Natural Family Planning: Nature's Way - God's Way


37. Each Natural Method Has Its Own Conditions of Application

After about twenty years of study and experience in the field of natural methods, I can draw the following conclusions. I believe that valid and effective family planning by means of the natural methods alone is always possible, provided that one is able to use, in certain particular situations, different natural methods in combination.

In fact, each method has its own features in showing, through the interpretation and use of a specific biological phenomenon (such as the menstrual flow, a rise in the BBT, or the cervical mucus), the presence of physiological factors of fertility and sterility. These features are, at the same time, the specific character and the limit of each method.

Then, only by recognizing the limits or the conditions of application of each method, it becomes possible to use them always according to their maximum degree of effectiveness. It goes without saying that for each method there is always the possibility of a satisfactory solution of natural family planning, even though limited to favorable circumstances.

The same is true for the cervical mucus method. As for my personal experience with this particular method, I can say that it cannot be considered as a rule that every woman in every situation can apply.

Any absolute approach to this subject or generalization decreases the possibilities of recognizing in the biological phenomenon of the cervical mucus a valid clinical test indicating the presence of possible fertility in the woman.

As the structure and biological function of the cervical mucus become more definite, 2 it appears clear that this mucus secretion cannot be seen as a sign or a symptom indicating ovulation, but rather as a factor in possible fertility or in sperm penetration.

In this perspective, more scientific and more in conformity with the real nature and function of cervical mucus, the definition of the conditions of application or use of the cervical mucus as a method of natural family planning acquires a considerable significance.

The cervical mucus, verified as leucorrhoea as it appears when it comes out at the vulva, can be used as a unique and natural family planning method only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

Beyond the above-mentioned conditions of application of this method, the cervical mucus always remains a valid clinical sign, but it has to be associated with other clinical tests and signs of fertility.


Notes

  1. "1 metodi naturali: Ii punti di verifica" [The natural methods: The points of verification] , ed. Centro Studi Pavese di Sessuologia. Pavia, 1978.
  2. See "La Coppia," bimonthly review of married-life sexology, No. 68, 1980, ed. Centro Studi Pavese di Sessuologia.

by Gabriele Bonomi, M.D.

Curriculum Vitae: Gabriele Bonomi, born in 1927, a degree in medicine, specialist in Constitutional Medicine and Endocrinology, married, with three children. He bas been studying for 18 years the problems of natural family planning. He founded and runs a Center of Studies of Sexology in Pavia (Italy) with a bimonthly review, La Coppia. In particular he studies and verifies the cervical mucus in its practical application to family planning in a different light than the Billings ovulation method.


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