Natural Family Planning

Out of 100 Women Using this Method
Typical Use: 24 Women Become Pregnant
Perfect Use: 2 to 9 (average 6) Women Become Pregnant

What is natural family planning?

Natural family planning, also known as the rhythm method, means that sexual partners do not have sexual intercourse during the ovulation period (when a woman's ovaries release eggs) of a woman's menstrual cycle. The ovulation period is the time in a woman's menstrual cycle that she is most likely to get pregnant. Natural family planning is a type of birth control that is approved by many religions.

How do you do natural family planning?

You need to figure out when you are ovulating (when your ovaries release the egg each month). Women can get pregnant a few days before to a few days after ovulation. Sperm can live for up to 5 days and the egg lives 24 hours. So even if you are not ovulating the day you have sexual intercourse, you can still get pregnant if you start ovulating within 5 days and the sperm are still alive. Or if you have finished ovulating and you have sex the next day, you can still get pregnant since the egg can still be fertilized. So you should not have sexual intercourse a few days before and after your ovulation period.

You can use one method or a few methods to find out when you ovulate. These methods include looking at your basal body temperature (taking your temperature first thing in the morning with a special thermometer), changes in the mucus of your cervix, and production of LH (a hormone that starts ovulation). There are also hand-held computers that you can use to help figure out when you are ovulating. You should also keep track of your menstrual cycles. Once you figure out when you are ovulating, you should not have sexual intercourse during your fertile time.

Natural family planning can be tricky to figure out, but if you think it's a good idea for you, talk to your health care provider.

How effective is natural family planning?

If women use natural family planning every time they have sexual intercourse and follow instructions perfectly every time (a woman has to figure out when she is ovulating and does not have sexual intercourse during this time), it is 91-98% effective. This means that if 100 women use natural family planning all the time and always use it perfectly, 2 to 9 women will become pregnant in a year.

Perfect use hardly ever happens and so this method is typically only 76% effective. This means that if 100 women use natural family planning, 24 women will become pregnant in a year.

Failure rates can be high using natural family planning if you have irregular periods, which are more common in teens. Natural family planning does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases, so you must use a condom.

Are there any problems with natural family planning?

Natural family planning is not the best type of contraception there is, but it is natural and many religions approve it. The good thing is that there are no side effects of natural family planning. However, natural family planning is not very reliable. Illness can change your body temperature and vaginal infections can cause changes in the mucus of your cervix. With these changes, there's a greater chance that you can get pregnant.

Written by the Center for Young Women's Health Staff

Updated 5/12/2005

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