We’re about to see a sleeping giant wake up: the scandal of contraception is slowly emerging. Where will it go?
There’s a good reason for this slow but sure change: women are suffering. A quick web search on “Problems with contraceptives” brings up a good number of tragic stories. Discover why over 12,000 women filed lawsuits against the Yasmin® pill, from serious side-effects to deadly blood clots. Read about Megan Henry, an Olympic athlete who collapsed with blood clots after using the birth-control device NuvaRing®. Still she is more fortunate than her college friend, Erika Langhart, who died at the age of 24 from the same cause. Or read about the nightmares experienced by thousands of women who discovered that life with the Mirena® IUD wasn’t that “simple” after all, and suffered from chronic pain, undesirable spotting or sometimes endured major surgery as the IUD moved into the wall of their uterus.
A book came out last year, Sweetening the Pill: or How We Got Hooked on Hormonal Birth Control, all about the terrible effects of contraceptives. The author makes a thorough case against them based on her own painful experience and that of many other women. She also describes the freedom and happiness she has found in fertility awareness. The book is being turned into a documentary film by director Abby Epstein and executive producer Ricki Lake that will open the mind of many women on this issue.
Today, 62 million American women are in their childbearing years (15-44) and sexually active. Of that number, 62% currently use a contraceptive. 17.3%, or 11 million, are on the pill, which makes it the leading method, followed closely by female sterilization (tubal ligation) (16.7%), and then the condom (10%). Other estrogen-based methods include Depo-Provera® (The Shot) (2%), IUD (1.5%), implant (0.7%).
Yet most couples who practice contraception are unaware of the damage it does to women’s health and to their relationship. Through the use of contraceptives, they miss out on the benefits of their natural fertility and the benefit of unhindered libido. In fact the divorce rate among couples who practice natural birth control is under 5 percent, compared to an alarming 50 percent now in the general public. There is a reason for the difference in numbers. Couples who practice natural birth control have deeper and better communication, increased mutual respect and richer physical intimacy.
Fertility Awareness Methods (FAM) and Natural Family Planning (NFP) are making headway. Training organizations like Billings Ovulation Method™, Creighton Model FertilityCare System™ and Couple to Couple League are recognized internationally. Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler, has also continued to popularize Fertility Awareness over the past 20 years.
Fertility Awareness Methods are a great improvement over contraception, as they increase women’s education about their own reproductive systems. Yet, these extraordinarily beneficial methods are only used by a small minority of women.
Why?
It’s a marketing problem.
Most people confuse NFP or FAM with the ineffective old rhythm method. Some see it as an outdated attempt by the Catholic Church to control women.
Even among physicians, only 6 percent know the real effectiveness rate of NFP/FAM methods.
While they have a good reach, the FAM/NFP organizations, non-profit for the most part, remain a minority voice, as they face stiff marketing competition from a $4 billion US contraceptive industry. The marketing power of the contraceptive industry can be estimated around $200 million a year, not counting its ability to influence research, universities, and even government to promote their products.
While contraceptives manufacturers invest millions in promoting their products for annual sales in the billions, nobody stands to get rich from NFP/FAM. Once you have the knowledge of how to use them, these methods are free for life.
Without profit to be made, NFP/FAM awareness can only come through a nonprofit effort, with the support of a community that shares its convictions and mission.
That’s why Natural Womanhood exists. To help change misperceptions and inform women of their options. It means we need your help. Together, we can change this situation.
This market is ripe for the picking. Women are suffering, and their families with them. They need and deserve better solutions. They are open to better solutions. A survey conducted by physicians at the University of Utah shows that when natural fertility-awareness methods are described to women, 25 percent say they would strongly consider using one as their means of birth control. There is clearly an increase in interest and growing conversations about these methods, when women are informed about them.
In this context, we have the following urgencies:
- build a strong advocacy, awareness and education program about the benefits of women charting their cycles and taking advantage of natural birth control,
- engage current advocates with effective tools so that they can spread the word,
- direct young women to organizations that can teach them the wonderful and simple techniques of charting their cycles,
- invite couples to learn natural birth control from experts who not only can explain the techniques but offer practical support to couples,
- direct women who suffer from dysfunction in their reproductive systems to medical providers who can treat the root causes of their problems.
- Until now NFP/FAM has been widely ignored because it’s generally equated with the old fashioned “rhythm” method of our grandparents with its 30% failure rate. Women and couples want to be much more in control of their fertility. NFP is also associated with and has also been mainly promoted among conservative Catholic groups, who typically are more open to children, and have larger families as a result. They’re a billboard for “it doesn’t work,” but it does. They just choose to have more kids than the typical US family, and that’s their prerogative. We’re not here to assign moral values to the decisions couples make about their family.
With effective communication, NFP/FAM can become far more attractive and popular among couples. An increase in education and practice of NFP/FAM can result in many positive outcomes:
- Women will know exactly how their natural cycle functions
- If women have dysfunction in their cycles, they can be treated more effectively, as a result increase their well-being and their chance to conceive when they’re ready to conceive
- Common issues like PMS, cramps or irregular cycles will be resolved early without using harmful drugs that only mask the symptoms.
- By knowing their bodies, women will be more inclined to request respect from guys, and more likely avoid risky sexual behaviors.
- Various studies show that women who are not on the pill are more attractive to men, and more likely to choose a better match for themselves.
- Couples who practice natural birth control have deeper and better communication, greater mutual respect and richer physical intimacy, and divorce will decrease as a result of the expansion of this practice.
- Women will approach menopause with much more awareness and readiness.
What can you do? Like any grass-root movement, the success of this campaign depends on individuals like you who are willing to combat injustice and feel the urgency to tell their friends and family. And when you become aware of this issue, you will discover who among them suffers from the use of contraceptives or issues like infertility, PCOS, PMS, endometriosis…
How can Natural Womanhood help you? Our goal is to create materials so you can learn more about this topic and share this information. It’s not a political, religious, or moral message, but one of good news, health and well-being for all women. That’s the way we approach it and always will. No one can fault you for good news that’s practical and useful for better health. They may even resent the fact that you didn’t speak up earlier.
What’s your next step? Simply sign up on our Advocacy page. You will start receiving our e-news, which we promise will be informative, interesting and useful. Invite your friends who also believe in Fertility Awareness to sign up as well. Then share what you think can help the most with those who can benefit: your spouse, sister, teenage daughter, close friend.
Will we ask you for money? We’re a non-profit, and our goal is spread the word as much as possible at the lowest cost as possible, mostly for free. Occasionally, we will offer valuable informational material at a minimal cost, so that we can continue to grow our audience. Of course we welcome donations. We need them to function. Yet, our priority is to raise awareness and educate young women and men about a better way of life, and to do it at the optimal cost. Will you help us do that?
Will you join our movement along with hundreds of others? Welcome to our family. We look forward to changing the world together.
Gerard Migeon
Founder and CEO
Yasmin® , Essure®, Mirena ® are registered trademarks of Bayer
