week and a half wait of the idealized NFP cycle.<\/p>\n

Second, couples where the ovulation signs are more difficult to read, leading to significantly more abstinence than the idealized 10 days.<\/p>\n

Third, couples whose need to avoid pregnancy is much greater and who practice NFP with more conservatism, again, producing more abstinence than usual.<\/p>\n

Obviously, there\u2019s overlap between cases two and three.<\/p>\n

Now, about case #1 I don\u2019t have much to say. \u00a0I know there are people who believe that it\u2019s wrong to ask any amount of abstinence from couples, just as there are people who believe that everyone past puberty has a physiological need for regular sexual release. \u00a0I\u2019m just not interested in discussing this claim.<\/p>\n

With respect to the issue of extended abstinence, though, there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s being overlooked:<\/p>\n

All the forms of contraception that are on the market today, are there due to extensive research over the past half-century, both government- and Big Pharma-funded. \u00a0They didn\u2019t just appear out of nowhere.<\/p>\n

How much money, if devoted to research with a different objective, would it take to solve the problem of extended-abstinence NFP? \u00a0Let\u2019s think about this.<\/p>\n

To begin with, let\u2019s consider the affected couples in more detail: \u00a0there are multiple reasons for unclear interpretations\/prolonged abstinence. \u00a0(As context, very simply, prior to ovulation, one determines the start of the fertile period by either one\u2019s past history or the start of cervical mucus; one determines the end of the fertile period either by temperature-taking or by the end of fertile-type cervical mucus, or both in combination.)<\/p>\n

Breastfeeding, for some women, makes everything clear as mud, because they may experience a continuous discharge and regular cycles can return quickly or only after a year or more. \u00a0The standard recommendation\u00a0(for instance, in some facebook groups I follow) in such a case is \u201cwork with an instructor\u201d because, in principle, with guidance, one can learn to distinguish this from the actual fertile mucus that indicates that ovulation is near and that supports the sperm hanging out \u2019til then. \u00a0But it doesn\u2019t always seem to work out, either because even the instructor can\u2019t provide more guidance, or the couple is still left worried about another pregnancy. \u00a0Perimenopause, with its unpredictable cycle lengths, is similar \u2014 for some women, there\u2019s very little cervical mucus, for others, an extended discharge that can be tricky to interpret. \u00a0And, in both cases, the degree of seriousness of one\u2019s need to avoid pregnancy leads some couples to be more conservative than others in their interpretations, in general, and, in these particular cases to feel more or less comfortable with this determination that what they\u2019re experiencing are not actual signs of fertility.<\/p>\n

The other common cause of extended abstinence\/confusing ovulation signs is Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, a syndrome in which hormones are out of balance. \u00a0To the best of my understanding, this causes very long cycles with potentially confusing ovulation signs, among other effects, and doctors often prescribe contraceptive pills to alleviate some of the symptoms (though women on various facebook groups have complained that the pill was just the doctor\u2019s short-cut that wasn\u2019t really solving their underlying problems, just masking them; here\u2019s a blog post from a woman who makes a similar claim<\/a>).<\/p>\n

There are already some \u201chigh tech\u201d methods out there \u2014 in an earlier post<\/a> I discussed OvaCue and the ClearBlue monitor, and some other new approaches. \u00a0Do they now, or could they in the future, with more R&D money, solve everything for everyone? \u00a0Dunno. \u00a0A method called the \u201cMarquette Method\u201d uses the ClearBlue monitor to provide 98% effectiveness for postpartum women (no, I don\u2019t know what they user effectiveness rate is), but unlucky women can still have long abstinence periods, and I honestly don\u2019t know whether Science could come up with better methods of identifying upcoming ovulation. \u00a0(On the other hand, consider that many conventional forms of contraception are not an option for breastfeeding women in any case; the standard recommendation seems to be the less-effective mini-pill, and even this has risks of supply drops.) \u00a0Are there in fact alternate methods of treating PCOS besides the contraceptive pill, that help women have more \u201cnormal\u201d cycles? \u00a0I don\u2019t have enough expertise to evaluate whether what I come across online is legit or not.<\/p>\n

But I do know that the different paths of NFP methods and contraceptive pills and devices have meant that it\u2019s apples and oranges to compare the two. \u00a0The amount of research into NFP methods pales in comparison (though, to be honest, for an earlier draft of this blog post, I tried to find out details on how much R&D money is\/has been spent on contraception, and came up empty, except for laments of \u201cnot enough\u201d because women \u2014 and men \u2014 still don\u2019t have methods that are side-effect free and highly effective for everyone.) \u00a0Would the category of \u201cnatural methods\u201d offer a menu of choices, all with minimal days of abstinence and high rates of effectiveness, had there been more money infused into their development? \u00a0It\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n

I once heard that the inventors of the Pill had at first been looking to come up with a drug which would produce predictable ovulation, so that women could practice what was then the \u201crhythm method\u201d with more effectiveness. \u00a0According to Wikipedia\u2019s brief history<\/a>, that seems to be a myth, as they report that contraception was the objective from the start. \u00a0But it hints at an alternate history of sorts, and leads to a certain amount of \u201cwhat if?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3APackage_of_Lutera_Birth_Control_Pills.jpg; By ParentingPatch (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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