Unbearable: Napro Technology, The Vatican-Approved Infertility Treatment That Recommends Adoption

Having a child is usually a happy time in a woman’s life. Unfortunately, as we wait longer to have children, infertility and trouble conceiving can become a part of the family making process. Unbearable addresses these difficulties.

Almost two years ago now, back before I started speaking to doctors or even writing a column online about my struggles with infertility, I kept a notebook. As a writer, I’m sure you would assume that it was filled with words of frustration and inspirational quotes. Can’t you just imagine me walking around with messages of encouragement and doodling pictures of rattles to help myself cope with this intensely difficult process?

But that’s not what my fun little notebook was for. It didn’t have written reactions to every negative test or reminders of when to take vitamins. That little notebook was filled with times, temperatures and symptoms. It has “S” for the days I started my period. “E” designates the day it ended. “O” would mean that I had started ovulating. Astericks are there whenever we “had an attempt.” Yes, I’m telling you that I tracked every time my husband and I had sex. For almost two years now. No, you may not ask what that number is.

I learned more about my cycle and my body during this process than I ever really thought I would need to know. And let me tell you, once you start tracking your own cervical mucus, you feel pretty “in touch” with your own reproductive system.

Now, after all of this effort tracking and testing and still no baby in sight, I decided to start speaking to medical professionals. From my own OB-GYN to actual fertility clinics, I went a quest for other possible issues and solutions. These included blood tests for both my husband and myself. His sperm was checked for viability. I went through a couple other fun diagnostic experiences. But before any of those further steps were taken, every doctor I spoke to talked to me about tracking my fertility, what I had found and what else I could do.

On every step of this journey, my doctors and I have tracked my body’s progress and it’s signs. My doctors have decided that my husband and I, like 20% of all couples who can’t seem to get pregnant, have unexplained infertility. We aren’t getting pregnant and there’s no medical explanation as to why.

Flash forward and suddenly I’m immersed in the world of charting and cervical mucus all over again. After a couple sales pitches in the Unbearable comments sections, I decided to look into Napro Technology. It’s the natural reproductive solution that claims to be two to three times more effective than in vitro fertilization. It’s also the Vatican-approved approach to growing your family, deemed ethical by the Pope because it leaves all the sexy-time between husband and wife, without any artificial insemination or in vitro.

So what is this miracle procedure? How does this method that many people have never heard of claim to be 79% effective, even after women have had repetitive miscarriages? Why isn’t everyone trying it?

Well, I would love to answer those questions. Really, I would.

I tried to bring you those answers, by interviewing doctors who practice Napro Technology. Three different doctors, to be exact. Each and every one of them read me a script brought to you from this website on Napro Technology, no matter what I asked or how I asked it. Then they never got back to me to approve their quotes to be used in my piece.

I tried researching, spent hours looking online at information on natural procreative technology. I learned that it is widely regarded in the religious community and connected to the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, which is a form of natural family planning created by Dr. Thomas Hilgers.

What I couldn’t find was any peer-reviewed research in non-Catholic medical journals. For a method that claims remarkable results, I saw some happy testimonies and a whole lot of charts. Charts that look exceedingly familiar to a woman whose been charting her reproductive system for almost two years.

The stated goals of Napro Technology read a little like this:

A NaProTECHNOLOGY approach to the infertile couple has the following goals:

It works towards assessing the underlying causes of the reproductive abnormality.

It allows for the treatment of these underlying causes.
It assists the couple in achieving pregnancy while maintaining the natural acts of procreation.
If the treatment program is unsuccessful, research into the unknown causes is undertaken.
If medically unsuccessful, the program will assist with successful family building by being supportive of adoption.

As someone who has been through this wonderful rollercoaster of trying to conceive, “assessing the underlying causes” sounds a lot like charting my ovulation cycle to make sure I’m operating as I should be. If you can’t find an underlying cause, there’s little to treat.

I’m not quite sure how they plan to help my husband and I with our “natural acts” but let’s assume that the Catholic church wouldn’t support anything too invasive. Either way, once it doesn’t work, I would guess that Napro’s research looks a whole lot like my fertility clinic’s diagnostics.

Basically, these first four steps would’ve gotten me to the place I was months ago with my doctors, sitting down trying to decide if I wanted to further pursue artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization. Except where my doctor presented me with more possible options for conceiving a child, Napro Technology would assist me with the adoption process.

I’m not saying that this approach is wrong. Plenty of people do choose to adopt instead of spending thousands of dollars on additional fertility measures. Every couple has the right to make that choice.

That being said, I think that it’s disingenuous to pretend that Napro Technology is a substitute for artificial insemination or in vitro. It’s the steps you take before you get to those options. Instead of continuing on that path, Napro promotes adoption. For “unexplained infertiltiy” couples like my husband and myself, this method isn’t another an option, it’s the end of the road.

Charting, vitamin deficiencies and ovulation cycles aren’t new to people who consider IVF. Most doctors help you through those processes first. And most women are happy to take temperatures and even chart their cervical mucus as opposed to spending thousands on invasive medical procedures. I’ve yet to meet a couple that went straight from “We want to have a baby,” to “We’re going for in vitro,” without a lot of soul-searching, waiting and yes, charting, before-hand.

The bottom line is that Napro Technology doesn’t expand the practice of treating infertility. It stops short and promotes adoption. And that’s a choice that parents have every right to make. But it does not make Napro the right choice for everyone, especially not those who are sincerely trying to do everything in their power to have a baby on their own.

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