Other Methods
Fertility Awareness-based methods of family planning are also known as Natural Family Planning (NFP)
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.
There are so many options. Where do I begin?
There are many different methods of Natural Family Planning, each with its own approach to tracking fertility and understanding the body’s natural cycles. While we do not teach all these methods directly, we provide you with the information and resources needed to choose the best method for your needs. Below are some of the most widely used NFP methods.
We believe that Natural Family Planning should be accessible to everyone at no cost. While we provide information and guidance, if you have insurance, we can connect you with MyCatholicDoctor, which offers NFP instruction through your insurance coverage, ensuring you receive expert support while keeping it affordable.
About The Different Methods
Creighton Model
The Creighton Model (CrM) is a natural method of family planning based on a woman’s observations of her cervical fluid or mucus
FEMM
FEMM is another type of Restorative Reproductive Medicine, and stands for Fertility Education and Medical Management. It is a specific way to treat reproductive and endocrine disorders in women’s reproductive abnormalities and includes specific approaches to diagnosis and treatment of the underlying condition.
SymptoThermal Method
The Sympto-Thermal Method (STM) is a natural and healthy fertility awareness based method (FABM) of family planning that makes use of a woman’s observations of her cervical fluid, basal body temperature (waking temperature) and other biological signs (e.g., changes in the cervix) in order to identify the fertile and infertile times of her cycle.
Boston Cross Check Method
As one of the first methods of natural fertility awareness to utilize the three major signs of fertility, with a choice of at-home hormonal monitoring, cervical fluid, and temperature tracking, BCC is an ideal choice for women looking to blend the tried and true with the latest technology!
Billings Ovulation Method
The Billings Ovulation Method® (BOM) is a natural or fertility awareness based method (FABM) of family
planning, based on a woman’s observations of her cervical mucus or fluid. Research shows that this is a reliable signal because the cervical secretion is essential for a woman’s fertility. By learning to identify the mucus patterns that indicate infertility and fertility, she will know when pregnancy is possible.
Marquette Model
The Marquette Model uses an electronic fertility monitor, a device a woman uses at home to measures hormone levels in her urine to estimate the beginning and end of the fertile time in a women’s cycle. The information from the monitor can be used with observations of cervical fluid, basal body temperature, or other biological indicators of
fertility.
Mira Natural Family Planning
While signs like temperature and cervical mucus changes are recorded daily on an NFP chart, women can detect and include the identification of fertile hormones by using a digital fertility tracker such as the Mira Fertility Plus.