Sunday, August 29th, 2004

"Natural methods for fertility gain popularity"
by Tammy McPherson for The DAILY HERALD

Three years ago, after Deborah Bracken miscarried three times in a row, she realized she needed a different medical approach to have a successful full-term pregnancy.

The Herriman resident found Dr. Joseph B. Stanford, also a University of Utah School of Medicine professor, who introduced her to a natural method used throughout the world to try to get pregnant or to avoid it.

Bracken became pregnant with her son, Kaden, who is now 2 years old. She has since used the method to become pregnant again. Bracken is more than 7 months along with a baby girl she and her husband, Andrew, plan to name Madison.

"We're crossing our fingers that now we understand it better," she said.

The number of Utah women trying the method has grown from 10 each year a decade ago to more than 120 women a year now. The number of women on the program in Utah is still relatively small, Stanford admits, but the growing demand has caused more physicians to start training to include it in their practice.

Stanford is now the only doctor in the state using the Creighton Model Fertility Care System, which includes NaPro Technology. Two more doctors will be training this year and at least one more next year. Stanford said the method has not been advertised; interest in it has simply grown from word of mouth.

The method includes daily monitoring of cervical fluid to determine where a woman is in her menstrual cycle.

"It's the first time a woman is able to monitor and evaluate her own procreative cycle," said Coral Hicks of Pleasant Grove. Hicks teaches the method to couples in the area.

The daily charting helps a woman to determine how long her cycle is, because every woman is different, Hicks said.

If a woman is trying not to get pregnant, the approach will help a woman to know which days she is fertile and to abstain from sex. For those couples who are having problems getting pregnant, the detailed attention to the cycle helps the couple and doctors to see if there are abnormalities in the menstrual cycle.

Doctors also draw blood once a month to determine if the woman's hormones are at the proper level. This is why some with abnormal bleeding or premenstrual cycle problems also use the system.

Stanford recently completed a study with 1,200 women in Ireland who were using the program to try to get pregnant. It worked for more than half of the women. Though the success rate is smaller than some earlier studies have shown, these women had infertility issues for more than five years and the average age of the women was 36.

"It was a very infertile group of people," he said.

The study is now being revised by a medical journal for publication, Stanford said.

Some couples are using the method instead of in vitro fertilization, or because that approach had not worked, he said. The natural approach is obviously less expensive than in vitro and gentler and less invasive on a woman's body, Stanford said. It also avoids ethical dilemmas some people experience after trying other procedures, he said.

Some who are trying to avoid pregnancy also have moral issues with birth control pills.

This was the case with Bracken, who used the method for a short time to avoid getting pregnant. She said she started learning about birth control and how some forms work by preventing an egg that has formed to implant into the uterus. This was sensitive for Bracken because of her miscarriages, some of which were very early.

"For me, it's too much of a baby, even though it's tiny," she said.

Others, like Cindy Behunin of Saratoga Springs, started the program to avoid pregnancy because of the hormonal effects of birth control. Behunin said her mood swings after she started using birth control scared her new husband.

"I became a monster. I was not a nice person," she said.

For three years now, the Behunins have used the program to avoid pregnancy. Now, she is ready to have a baby, she said.

Behunin liked the program so much that she now teaches couples and single women how to use it. Most in the area are using it to avoid pregnancy.

Behunin has been a fertility care practitioner intern since February. Though many she tells about the program think it won't work, Behunin said many studies have shown it to be as effective in avoiding a pregnancy as taking the pill.

"It is extremely reliable," she said.

Although the natural approach does involve abstinence at certain times during the cycle, Behunin said for many couples it helps their relationship to blossom because it opens the lines of communication and helps them to find other ways of showing their affection, rather than having sex.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.