 | Do you need periods, or are they “God’s design flaw” as a senior health professional said in a recent Guardian article? It depends on what you mean by a period. If you mean a pill withdrawal bleed, official FSRH guidance states there are "no health benefits." |
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has changed the failure rate for fertility awareness as contraception. It used to be 24%, which meant it failed one in four women, and is now between 2% and 23%, depending on the method used.
This change means the CDC advice is now closer to that of the NHS website which says "If natural family planning (fertility awareness) instructions are carefully followed, this method can be up to 99% effective. This means that 1 out of 100 women using natural family planning correctly will get pregnant." Of course this does not mean that fertility awareness suits everyone. Find out if it's right for you here.
In their article about Natural Cycles, Hough et al quote a Cochrane Review that dismisses fertility awareness based contraception (natural family planning).
A Cochrane Review is an understandable choice but not an appropriate one. It would be more helpful to quote NHS Choices, the Family Planning Association or Faculty Guidance, which all have a more nuanced approach to the evidence, and say that fertility awareness is up to 99% effective. Typical use rates are lower but many women achieve high effectiveness thanks to either their own research or appropriate support.
I loved the start of this film from the Victoria Derbyshire programme. At last, women with terrible experiences with hormonal contraception getting a hearing!
Of course it would be even better if women didn’t have a horrific time with side effects – or get “laughed out of the room” if they ask for help with the diaphragm – but at least they were being listened to. If you want to get pregnant, the NICE Fertility guidance recommends vaginal sexual intercourse every two to three days.
You might think this is great news. At last – freedom from birth control! Woo Hoo! Or you might not. Maybe your patience is limited, or you want to know how to improve your chances. So you download an app. But which app should you use, how much data should you record, and how much can you trust them?
 If you want to use fertility awareness to avoid pregnancy, you and your partner need to be happy with how you handle your fertile days.
That generally means about ten days a month when you use condoms or other precautions. It's only possible to get pregnant for about six days but your fertile time can change so you add some extra days, especially while you're learning. This might be no big deal, especially if you're already using  Using condoms might be an alarming prospect if it's a while since you last used them.
Or your most vivid memory is sniggering while you rolled one onto a banana at school... They can work very well, but you need to know what you're doing - a bit like fertility awareness. Here's some tips: |
