Contraception

Using FAM for contraception

The fertility awareness method is a wonderful and natural method of contraception. Studies have shown that the Fertility Awareness Method has an effectiveness rate of 99.6% when all the rules are followed. This means it is as effective as oral contraceptives or an IUD! Once you learn how to pinpoint your fertile days and your ovulation, you can avoid having unprotected sex on those days, thus avoiding the possibility of pregnancy. If would like to practice contraception without having to take contraceptives with dangerous side effects, rely on an external method getting in the way of your love (like condoms, spermicides, etc), or resort to permanent methods of contraception like tubal ligation, FAM is the perfect answer!

FAM is very unique in its approach and is different from other forms of contraception because it has no possible side effects, it uses no chemicals or intrusive devices (like an IUD), and it is almost entirely free! FAM is the only method of contraception that can equally be used to help conceive a child. It can help a woman asses her gynecological and hormonal health and can potentially help identify the cause(s) of infertility.

Often times, when reading about the effectiveness of various contraceptives, charting methods do not rank very well. This is due to a few factors. First, the calendar method is usually included in the statistic, and therefore skews the results because it is a far less effective method. Second, those surveys or studies are based on “typical use” of the method. What does this mean? It means that it does not take into consideration whether or not the women or couples responding to the survey were actually using the method correctly. Like any other form of contraception, a method is only as good as how well it is used. The pill is considered highly effective, but if you forget to take the pill several days in a row, the effectiveness goes down dramatically. When you read the phrase “typical use”, they are assuming that there will be errors in the way the methods are used.

The good news is that when FAM is used accurately and all the rules are followed, it is considered to be 99.6% effective! A study by the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology found that:

“For a contraceptive method to be rated as highly efficient as the hormonal pill, there should be less than one pregnancy per 100 women per year when the method is used correctly. The pregnancy rate for women who used the STM method correctly in our study was 0.4%, which can be interpreted as one pregnancy occurring per 250 women per year. Therefore, we maintain that the effectiveness of STM is comparable to the effectiveness of modern contraceptive methods such as oral contraceptives, and is an effective and acceptable method of family planning.”

Another study that was published in the Oxford medical journal of Human Reproduction found the same effectiveness.

The best way to ensure that you will be able to integrate this lifestyle effectively is to work with a teacher when learning this amazing method. If you have read books about FAM and felt overwhelmed, worried that you couldn’t possibly be consistent enough to follow all the rules, have no fear. I am here to work with you to make FAM accessible, and give you tips to smoothly integrate these practices into your life successfully. I offer online courses, and also work 1-on-1 with women who would like to learn the method.