NFP brings appreciation of how fertility cycle works

By Tim Puet
For The Catholic Times

Meghan Henschen said practicing Natural Family Planning (NFP) has given her an appreciation of what is happening during her fertility cycle that she could have obtained in no other way.

“It’s given me a great sense of empowerment,” she said. “Knowing and understanding how the cycle works and having my husband, Matt, cooperate with me as we track it each month has made me more grateful for God’s gift of creation and has brought us closer together.”

Meghan, 32, and Matt, 35, have been married five years, have a 6-month-old son, Isaac, and are members of New Albany Church of the Resurrection. Matt works for an engineering consultant firm,  and Meghan is employed part-time in the Pontifical College Josephinum’s business office.

“I’d known about NFP since college and began practicing it once we were married,” she said. “I wanted conception to occur naturally, without any type of medicine affecting it, and I wanted to be in alignment with the Catholic Church’s teachings.”

At first, the couple practiced the sympto-thermal method of NFP, which uses body temperature and other signs and symptoms of ovulation to determine when a woman is most likely to be fertile during her monthly fertility cycle.

The couple used the method as a way to prevent pregnancy during the first year or so of their marriage and then began trying to conceive a child and were unsuccessful during the next three years. 
“Eventually, we decided to see a NaPro physician to see if he could help,” Meghan Henschen said. “That was the best decision we could have made, because the goal of NaPro technology is to find problems that may be preventing pregnancy and attempt to fix them, rather than force the body to do something it doesn’t want to do.”

NaPro stands for Natural Procreative Technology, which was developed more than 30 years ago at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. NaPro physicians work with couples practicing the Creighton NFP method, which relies upon the standardized observation and charting of biological markers that are essential to a woman’s health and fertility. One of the most important of these markers is the quantity, quality and texture of a woman’s cervical mucus during her cycle.

“Our obstetrician-gynecologist in Columbus wasn’t a NaPro doctor,” Henschen said. “She said we would need either NaPro technology or supervision of an in vitro fertilization specialist for a successful pregnancy. Since the Catholic Church is opposed to the in vitro method, we knew it would have to be NaPro for us. She recommended a practitioner in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who has since moved his practice to Steubenville,” Henschen said.   

“The NaPro doctor asked a lot of questions and determined I needed surgery to see if I had endometriosis,” in which tissue that grows inside the uterus also grows outside the uterus, causing considerable pain and discomfort, Henschen said. 

“The surgery found some cyst-like fibers in my womb, which were removed, but no endometrioisis,” she said. “About eight months later, I learned I was pregnant with Isaac. This could not have happened without the understanding of my doctor and the knowledge I gained in my efforts to conceive.

“We’re not thinking of having a sibling for Isaac just yet. I took a few years to have him, and it may take another few years before a brother or sister is born. NFP gives Matt and I the chance each month to choose how to deal with my fertility cycle in a way that’s acceptable to Catholic teaching,” Henschen said.

“To other couples facing the same situation as we did and wondering what to do, I would say that you’re never guaranteed to have a child, but don’t lose hope. We’re an example that you never know what’s going to happen, and that the more you know about the fertility cycle, the better you can handle the situation.”

For more information on NFP and NaPro technology, contact the Marriage and Family Life Office of the Diocese of Columbus at (614) 241-2560.