by Temitope Oyedepo

Created on: May 05, 2008

HOW DOES NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING WORK?

The natural family planning method requires periodic abstinence from intercourse during a woman's fertile period in a menstrual cycle. For this method to be effective a combination of the techniques is usually recommended. With this method a woman is required to study and understand her menstrual cycle completely. This method does not have any side effects. The natural family methods that are available for a woman to use include the following:

CALENDAR METHOD: In this method, a woman usually counts calendar days to identify the start and end of fertility time. The number of days varies depending on the length of the previous cycle. Before a woman can use this method she has to study her menstrual cycle for 6 months. During this period, she should note the number of days for her longest cycle and her shortest cycle. The woman should subtract 18days from the length of her shortest cycle recorded. This indicates the estimated first day of her fertile time. She should then subtract 11 days from the length of her longest recorded cycle. This indicates the last day of her fertile period. During the fertile period the woman should avoid sexual intercourse or she may use barrier method during intercourse. This method when used singly has a failure rate of 9%.

BASAL BODY TEMPERATURE: This method is based on the fact that a woman's basal (resting) body temperature goes up slightly around the ovulation period. This requires that a woman takes her body temperature in the same way (orally, rectally, or vaginally) at the same time each morning before getting out of bed. Around the time of ovulation, a woman's basal body temperature rises for about 0.2 to 0.5 degree centigrade. A woman using this method should avoid unprotected sex from the first day of menstrual bleeding until her temperature has risen above her regular temperature and stayed up for 3 full days. This indicates that ovulation has passed and she may have unprotected sex until the next menstrual bleeding. When used singly, this method has a failure rate of 1%.

CERVICAL SECRETIONS: A woman can observe her cervical secretions to determine her fertile days. The woman should check every day for any cervical secretions at the opening of her vagina. As soon as she notices any secretion, she should avoid unprotected sex. The secretions have a peak day when they are very slippery and stretchy. The woman should continue to avoid unprotected sex until 4 days after the peak day. During this period, the secretions may be sticky, pasty or absent altogether. The failure rate of this method when used singly is 3%.

The advantage of this method over other birth control method is that it has no physical side effects and has very little or no cost. The method also provides education about a woman's fertility cycle.

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