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Natural Family Planning - No Pills, Creams or Injections

By Tracee Cornforth, About.com

Updated: December 7, 2003

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

Is there any sort of family planning or birth control where you don't have to take pills, apply any products, or receive any implants or injections?

For many reasons, religious and health, some couples use fertility awareness as their main method of contraception. Also known as natural family planning or periodic abstinence, fertility awareness means abstinence (no sexual intercourse) on the days of a woman's menstrual cycle when she could become pregnant, or using a barrier method of birth control on those days.

Because a sperm may live in the female's reproductive tract for up to seven days and the egg remains fertile for about 24 hours, a woman can get pregnant within a substantial window of time--from seven days before ovulation to three days after. Methods to approximate when a woman is fertile are usually based on the menstrual cycle, changes in cervical mucus, or changes in body temperature, or over the counter ovulation detection kits.

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Adapted from the United States Office on Women's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services

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