Natural Family Planning

Comment

Comment by Bonnie P on February 1, 2010 at 7:39pm

Thanks for the great discussion, Marci and K. Oster! Through your respectful debate, I've come to know more about NFP, and how wonderful is that?!

Comment by K. Oster on February 1, 2010 at 1:31pm

Indeed, I did misspeak on this point: " Users of the Lady-Comp understand it is within the window of fertility that one should use a method of birth control - not only within the 24 hour window of ovulation." I will clarify the point of the comment which was to say maintaining the ability to identify the the window of fertility complemented with advance insight.

Our position is not to advance one method over another, as this truly is a personal choice based on a woman's needs, comfort level and convictions. We routinely communicate with a wide range of health professionals - doulas', midwives, OBGYN's, endocrinologists, etc. in effort to deepen our understanding of the realm of perspectives, and most importantly, an understanding of their client's needs and experiences.

We hope that your passion for NFP will be contagious within this forum. Clearly you have a wealth of valuable insight to share.

Comment by K. Oster on February 1, 2010 at 10:47am

Women in Europe (and now the U.S.) have been successfully using the Lady-Comp for close to 25 years and the device enjoys both CE and FDA approvals -- which for a Class 2 medical device, proof of efficacy is required. When used with compliance, Lady-Comp will always give a 99.3% accurate reading - which entails a fair number of 'green light' (not fertile) days. In the case of a woman who is skipping periods, having multiple periods, or excessively long cycles (over 36 days) as a rule the issue is not that the device will not provide an accurate reading, but that she will not enjoy as many green lights because the device will always err on the side of caution and give red lights when it detects anomalies, which in this case would be ongoing and defeat the purpose if used for NFP. Case in point, I personally had a very erratic cycle for approximately 4 months of last year when I experienced a significant hormonal shift. Lady-Comp continued to perform effectively for me, but I did not have as many green lights as I would have otherwise. For me, as for most women using it to avoid getting pregnant, this was not an issue -- I simply chose to use a method of birth control more frequently than I would have under normal circumstances. When my cycle was back on track, which I achieved with acupuncture treatments and by using a variety of Chinese herbs, the Lady-Comp readings reflected such. For women who are concerned with identifying the window of fertility with accuracy, checking cervical mucus is somewhat irrelevant...unless one is trying to conceive, under which circumstances noting mucus can only be beneficial for multiple reasons. Users of the Lady-Comp understand it is within the window of fertility that one should use a method of birth control - not only within the 24 hour window of ovulation.
I think our collective concern should be that of providing multiple quality CHOICES to women and not mandating one method or another based upon ideology. This is precisely the type of thinking we are working to shift as it is so prominent within the women's health paradigm in the U.S. As it stands, this culture practically forces women to use hormone-based contraception beginning when they are teens. Hormone methods are touted as a panacea for a variety of concerns - from simple adolescent acne, to controlling PMS (which often it does not), to halting menstruation, as if having a period is a medical condition as opposed to a natural physiological function. Ultimately this is the problem - as women, we confront a dearth of information and an unfortunate lack of options. This is the problem we are attempting to resolve, if only by providing a starting point with a tool that provides ease of use plus efficacy. One thing is for certain, whether a woman chooses to adopt traditional NFP methods or chooses to use a tool like the Lady-Comp to support NFP, she will develop a closer relationship with her body and a deeper understanding of her cycle by having done so.

Comment by K. Oster on January 31, 2010 at 7:10pm

It is a truly wonderful thing to witness this vigorous discussion about various NFP methods and the Lady-Comp. Far too many women do not receive information and guidance from their physicians about the efficacy and viability of NFP as an alternative to pharmaceutical methods. This is so refreshing! For anyone interested in learning more about Lady-Comp technology and functionality, please do not hesitate to contact us at care@naturallyforher.com. There appears to be a bit of confusion about how the device actually works from a technical standpoint. To clarify -- the Lady-Comp can indeed be reliably used by women whose cycles exceed 28 days, and women by who have fluctuating cycles. However, if a woman has extremely broad and extreme fluctuations, it is not advised. Also, Lady-Comp does not only base ovulation predictions on "past" data. The computer is actually programmed with over 700,000 algorithms with which it integrates user data. We would love to clear up questions like these for anyone wishing to learn more. Thanks!

Comment by Sarah P on January 25, 2010 at 8:04am

Hi K. Oster! First off, thank you for a fantastic product! I wish every woman would realize just how easy NFP can be with Lady-Comp! My Lady-Comp was a wedding gift from my parents (they did the same when my sister got married and she swears by it!) and I am enjoying its user-friendliness. Because I'm visual, however, I also chart on my own through TCOYF software so I can keep track of just where I am in each cycle. As Lady-Comp has gotten used to "how I tick," I've been able to observe (much to my delight) that it is right on target with my own calculations. In the future, I may decide to rely solely on the Lady-Comp, but for now, the visual me is enjoying the two-fold approach. Thanks for asking and thanks again for an awesome product! I'm sure there's more about Lady-Comp that I haven't even begun to discover and I'd love your feedback on any little tricks and features I may not be aware of!

Comment by Ann.W on January 21, 2010 at 8:25pm

My baby have joined this baby model contest called "the next SOFT baby".
I think it is a nice thing to share, cause I guess a lot of parents would like to have their baby's picture taken. The photography of the company is very cute. http://www.soft-baby-clothes.com
They are looking for baby model from 0-3 months. If you are interested, you can send your baby picture, measurement, city and state to model@soft-baby-clothes.com

Comment by K. Oster on January 19, 2010 at 9:32am

Hello Sarah. As the authorized US Distributors of the Lady-Comp we are thrilled to see a user-led NFP group here on MBB.
I am curious to learn more about your unique approach and why you are combining the multiple methods of manual charting, software and the Lady-Comp for avoiding pregnancy. Historically, most Lady-Comp users eliminate observational methods (charting cervical mucus, etc.) as this is an unnecessary step unless one is trying to conceive. For prevention, the BBT method with Lady-Comp is more than sufficient.

Comment by Sarah P on January 13, 2010 at 6:07am

Hi Ericka! First off, thanks for creating this group. NFP is such a wonderful method but it's often misunderstood so education is so important. In answer to your question from summer, I have been using the TCOYF software (combined with Lady-Comp) since my husband and I married in June. It's very reasonably priced and totally worth the cost! Having attended NFP classes in the past, I already had a pretty good grasp of how to chart on my own but the software takes a lot of the guesswork out of my sometimes wacky cycle. One word of caution, though is that there have been rare times when the software said I was either fertile or infertile but that contradicted with my own knowledge of charting so it's not absolutely foolproof, but it's still very useful. Also, it's marketed toward those who are trying to achieve pregnancy; however, as my husband and I are not at that stage yet, it is working well for prevention as well. Hope this is helpful!

Comment by Chelsea on December 8, 2009 at 9:16am

Hi All,
I'm currently ttc and I'm 14 DPO today, which is exciting b/c my luteal phase is usually only 13 days. I had a little bit of bright red spotting on the eve of day 12, which reminded me of implantation spotting, and nothing since then. But I took a test yesterday morning and it was negative. Is it safe to get excited??

Comment by Cherylyn on October 18, 2009 at 12:23am

Thank you both :) I'll check them out!

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