The Creighton Model is the most contemporary and effective form of Natural Fertility Management available today. It is a highly reliable form of family planning that works in harmony with your body.  

 

Founded on a deep respect for human fertility, this medically based model has evolved through more than 25 years of research by Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist Dr Thomas Hilgers and his research team in the USA. It relies upon the biological markers or ‘signs’ that are essential to human fertility.

 

These biological signs tell couples specifically when they are fertile or infertile during the cycle, as well as indicate various gynaecolgical abnormalities.

 

The Creighton Model does not involve any barriers, chemical hormones, physical devices or any surgical techniques to suppress or interfere with fertility. It harnesses the female body’s capacity to regulate fertility naturally.

 

Once you know exactly what days you can become pregnant, you have 2 options

Women are taught to make observations on a regular daily basis as part of routine hygiene when visiting the toilet.  After a few cycles, these observations become second nature.  They are easy to learn and understand with the assistance of a FertilityCare™ Practitioner, a trained affiliated professional who can teach couples how to monitor their signs of fertility accurately and reliably.  This information can be used to either achieve or avoid a pregnancy as the couple wishes.   

 

FertilityCare™ Practitioners provide Introductory Sessions at your convenience. These sessions teach you about normal cyclical fertility, when ovulation occurs and how to begin tracking the biological markers of fertility.  This knowledge empowers women and couples to understand and manage fertility in a way appropriate to their present need.

 

The Creighton Model is 99.5% method effective when used to avoid pregnancy (Creighton Model NaProEducation Technology for avoiding pregnancy: use effectiveness; J Reprod Med 1998; 43: 495-502). This is as effective as the oral contraceptive pill, and more effective that barrier methods of contraception. 

 

Since it is not strictly a method of contraception but rather a method of true family planning, it can also be used to achieve pregnancy by simply reversing its use. When used to achieve pregnancy, approx 76% of couples with normal fertility conceive in the first cycle of use and 98% within 6 months.

 

What distinguishes the Creighton Model from all other natural methods is that it is far more than a method of family planning. It is part of a FertilityCare™ programme that teaches couples how to ‘care’ for their fertility and is a critical tool in assessing and treating infertility, miscarriage and gynaecological or reproductive abnormalities. It can play a key role in the early detection and prevention of gynaecological problems.

 

There are significant advantages which the Creighton Model FertilityCare™ System offers over contraceptive approaches. Couples are empowered with the knowledge to understand when cyclical fertility is present and when it is not.  Using this information they learn to understand and respect their fertility and appreciate that this is a normal part of health and not some disease process that needs to be suppressed or controlled. If it is the couple’s intention to avoid pregnancy couples selectively use days of infertility for intercourse. Whilst avoiding intercourse during the limited fertile phase, many couples who use the system describe a deepening experience of the other aspects of their relationship. As communication is enhanced, couples learn to express affection in ways other than only genital intercourse. When the days of infertility return, couples often experience a new excitement and attraction with genital contact, and this is often described as the “honeymoon effect”.  

 

 

The new fertility awareness that flows from the use of the system encourages new and deeper levels of understanding for couples. Family planning becomes a shared responsibility and couples determine together the times of fertility and infertility within the cycles.

 

Many couples today complain of sexual boredom and with the use of the Creighton Model, this rarely happens.  In fact, couple’s report new depths of ‘non-genital’ expression of their love. Women often report feeing more loved because men are willing to take an active interest in their reproductive health and work at building their relationship holistically.  Men often find that the system enhances their ability to be tender and loving in a deeper way which may not happen if their wives were constantly available for genital intercourse.

 

In today’s climate where one couple out of every six will experience difficulty conceiving, this system has tremendous advantages–especially for newlyweds who have made the decision to postpone childbearing during the early years of marriage. 

 

If a couple are tracking their signs of fertility we can identify very specific biomarkers, which give an indication of reduced fertility potential or increased risk of miscarriage.  If specific abnormal signs are identified on the fertility chart, the FertilityCare™ Practitioner can inform the couple and advise them to attend a specially trained NaProTechnology Medical Consultant to scientifically evaluate their fertility and possibly prevent a miscarriage even before they try to conceive. 

 

This is very new and advanced thinking in the area of reproductive health that generally does not consider miscarriage a problem until the couple have had three. Regarding infertility, early treatment offers the best chance of success. If there are signs of reduced fertility, couples can make a more informed decision regarding when they would like to try to conceive based on their individual fertility chart.