contraception, menstrual-cycleFor women with irregular menstrual periods, will the NFP method actually work for them? By working, I mean successfully preventing pregnancy. Or, is the point of the method really to have no reproductive barriers in the act of sexual intercourse so that babies are possible, and for women with irregular menstrual cycles, it means the NFP method probably doesn’t work for them, so they have to depend on what their bodies spontaneously do, and if their bodies spontaneously inhibit pregnancy, then nature becomes the only birth control because it prevents God from giving life?
If you are talking about the symptothermal method (STM), yes.
According to at least one study,
The symptothermal method (STM) is a form of natural family planning (NFP) that enables couples to identify accurately the time of the woman's fertile phase by measuring her temperature and observing cervical secretions. In the largest, prospective study of STM, the researchers found that if the couples then either abstained from sex or used a barrier method during the fertile period, the rate of unplanned pregnancies per year was 0.4% and 0.6% respectively. Out of all the 900 women who took part in the study, including those who had unprotected sex during their fertile period, 1.8 per 100 became unintentionally pregnant.
Having an irregular cycle would make things more challenging, to be sure. You would have to pay attention to other fertility indicators like cervical mucus, basal body temperature and cervical positioning. Checking cervical positioning can take some practice, but is really quite useful.
Cervical Position
The position and texture of your cervix will change during your cycle:
–During menstrual bleeding, the cervix is normally low and hard and slightly open to allow the blood to flow out. It feels like the tip of your nose.
–After your period stops, the cervix remains low and hard and the opening to the uterus (uterine os) remains closed.
–As you approach ovulation, the cervix rises up to the top of the vagina and becomes softer and moister.
–At the height of ovulation, the cervix feels more like your lips than your nose and the uterine os is open to allow sperm to enter in. Sometimes the cervix seems to disappear – which just means it has become so soft that it blends in with the vagina walls and rises so high that the finger cannot touch it. This is known as SHOW - soft, high, open and wet. This is your most fertile time and is the optimal time to have sex to achieve pregnancy.
–Once ovulation occurs, the cervix drops lower and becomes more firm - once again feeling like the tip of your nose. The opening to the uterus will become tightly closed. This can happen immediately after ovulation or may take several hours to several days.
–When pregnancy occurs, the cervix will rise up and become soft, yet the os will remain tightly closed. This occurs at different times for different women – as early as 12 days after ovulation or well after the pregnancy has been confirmed by a home pregnancy test or doctor.
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