Natural family planning

Abstract

It is now well accepted that a woman can conceive from an act of intercourse for a maximum of only about 7 days of her menstrual cycle. The reliability of natural family planning depends on identifying this window of fertility without ambiguity. Several symptomatic markers, cervical mucus and basal body temperature, have been used extensively and with considerable success in most women but failures occur. Ovarian and pituitary hormone production show characteristic patterns during the cycle. Urinary estrogen and pregnanediol measurements yield reliable information concerning the beginning, peak, and end of the fertile period, provided that the assays are accurate and performed on timed specimens of urine. We have developed such enzyme immunoassays for urinary estrogen and pregnanediol glucuronides that can be performed at home. In the early versions of the assays, enzyme reaction rates were measured by eye, but more recently, a simple photoelectronic rate meter has been used. The final problem to be solved is not technologic but whether women are sufficiently motivated to expend the same time and effort each day for 10 days a month, with less cost, on fertility awareness as they spend on making a cup of tea.