Fertility awareness pays off

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
July 12, 2007

Some couples use Natural Family Planning to avoid pregnancy during fertile times and others use it to help them identify the time when they are most likely to conceive.

For Carol and Brad Keenan, when they married in 1999 they started to try to conceive. Carol noted that after a few years, many tests and one month of Clomid they were blessed with a son, Liam in May of 2002.

"When he was 9 months old, February of 2003, knowing that we had already struggled, we started trying again," she said.

About a year later, they were referred to a fertility specialist in Omaha. That doctor prescribed a drug for a problem in which Carol knew she did not have and her frustration grew.

It was Carol's mother who saw information about Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha on EWTN. The TV program spoke of research by Dr. Tom Hilgers, an obstetrician-gynecologist, who specializes in difficult reproductive medical cases, infertility and high-risk obstetrics. He is the founder and director of the Pope Paul VI Institute, which is dedicated to helping couples to achieve pregnancy and regulate births using methods compatible with Catholic teaching. The institute also helps women with a variety of gynecological issues.

"I had never heard of the institute before," noted Carol, who noted that her knowledge about Natural Family Planning in general was limited. "So often when you think of Natural Family Planning or any type of family planning, most people think of avoiding getting pregnant."

Since that time, she has learned a great deal.

Carol, who is the Claims/Risk Manager for Catholic Mutual Group - Sioux City Diocese, initially learned the charting system in Sioux City and eventually was referred to Dr. Hilgers.

She was impressed with his expertise and background. By looking at her charting and blood work, the doctor was confident that she had endometriosis.

"Any woman who is going through fertility issues, every month you are waiting for your period not to start and then when it does it is a crushing blow. But with this I just knew," she said.

Through charting and identifying the signs of fertility, it helped determine when the time was right. The Creighton Model Fertility Care System is based on the external observation of cervical mucus as a sign of fertility.

"For me, there wasn't much mucus so my window of opportunity was extremely narrow due to hormones and endometriosis," she said.

Carol was scheduled for a laparoscopy to remove the endometriosis in September of 2005, but just before that the couple conceived. That pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage at about six weeks. She had the laparoscopy in February, 2006 and during the recovery period was placed on a cocktail of drugs including Clomid, amoxicillan, musinex and HCG.

The Keenans second son, Aiden, was born in December of 2006.

She said she is convinced that using NFP helped her conceive because she was more in tune with her body.

In addition to being in line with the Catholic Church, Carol said she likes the fact that with this type of family planning the woman does not have to have foreign substances in their bodies.

With a family plan of two, Carol mentioned that now they will use the method to avoid pregnancy.

Whether people are having fertility issues or not, she would encourage women to learn this process. Even unmarried women, she noted, would benefit in knowing this because they would get to know their own bodies better and therefore it could help them spot any potential health problems.