New Approaches to Fertility Awareness‐Based Methods: Incorporating the Standard Days and TwoDay Methods into Practice

Abstract

Helping clients select and use appropriate family planning methods is a basic component of midwifery care. Many women prefer nonhormonal, nondevice methods, and may be interested in methods that involve understanding their natural fertility. Two new fertility awareness-based methods, the Standard Days Method and the TwoDay Method, meet the need for effective, easy-to-provide, easy-to-use approaches. The Standard Days Method is appropriate for women with most menstrual cycles between 26 and 32 days long. Women using this method are taught to avoid unprotected intercourse on potentially fertile days 8 through 19 of their cycles to prevent pregnancy. They use CycleBeads, a color-coded string of beads representing the menstrual cycle, to monitor their cycle days and cycle lengths. The Standard Days Method is more than 95% effective with correct use. The TwoDay Method is based on the presence or absence of cervical secretions to identify fertile days. To use this method, women are taught to note everyday whether they have secretions. If they had secretions on the current day or the previous day, they consider themselves fertile. The TwoDay Method is 96% effective with correct use. Both methods fit well into midwifery practice.

<p>Knowledge of the Ovulatory Period and Associated Factors Among Reproductive Women in Ethiopia: A Population-Based Study Using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey</p>

“…Despite the availability of more effective natural family planning methods like the standard days method, two days method, DOT fertility app, and others, health care workers are not adequately trained to provide natural family planning services to patients. 11 , 12 , 19…”

Basal Temperature, Cervical Mucous, and Both Combination as Diagnostic Tools to Detect Ovulation

“…[2][3][4] The gold standard to detect ovulation is through ultrasound; however, there is another simple, cheap, and easy to use method to detect by herself, namely basal temperature assessment. [5][6][7] This examination is greatly influenced by hormonal change. 8 The increase of 0.2°C basal temperature occurs since the raise of progesterone level due to corpus luteum formation in ovulation.…”

Mathematical modeling of basal body temperature influence on menstrual cycle, length of sleep, and stress levels as detection of fertile period (ovulation) in women

“…Basal body temperature can be said to be the temperature condition achieved by the body when resting, sleeping, or not doing any activity (Barron & Fehring, 2005). The optimum standard for detecting ovulation is through ultrasound; however, there is another simple, inexpensive, and easy-to-use method of self-detection, namely the assessment of basal temperature (Zinaman, 2006;Germano & Jennings, 2006;Pyper and Knight, 2001). This examination is strongly influenced by hormonal changes.…”