Natural Family Planning

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What is Natural Family Planning or the Fertility Awareness Method?

Natural family planning or fertility awareness relies on you understanding your fertility pattern. This helps you to avoid pregnancy or to determine when in your cycle you can most easily get pregnant.

What are the different fertility awareness methods?

There are different ways to chart your fertility pattern to best predict when you are ovulating (releasing an egg) and most likely to get pregnant.

During this fertile time you can either not have sex, use a barrier method (like a condom) to avoid pregnancy or have sex if you are trying to get pregnant. The following methods can be used alone, but using two or more together is more effective in preventing pregnancy.

Temperature Method: this method requires you to take and record your basal body temperature ( BBT)—the temperature of your body after three hours of rest. Before you ovulate, your BBT will decrease slightly and about 12 hours after you ovulate your temperature will rise slightly until your period starts. Start taking your temperature on the first day of a period—at about the same time each day—using an electronic thermometer. Chart the temperatures on a graph.

Cervical Mucus Method: is based on changes in the mucus produced by your cervix. When you near ovulation you will begin to notice an increase in mucus that is thinner and clearer than earlier in your cycle.

Cervical Changes: the cervix will open slightly during ovulation and be somewhat raised. This can be difficult to assess without training.

Calendar Method (Rhythm Method): tries to gauge your ovulation pattern by using your past menstrual cycle history. You can become pregnant only on certain days of your cycle. A cycle consists of the number of days from the first day of one period until the day before your next period.

On average, women ovulate 12 to 16 days before their next period. You must try to estimate when your period is due to start, then count backwards from that day by 12 to 16 days. Those are the days which you are most likely to ovulate. Keep in mind that sperm can survive about 5 days in a woman’s body around ovulation, which means you could have intercourse 5 days before you ovulate and still get pregnant.

Sympto-Thermal Method: combines the temperature, cervical mucus and/or calendar methods. Combining methods allows you to be more accurate when predicting your “safe days”.

How effective is fertility awareness at preventing pregnancy?

Twenty percent of women do get pregnant within the first year of using fertility awareness methods. To reduce the chances of getting pregnant, use a second method of birth control such as a condom.

What are the advantages of using natural family planning?

• There are no hormonal side effects and you can use this method if you cannot use hormonal contraceptives.
• It is non invasive. You are not introducing any foreign material or substances into your body.
• You and your partner can make choices about when to have sex depending if you want to avoid, to plan, or to space pregnancies.
• You can use this method throughout your child-bearing years including when you are breastfeeding.
• It is inexpensive.
• It can be used by women who have religious concerns about contraception.

What are the possible problems with this method?

• It does not protect against sexually transmitted infections (STIs). You need to use condoms every time you have sex to help protect you from STIs.
• If you are using this method to avoid pregnancy, you may need to use back up birth control, such as condoms, or not have sex during “unsafe” times.
• Not having sex for periods of time may make sex less spontaneous.
• The need to take morning temperatures and to observe signs each day, as well as charting this information, may be inconvenient.
• If you don’t have regular periods, this method may not work for you.
• If you are ill or under stress, your period and your basal body temperatures can change. This method may not be reliable during those times.
• You need to be comfortable with your own body to use these methods.

What else do I need to know?

You will need more information than just this fact sheet. Before you start using fertility awareness methods, talk to your health care provider or the Sexual Health Clinic for more instruction on how to use the different methods listed and for additional resources.

It is important to have a yearly physical, including a Pap test once you are sexually active.