(Part 1)

When I was 13 years old I was put on the birth control pill for extremely heavy periods. The doctor told me that because my mom had endometriosis I probably did too, so the pill would be my only way to have kids in the future. (I’ve learned how incredibly false that statement is since then.) I didn’t really have an issue being on the pill and had no crazy side effects. I knew that once I got married I would have a moral dilemma, since the pill can cause an early abortion. Because of that, I was always open to what other options were out there.

I first heard about Natural Family Planning Methods when I was in college. Our small group was reading Theology of the Body for Beginners by Christopher West. Until then, I had no idea that the Creighton Model existed or that there were doctors trained in this method. I didn’t know that there were doctors who never prescribed contraception but instead found the root cause of the problem and fixed it. I still believed that I needed to be on the pill, because that’s what my doctor told me, but kept the Creighton Model in mind for the future.

When my husband and I got engaged we both knew we wanted to use a Natural Family Planning method to plan our family and decided to go with the Creighton Model since we figured I already had fertility issues. We began learning the method 7 months before our wedding.

During this time my chart’s patterns indicated that I potentially had some reproductive health issues. I had no idea what a NaProTechnology doctor was and went to my NFP friendly doctor instead. He ran a few tests and diagnosed me with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

During this time my chart’s patterns indicated that I potentially had some reproductive health issues. I had no idea what a NaProTechnology doctor was and went to my NFP friendly doctor instead. He ran a few tests and diagnosed me with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome but really didn’t do much to help my cycles. The doctor did put me on Metformin but my body couldn’t handle it so I decided to try an Insulin Resistance diet instead and stopped taking Metformin.

A few months after my husband and I got married I decided to become a FertilityCare Practitioner and began my training at the Pope Paul the VI Institute. It was during my time there that I learned I had a lot of other concerning patterns in my chart that were not being addressed.

I began different supplementation’s to try to fix those patterns and after a few months began to see some improvement! My husband and I then decided we’d change our intention from using the system to avoid pregnancy to achieve and were so blessed to become pregnant with John Paul.

When we got pregnant, I knew that my chart indicated I potentially had low progesterone. I went to our local NaPro doctor right away to get my levels tested. Turns out I was indeed pretty low and needed supplementation until about 30 weeks of pregnancy.

We are very grateful for the Creighton Model and NaProTechnology! Had we not had the insight to fix some of my reproductive issues early on in charting, we often wonder how long it would have taken to get pregnant. We are also grateful because without knowing about my low progesterone, statistically John Paul probably would not be with us today.

You can catch Part 2 here!

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Author: Kristin Dvorsky is the Certified FertilityCare Practitioner and founder of Faustina FertiltyCare Center. She is incredibly passionate about helping women receive the level of healthcare they deserve! You can reach Kristin at Kristin@FaustinaCare.com