[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: Women eschewing abortifacient Pills

Wed Mar 26 07:10:23 MDT 2008

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 26 Mar 2008 AD

*

http://www.star-telegram.com/health/story/544002.html

Posted on Mon, Mar. 24, 2008

  Women turning to natural methods of birth control

By JULIE ONUFRAK
Columbia News Service

Amanda Zamani of Asheville, N.C., never really liked hormonal birth 
control and its effects on her body. She had a hard time remembering to 
take a birth-control pill at the same time every day, and she felt that 
the hormones exacerbated her emotional ups and downs.

"As a whole, I just try to avoid taking extra medications," said the 
mother of two toddlers. "I don't steer towards medicine as the first 
route for headaches or colds."

Fed up, she tried natural family planning. She took her temperature 
every morning before she got out of bed and monitored her body daily to 
determine when she was ovulating. But she used the method incorrectly, 
and in the course of two years had two unplanned pregnancies.

Then in 2006, she saw CycleBeads on sale at a health food store. A 
string of 32 color-coded beads, CycleBeads identify the 12 days in a 
woman's menstrual cycle during which she is likely to be fertile. Being 
aware of the days on which pregnancy is most likely can be helpful both 
for women who are looking to become pregnant -- and for women such as 
Zamani who are not.

Zamani, 25, now keeps her CycleBeads in her bathroom and moves the black 
ring that is used to track days onto the next bead each morning.

"It's very helpful," she said. "I'm not planning on changing."

*Deciding against the pill*

Zamani is part of a small but dedicated number of women who are 
practicing medication-free birth control with a clinically tested 
approach that is part of their desire to embrace a back-to-basics lifestyle.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most 
recent study on the use of contraception and family planning services in 
the United States, 0.7 percent of women were using the calendar/rhythm 
method in 2002, and 0.2 percent were using other natural family planning 
methods.

Though use of the rhythm method has declined over time, from 1.8 percent 
in 1982, other natural family planning methods have remained steady. 
CycleBeads work in conjunction with one of them, the Standard Days 
Method, which was created by the Institute for Reproductive Health at 
Georgetown University in 2002 and now has an estimated 50,000 users in 
the United States and more than half a million women around the world, 
according to IRH.

Over the years, natural methods have not been given much credence: As 
the old joke goes, "What do you call people who use the rhythm method? 
Parents." But the Standard Days Method is backed by research that shows 
it is 95 percent effective if used correctly, according to IRH.

That is still not as effective as methods such as the pill (which is 
more than 99 percent effective when used correctly, according to Planned 
Parenthood), but for many women, natural family planning is a lifestyle 
choice beyond just birth control.

"I want to be connected to my body and know how I'm feeling," said Suran 
Thrift, a freelance writer in Los Angeles, noting that her decision to 
use CycleBeads was "part of an overall desire to educate myself more 
about my health and alternative means to health."

*Learning about cycles*

IRH set out to create a natural method that was based on research. It 
took data of more than 7,500 menstrual cycles obtained from the World 
Health Organization and calculated the probability of pregnancy on 
different cycle days, coming up with a formula that provided maximum 
protection, while minimizing the number of days of avoiding unprotected 
intercourse.

The Standard Days Method has a longer window of consecutive days of 
possible fertility than most other natural methods, and it works only 
for the estimated 80 percent of women who have regular cycles of 26 to 
32 days. But with perfect use, it is effective 95 percent of the time, 
according to a study done by IRH. It has been particularly popular in 
developing nations.

"To our surprise, people in other settings where family planning was 
readily available, there was a spark of interest there as well," said 
the IRH director, Dr. Victoria Jennings. "There has become more interest 
in a method that works with your body and that maybe helps you learn 
something about your body, as opposed to a method that suppresses your 
body's normal function."

Methods like the pill and intrauterine device have proved to be safe and 
effective, but some women do experience side effects like nausea or 
emotional ups and downs with the pill and cramps or backaches with the 
IUD. But what confounds experts like Dr. Rebekah Gee, an 
obstetrician/gynecologist and clinical scholar at the University of 
Pennsylvania, is the lack of knowledge among women concerning what is 
happening inside the body.

"It's amazing what women don't know about their bodies and their 
cycles," Gee said. "Anything that they can use that helps them better 
understand their cycles and when they're at risk for getting pregnant is 
a good thing."

"I think even when my daughter is old enough and starts her cycle, I 
would get them for her," Amanda Zamani said of CycleBeads. "Just to be 
aware of her cycle better than I was when I was younger."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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