Hesperian Health Guides
Natural family planning
HealthWiki > A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities > Chapter 9: Family planning > Natural family planning
A woman can get pregnant only during her fertile time when an egg comes from her ovary into her tubes and womb—about once a month. To use natural family planning, you must watch your body’s signs to understand when you are fertile. During the fertile time you and your partner must not have sexual intercourse without using some other form of family planning. At these times, you can try other types of sex, such as oral sex or sexual touching. Or you can prevent pregnancy by using condoms or a diaphragm during the fertile time.
Natural family planning does not work well for women who do not have control over when they have sex. During your fertile times, your partner must be willing to use condoms or a diaphragm, or not have sexual intercourse. This method usually works best when couples receive training before using it.
If you recently gave birth or had an abortion, do not use these methods until your cycles are regular for several months.
There are many ways to use natural family planning. In this book we talk about the mucus method and the counting days method. These methods work best when they are both used together. But one method alone is better than nothing.
Natural family planning does not protect against HIV/AIDS or other STIs.
Contents
The mucus method
With the mucus method, you have to check the mucus from your vagina every day to see if you are fertile. On your fertile days, the mucus is stretchy and slimy, like raw egg.
To check the mucus, wipe your vagina with a clean finger, paper, or cloth. Then look or feel for mucus.
| Clear, wet, slippery mucus comes during the fertile time. Do not have sexual intercourse. |  |
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White, dry, sticky mucus (or no mucus) comes during other times of the month. It is probably OK to have sexual intercourse 2 days after the first dry day. |
| After 2 or 3 months of practice, you can easily recognize these changes in your mucus. | |||
- Check the mucus at the same time every day. Check before having sex.
- Do not have sexual intercourse on any day you feel slippery mucus. Or use a condom or diaphragm on those days.
- Do not have sexual intercourse until 2 days after the last day you have clear, slippery mucus.
- Do not douche or wash out the vagina at any time. This will wash the mucus away.
Use another method of family planning if you have a vaginal infection, or if you are not sure whether it is a fertile time. The mucus method works best when it is used with another method, like the counting days method.
The counting days method
With the counting days method, a woman does not have sexual intercourse during any time she might be fertile. This method can be used only by women with regular cycles. This means you have nearly the same number of days from one monthly bleeding to the next, and each cycle is at least 26 days, and no more than 32 days.
If you have one cycle of a different length, you can easily get pregnant. It is common for a woman to have a cycle of a different length when she is sick or feeling a lot of stress. During those times, it is best for you to use a different family planning method until you are well and your cycle returns to normal.
How to use the counting days method
For this method to work, you cannot have sexual intercourse from the 8th day of your cycle through the 19th day of your cycle. If you have sexual intercourse during this time, you must use another method of family planning.
You can use beads, a chart, or some other tool to remember your fertile days. String 32 beads, of 3 different colors, into a necklace. Each color bead can represent a different part of your cycle.
On the first day of your monthly bleeding, put a ring or string around the red bead. Each day, move the ring past one bead. When the ring is on any of the white beads, you may get pregnant if you have sexual intercourse. Whenever you start your next monthly bleeding, move the ring back to the red bead at the start.
You may be able to buy a necklace like this called CycleBeads.
monthly bleeding
For the counting days method, you can also make a chart with 32 sections— 1 for each day of your cycle. Mark off each day on the chart to remember when you can become pregnant.
Sex without intercourse
There are many ways to have sex that do not cause pregnancy. Oral sex (mouth on genitals) and sexual touch (touching the genitals or other parts of the body) are both sexual activities that many couples enjoy. They have very low risk of passing HIV/AIDS and other STIs, and they cannot cause pregnancy. Anal sex also cannot cause pregnancy, although HIV/AIDS and other STIs can pass very easily this way.
Avoiding all sexual intercourse is the most sure way to prevent pregnancy and can be a good way to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS and other STIs. Not having sexual intercourse may be very difficult for couples to practice for a long time.
Pulling out (withdrawal)
In this method, a man pulls his penis out of the woman's vagina and away from her genitals before he ejaculates. This helps to prevent sperm from getting inside the vagina.
This method can work almost as well as the barrier methods, if the man can pull out in time. But often men leak semen before they ejaculate. A man may not be able to pull out before the semen comes. Or he may not want to. This means the woman may get pregnant. This method is more effective when the man passes urine before sex, and when it is combined with another method like spermicide or a diaphragm.