A new study suggests that couples who use natural family planning methods have sex just as often as couples who use other contraceptive methods -- they just time it differently. Natural family planning methods enable women to identify the days of their cycle when they are most fertile. If they don't want to become pregnant, couples should avoid unprotected sex during these fertile days. "Because those who use natural family planning methods need to avoid unprotected sex for several days each month, many people believe that these methods require great self control. This is simply not the case," said Victoria Jennings, director of Georgetown University's Institute for Reproductive Health, which conducted the study. "This study confirms that couples using natural family planning have intercourse just as frequently as couples using other methods." The researchers found that couples who use natural family planning methods to prevent pregnancy engage in more frequent sex before and after the fertile time and have less sex during fertile days. The findings are published in the online edition of the Journal of Biosocial Science and will be published in an upcoming print edition. "It's important that the health care community let women know that these methods are available, growing in popularity, and that users continue to be satisfied with them. If couples using fertility awareness-based family planning methods were having less sex, this would probably not be the case," said Dr. Marcos Arevalo, one of the study's authors.
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This page contains a single entry by alicia published on October 12, 2005 12:01 AM.
In search of perfection? was the previous entry in this blog.
did you ever wonder is the next entry in this blog.
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this is a quote
I would not use the phrase 'unprotected sex'. I would say 'any genital contact'.
Despite being in the 'single state', I have to say that I find this article encouraging.
God Bless.
Thanks for linking to that! Interesting...
--Amanda
OK, this article is totally wrong! According to MY calculations, THIS NFP-using couple has.......MORE sex than the average contraception-using couple. Yes, yes, it is because my GR and I really try to (ahem) make good use of our non-fertile times. If you averaged it all out, it would probably average out to every-other day, whereas I have read before that the average couple (I'm assuming they are contraception-using) has intercourse about once a week.
Oh, was that too much information? ;)
I think dh and I have more. Because there's some excitement in the game of it.
I was thinking of commenting along similar lines but wasn't sure how prudent it was. When you listen to Janet Smith's (near infamous) Contraception, Why Not? tape, she mentions similar scenarios amoung NFP couples.
My wife was talking with another woman our age who got married about the same time we did — ~16 years ago. I recall clearly early in our marriage when we said we were going to practice NFP and how the Church said contraception was illicit, the friend's husband made fairly strong statements about how the Church should "stay out of the bedroom" and "merely putting on a condom can't make sex a sin". You've probably heard similar.
Flash forward to a few years ago when my wife was again talking with this woman about NFP and how it really works. At some point she pulled out her booklet of records (charts). Amongst discussions about thermal shifts and such, the friend noticed that little row on the chart that showed days that had (ahem) marital congress. My wife recalled her eyes opened quite wide. "Did you really... all those days?!"
I say this not to brag. I think it was just that after several years of marriage, they lost interest. When my wife told me how seldom they did embrace, it was my eyes that bulged. "Really? That's it?!"
I think when you sterilize the embrace, to some extent you sterilize the desire, the urge, the meaning. In contrast, in a small way, I think NFP'ers experience a mini-honeymoon every month.
Like Philothea Rose above, perhaps "that was too much information?"
Natural Family Planning couples have sex just as frequently??? My wife and I have been married for almost eight years now. She is on the pill while we decide if we're going to have a child or not (most likely not, yay!) We generally have sex twice a day on average about 6 days a week. NFP couples have that much sex???
To be read in your best Steve Irwin (aka The Crocodile Hunter) voice:
Riiight! What we have here is the extremely rare Black Bearded Dutch Internet Troll in its native blog commenting habitat. They are rare because they have high rates of infertility. Stand back as I try to feed this troll. Shhh! This could be dangerous!
Sinjin writes:
Only twice!? My goodness Man! Doesn't your employer offer you a lunch break? Oh! The inhumanity!
Ahh. It's good to see you're observing a Day of Rest(TM). Your pastor would be proud.
Beware! If you do have a child, the several weeks of abstinance after delivery could cause DSB — Deadly Semen Buildup. It's another reason why the Black Bearded Dutch Internet Troll is so rare and their population demographics are fading.
Scott, I just laughed myself silly. :-)
Maybe I could add in that if NFP couples have as much intercourse as the BBDIT does, that means during phase III we indulge five times a day (and six times on Sunday). That evens things out nicely.