Birth Control

My husband and I have been practicing the sympto-thermal method of Natural Family Planning for the past two years. We are doing so to avoid pregnancy, and, so far, the method has been both effective and rewarding.

Although you may already know this, the "symto-thermal method" of Natural Family Planning (NFP) involves measuring both your core body temperature and observing the quality of your cervical fluid to chart your level of fertility and know when you're likely to conceive. My husband and I prefer NFP to condoms and hormonal birth control for several reasons. Here are just a few:

1. NFP has no side effects: According to leading physicians, common side effects of hormonal birth control include headaches, nausea, weight gain, decreased libido, high blood pressure, and mood swings. Other potential side effects include blood clots, stroke, and heart attacks. Although some of these side effects are rare, I've decided that I'd rather not take the health risks. Instead of altering your fertility, NFP works with your fertility, making it side-effect free. Actually, NFP can actually be good for your health because knowing about your cycle and recording your "symptoms" (whether and when your ovulating, the consistency of your cervical fluid, whether your experiencing brown spotting, and the length of your luteal phase) can potentially help your physician diagnose and treat health problems like endometreosis and poly cystic ovarian syndrome, possibly saving you from unnecessary treatments, tests, and delay.
2. NFP is effective: According to several sources and studies, the failure rate of the sympto-thermal method of NFP with "perfect use" is between 2 and 2.5%. This is similar to the failure rate of male condoms (2%), and not much higher than the failure rate for hormonal birth control (less than 1%). In "actual use," the failure rate, of course, is higher, because you may not always be able to interpret the "signs" correctly, and sometimes you may be unsure. Studies also vary wildly because the effectiveness with NFP, unlike other methods, is highly subject-based. However, even in "actual use," the failure rate for NFP is still comparable to other birth control methods, with the usual figure being around 15%. For oral contraceptives, the actual use failure rate is around 8%, and for condoms this figure is at about 15% as well. The good news is that you have control with NFP over how "conservative" you want to be depending on your openness to children. One study revealed that the most common failure with NFP is when couples decide to "bend the rules" a bit. This, of course, leads into the next benefit.
3. NFP is empowering: If knowledge is power, then NFP is empowering. When it boils down to it, NFP is just knowledge. I don't know about other women, but I like to KNOW when I'm ovulating, how long my luteal phase is, and whether I'm about to start my period (I can always tell the day before by the dip in my temperature). I also like to know that it's up to me -- I don't just take a pill and forget about my fertility. I know what's going with my body and can use that information to "take charge" of it. There's something very satisfying and "empowering" about this. It's a personal choice, but this is one thing to consider.
4. NFP is affordable: Because NFP is only knowledge, it is extremely cheap. While there may be an initial, substantial investment (thermometer, classes, books, etc.), the overall cost is very low. This has taken a large financial burden off of my husband and I. In fact, Mother Theresa found NFP to be an effective tool for poor families in Calcutta because it was self-perpetuating and did not require continual aid from other countries and organizations. When Mother Theresa received her Nobel Peace Prize, her lecture, in fact, was on the virtues of NFP. She observed that the method was highly effective when she taught it to the couples there.
5. NFP is "green": Some scientists are worried that the high level or hormones in the water supply from oral contraceptives is endangering the fish population, which could lead to serious environmental consequences. Similarly, condoms just end up in a landfill. Unlike other family planning methods, NFP is completely, well... natural and "green." This is just one more thing my husband and I considered.
6. NFP won't compromise fertility, and can be used for both pregnancy avoidance and achievement: Some women have trouble getting pregnant immediately after discontinuing oral contraceptives. NFP, however, tells you both when you're fertile and when you're not fertile, so when you decide it's time to have a baby, you can get pregnant right away (assuming you are a person of average fertility). This may be important if you have a birth time "window" that you are aiming for. Also, NFP helps you recognize potential fertility problems before you even start trying to conceive, which can be a time saver as well.
7. NFP supports a healthy relationship: One drawback of NFP is that (to be most effective), it requires abstinence during the fertile times. However, my husband and I have really taken this as an advantage, rather than a drawback. First, we are still able to have intercourse about 9 times every 25 days even with the MOST conservative estimates. This will vary for every couple depending on the woman's cycle, but, we figure that it averages out to be about 2-3 times a week for us, which is pretty good. The abstinence periods can be hard sometimes, but they encourage us to express love to each other in different ways and communicate with each other more. There are courtship and "honeymoon" periods, and we are always having a dialogue about the right time to have children, which, I think, is important. In fact, studies have shown that couples who practice NFP have an extremely low (less than 1%) divorce rate. There may be lurking factors here (like religious convictions and lifestyle), but relative to the general population, this rate is shockingly low.
8. NFP has a deep spiritual importance for me: My husband and I are both Roman Catholic and believe that the call to be "one flesh" is a call to complete self-giving. For us, NFP embraces our spiritual commitments. When choosing a family planning method, your spirituality, cultural background, philosophy, and moral convictions are all extremely important things to consider -- no mater what these particular beliefs may be.

1. Am I in a monogamous, committed relationship? (NFP DOES NOT PREVENT THE SPREAD OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES. You need to be sure that you are protecting yourself accordingly. Also, the method requires some level of cooperation and understanding between the partners.)
2. Am I willing to be diligent and take the time to learn the method? (The effectiveness of NFP depends greatly on this factor. The longer you use it, however, the more it becomes "second nature.")
3. Am I open to the possibility (however small) that I could become pregnant? (NFP is less effective than oral contraceptives, sterilization, and other shots and hormonal devices. Even though a pregnancy isn't right for my husband and I at this time, I weighed the pros and the cons and still felt that NFP was right for me. This may not be the same for everyone. How much of a "con" is the effectiveness prong for you?)

If taken correctly, the answer is no (most of the time, read on to find out why). The purpose of the pill is to prevent ovulation from occurring, so typically an egg is not released therefore pregnancy will not occur. Another thing that the pill does is make the vaginal mucus thicker preventing most sperm from entering the cervix.

Factors such as diarrhea, vomiting, missing a pill, etc. may allow the egg to be released which is the reason why there is a failure rate with the pill. Another factor that happens to any woman is ovulation occurring even if the pill is taken correctly, so basically even if everything is perfect ovulation may still occur while on the pill.
The birth control pill is designed to prevent ovulation.