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Catholic Weddings
confetticandle8
member
NFP is it for me?
So My FI and I just finished our last marriage prep class and in class we talked about NFP and I wanted to kind of getting other people's opinions about whether they like doing NFP or they prefer other types of contraceptives.
I am currently taking an oral contraceptive due to being diagnoised with menstral migraines over a year ago and I don't know if NFP will be good for me since I get migraines near my period.
I am currently taking an oral contraceptive due to being diagnoised with menstral migraines over a year ago and I don't know if NFP will be good for me since I get migraines near my period.
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Re: NFP is it for me?
After taking a class on NFP during marriage prep, doing some research on my own, I decided to try NFP. I charted for a while, and met with my doctor -- who happened to be Catholic and also charted for many, many cycles with success -- and she recommended all these non-hormonal ways to fix my problems.
B6 & B12 to help with the cramps. And magnesium supplements to help with the cluster headaches. She also identified that I had a very short luteal phase, which could make it hard when TTC (obviously, I can still get knocked up as seen in my ticker
The class I took with CCL gave me a book -- Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition -- by Marilyn Shannon. It has a lot of natural remedies to try to correct the problems.
I had severe uterine fibroid tumors. I had surgery to have over 100 removed, including some the size of a grapefruit.
My Dr. put me on hormonal birth control to slow their growth to help preserrve my fertility until after we were married.
He said that there was a good chance that if they had to do surgery again they may have to remove my uterus.
I know this is just one example. But don't be so quick to judge. For me the temporary inability to become pregnant is a side effect of a treatment to ultimately preserve my fertility.
About that time, I was dating this really great guy and things were starting to get serious. He, however, was adamant that, when we got married, we would use NFP, because that was the right thing to do. The issue was left unsettled for a long time between us. I was starting to think, though, that I was more interested in the guy than in the birth control. On the side, I started doing some research and soul searching.
I put the whole idea of NFP on my heart and told the Holy Spirit to go to work, do His thing, help me see His truth, whatever it was. I learned about the different methods and theories of NFP. I really focused on the science, because I think in my heart of hearts, I knew that my defensiveness was because God's way seems hard a lot of the time. In time, the beauty of the teaching really came to me. The more I learn about God's plan for sexuality, the more amazing it is.
I am married to the guy, by the way. We use NFP, even though I have a "difficult" chart, and am in the middle of getting things sorted out. He supports me 100% and we consider ourselves to be equal partners in OUR fertility.
I will be the first to recognize that we are not yet perfect at treating all things with non-BC treatments, but that is not because the BC is fixing the problems. It is because there are too few doctors/scientists who are investigating the answers. That said, I do think, from my research and my limited personal experience, that most (maybe not all) reproductive health disorders can be treated effectively without BC. It might not be as easy, but it will provide real, long-term solutions that will also preserve fertility.
Dagney, I'm sorry that you've had such a difficult experience. I will pray that things continue to go well for you in the future and that a non-BC solution can eventually be found.
She was trying to conceive for almost a year, and the doctor gave her until November to TTC naturally before moving to IVF (She is NOT Catholic, btw). She did NOT want to move to IVF, and would have rather adopted.
I recommended TCOYF, and she literally conceived naturally the month after reading the book. I don't know if the book helped, or if she just got lucky and God blessed her.
But I just wanted to let you know that there is still hope for you when you do want to have children. I understand that you need to be on BCP in order to make that a possibility someday -- my friend had the same situation.
I also just got off BCP about 2 months ago and am on my second cycle charting. My cycle used to be like clock work and now I have been having 40+ day cycles I will never go back on the pill. I originally went on the pill because I was diagnosed with cysts and I had to go the ER b/c I was in so much pain, riding in the car hurt! I have not had any pain since and wish I would have got off the pill sooner, because maybe that was just a one time thing, because since I have epilepsy my medication I take for that conteracted the pill's protection of getting pregnant anyway.
I find that knowing what your body does is very interesting and empowering almost.
This is just my opinion.
I've been taking oral contraceptives to help with 2 different medical contitions. I feel much better when I take the pill.
Migraines can be horribly painful and can affect your day to day life. I would have no problem using oral contraceptives in this situation. The good Lord has created this medication to help you feel better. I don't know that it would bother him/her if you used it.
[QUOTE]I've been taking oral contraceptives to help with 2 different medical contitions. I feel much better when I take the pill. Migraines can be horribly painful and can affect your day to day life. I would have no problem using oral contraceptives in this situation. <strong> The good Lord has created this medication to help you feel better.</strong> I don't know that it would bother him/her if you used it.
Posted by bbakerrd[/QUOTE]
God did not create contraception, man did. And it was not created to help you feel better it was created to sterilize sex. It was not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that man has done something contrary to God's plan.
Now, if you really truly believe that there is no other treatment for your medical conditions, I'm not here to tell you that you have to live in pain and discomfort, and agree that the Church is not asking this of you either, especially if you consider the nuances of its teaching on the BCP. I do, however, encourage you, like I encourage everyone with medical conditions, to consider a consultation with an NFP only doctor who might have some other options for you.
Even then, there are extremly difficult choices and cases out there and scads of theologians and professionals trying to sort out what is and is not right.
what about abortion? would you say that God wants us to do that because he allowed a man to not only come up with the concept but created men who would make it legal?