NaProTechnology Canada

NaProTechnology, or Natural Procreative Technology, is a method endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church to help infertile couples conceive. Although the method was designed in response to teaching of Pope Paul VI on abortion and birth control, NaProTechnology appeals to many non-Catholic couples as a system that always recommends the simplest and least expensive intervention needed to help couples trying to conceive.

NaProTechnology always focuses on normal sexual intercourse as the method to conceive. Sometimes all that is needed is greater attention to the details of sex, such as the menstrual cycle and the quality of cervical mucus. Women are not fertile all the time. A woman releases an egg only at ovulation, usually occurring about the midpoint of the menstrual period. The egg has to be fertilized within about three days after release, which means there is only about a five-day window of fertility each month. Couples have to have sex at the right time, and the sperm has to be able to reach the egg. Thin, "springy" cervical mucus transports the sperm farther. Sometimes achieving the right consistency of the cervical mucus is just a matter of hydration, drinking more water. A greater volume of semen results in a higher sperm count.

Men who abstain from ejaculation for one to four days before intercourse timed to conceive a child are more likely to become fathers. Even in couples who have various medical diagnoses related to infertility, these very, very simple interventions may be enough to get pregnant. If simpler interventions fail, NaProTechnology goes through a series of interventions to help couples conceive. There can be hormone treatments, especially for women who have "dry" periods. There can be referrals to the OB-GYN to treat pelvic adhesions, polycystic ovarian disease, or endometriosis. At every step of the system, however, it is the couple who are in charge of fertility, not the doctors. The doctors only treat the diseases that get in the way of the couple's choices about the timing of children.

Surgical interventions are only recommended under unusual circumstances, and NaProTechnology practitioners will recommend adoption rather than in vitro fertilization. But adoption is usually not recommended. Up to 83 per cent of couples with problems such as anovulation, PCOS, and endometriosis eventually conceive. Nearly 100 per cent of couples who turn to NaProTechnology for supportive care only conceive in the first year. In Canada, the Margarite Bourgeois Family Center in Toronto can refer to Canadians to physicians trained in NaProTechnology techniques. Many of the expenses of treatment are paid by HealthCanada.