Fertility awareness-based methods of family planning, also known as natural family planning or fertility appreciation, enable family planning without hormones or barriers. At MyCatholicDoctor, our team of fertility awareness educators and specialized physicians teach many different methods of family planning to educate and support you.
Your body sends you many different signs and signals of the status of your fertility. By working with an instructor, you can understand what your body is trying to tell you and make adjustments as needed for your health.
The more information you have, the more knowledgeable you are about your health in general. Remember that God stewards our bodies to us. It is up to us to use the gift of health to continue to spread his goodness and word.
Fertility Awareness is for everyone! Single, engaged, married – it is never too late to begin to understand more about your body. Charting your cycle and understanding your fertility is the responsibility of every woman, whether you are planning for a pregnancy or not. The good news is that charting your cycle doesn’t have to be difficult. With anything new in life we learn, it takes time to understand, but once you understand the fundamentals, you will be equipped with the knowledge to take on your fertility as you move forward.
Fertility awareness methods use biomarkers such as cervical mucus, temperature, or hormonal testing (such as LH, estrogen and progesterone) to track fertile and infertile times during your menstrual cycle or to use as a tool to diagnose menstrual abnormalities. These are natural ways to monitor your cycle, have no medication side effects, and work with the woman’s body to understand her fertility.
◻️ Cervical mucus can be charted through visual observations and a physical examination. Changes in cervical mucus reflect the hormonal changes that women experience during their menstrual cycle.
◻️ Basal body temperature is increased when rising progesterone can be detected after ovulation.
◻️ Short, regular, and long cycle days can be indicative of something not totally right in the cycle.
The most important thing is to choose a model that is right for you and fits your lifestyle. Our providers can work with you to find the right model to start with. If you find the method you chose just doesn’t work for you, don’t be discouraged. There are many different methods and we encourage you to explore another method that is right for you.
Click on a method to learn more about how it works.
Interested in learning a method? Our team of fertility awareness educators are equipped with the latest knowledge to help educate and empower you as a single woman learning to track her ovulation or a couple wanting to learn an NFP method.
The Catholic Church recognizes that many couples struggle to conceive. Infertility and other women’s health concerns can be treated using Restorative Reproductive Medicine. Restorative Reproductive Medicine identifies the problems and cooperates with your fertility cycles to correct the condition, maintain your human ecology, and sustain your procreative potential. Restorative Reproductive Medicine can be used to treat infertility, abnormal bleeding, abnormal hormone conditions of the menstrual cycle including premenstrual syndrome and recurrent ovarian cysts, and postpartum depression. Restorative reproductive technology uses both medical and surgical approaches.
Natural Procreative Technology (also known as NaProTechnology) is a type of Restorative Reproductive Medicine. There are also other methods of RRM, including FEMM and others. At MyCatholicDoctor, you can conveniently and privately connect online with a physician or advanced practice nurse who is specially trained in RRM.
