Fertility Awareness
What is Fertility Awareness? Fertility Awareness allows you to prevent pregnancy without using any drugs or devices. Natural Family Planning (NFP) is another name for Fertility Awareness. What makes Fertility Awareness unique? Fertility awareness differs from other types of birth control. Birth control prevents sperm from meeting eggs. Most birth control must be used each time you have sex. Fertility awareness tells you when you are most likely to become pregnant. These are your fertile days. Fertility awareness requires you to avoid vaginal sex on your fertile days. Things to Know Fertility awareness does NOT require you to use pills or condoms or to have devices in your body. Fertility awareness is a safe method of birth control. Fertility awareness is acceptable to some religions that oppose birth control. Fertility awareness does NOT protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STI). You cannot have vaginal sex on fertile days. Fertility awareness methods do not work if you do not have regular periods. Infections and some medications can cause changes in vaginal mucus, making some fertility awareness methods harder to use. Unprotected anal, oral, and vaginal sex may raise your chances of getting HIV or other STIs. Withdrawal and avoiding vaginal sex can be used as backup methods during your fertile days. Important Terms Period – the days of your menstrual cycle when you have vaginal bleeding. Menstrual Cycle – the length of time between the start of one period and the next. You ovulate (release an egg) in the middle of your menstrual cycle. You are most fertile on the days around ovulation. This is when you are most likely to become pregnant. Vaginal Sex – Vaginal intercourse (the penis in the vagina) can lead to pregnancy. Kissing, touching, anal sex, and oral sex do not cause pregnancy. Fertile Days – the days when you are most likely to get pregnant. To avoid pregnancy, you should not have vaginal sex on your fertile days. The number of days depends on the method used.
How Well It Works*
Method
What You Do
Fertile Days
Things to Know
Basal Body Temperature (BBT) Method
80% You take your
From the day your temperature drops until 3 days after it rises
Low cost You must buy a basal body temperature thermometer. You must take your temperature each day. You can’t have vaginal sex on your fertile days. Fertility awareness methods do not work if you do not have regular periods.
temperature each morning before getting out of bed. Your temperature will rise by about 1/2 a degree when you ovulate.
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Reproductive Health Access Project / July 2021
www.reproductiveaccess.org
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