Have you ever wondered about natural family planning? How your body knows when you might get pregnant?
This is all thanks to hormones which control functions in your body, such as growth and development. Natural family planning, or NFP, is a way to track your menstrual cycle and fertility signs to figure out when you’re most likely to get pregnant as well as identify any hormonal or cycle changes.
Rachel M. Regan, MD, a family medicine provider at Mercy Health – Family Physicians of Springfield, also shares her guidance on how NFP can fit into a woman’s overall health plan below.
First, why choose natural family planning?
There are many reasons why people choose NFP.
- It’s natural: Natural family planning works with your body’s natural ovulatory cycle, not against it. It maintains and promotes your fertility since it keeps ovulation intact. There are no hormones or medications involved.
- It’s empowering: NFP teaches you about your body and fertility. And this knowledge can be helpful whether you’re trying to achieve pregnancy.
- It’s cost-effective: Depending on the method that is used, natural family planning can have little to no cost after learning a method.
- It can be a good choice for people with certain medical conditions: If you can’t take hormones due to a health condition, NFP may be a good option.
- It can be used with irregular cycles: Unlike what many people believe, NFP can work well for women with both regular and irregular menstrual cycles. In fact, the beauty of using NFP means that we can help diagnose the underlying problem behind a woman’s irregular periods by interpreting the fluctuations throughout her menstrual cycle, and therefore treat the root cause.
How can you track your fertility signs?
There are three main fertility signs that you can track with NFP:
- Basal body temperature (BBT): Your BBT is your lowest body temperature during sleep. It rises slightly after ovulation, or when an egg is released from your ovary and travels down the fallopian tube. The temperature will remain elevated until the start of your next period. So, you can take your BBT every morning before you get out of bed to see a pattern.
- Cervical mucus: The cervical mucus method is monitoring your cervical mucus, a fluid made by your cervix. The amount and consistency of cervical mucus changes throughout your cycle, and it’s usually thick and sticky around ovulation.
- Urine hormone levels: Throughout a woman’s menstrual cycle, there are changes in levels of estrogen, progesterone and luteinizing hormone (LH). Right before ovulation occurs, LH will spike. This can be identified through ovulation predictor kits (OPKs) and urine LH sticks. Many kits will also tell you when estrogen levels rise before ovulation, which indicates the days you are most likely to become pregnant.
Interested in learning more about NFP?
There are a few things you can do:
- Find an NFP physician: Make sure to get established with a doctor who understands and is trained in natural family planning. Your doctor can teach you about NFP and help you choose a method that’s right for you. Plus, an NFP-physician will be able to understand and accurately interpret your cycle.
- Take a class: There are many NFP classes offered online and in person.
- Use a book or website: There are many resources available to help you learn NFP. Just make sure they are medical resources.
“With my training in Natural Family Planning, I treat women with fertility issues, irregular cycles, reproductive health issues, such as PCOS, and abnormal hormonal levels such as low progesterone by using NFP,” Dr. Regan shares. “It is so rewarding to help give my patients alternative treatment options for their fertility and menstrual problems.”
She adds, “When utilizing NFP, the more consistent you are with tracking your fertility signs, the easier it will be to see a pattern. In fact, there are many apps and charts available to help you track your fertility signs. Also, it takes time to learn NFP. So, be patient and don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work perfectly right away.”
Natural family planning is a safe and effective way to track your menstrual cycle and fertility signs.
Learn more about the primary care services we provide at Mercy Health.
