Got Rhythm?

A reader writes:

For what it’s worth – and entirely aside from the moral & ethical aspects of first trimester abortion, Plan B, etc., – I just want to add to what you posted.  This NIH study underscores the problems with the rhythm method/Natural Family Planning. Proponents of NFP – be it the Church or secular groups — often seem to assume an awful lot about women’a menstrual cycles, i.e., that they are pretty darn regular. Just about any women can attest that that’s hooey, and that even if their own cycle is fairly regular they know five women whose cycles aren’t (this irregularity is especially prevalent among younger women and teens). We also all know from personal experience how it varies based on, for example, stress and exercise levels that month.

This is probably why NFP, even when followed diligently, has such a high failure rate relative to other methods – I think it’s a stretch that it has a 90% effective rate, as the part you excerpted suggests (hey, my sister is a devout Catholic and is a model user of NFP, and 3 of her 5 kids were "accidents" and every Catholic family I know can tell a similar story). The cynical part of me doubts that today’s NIH would be allowed to release such results…

On a personal note, I’m living proof that NFP doesn’t work. My mother read the calendar wrong, and voila! Or as she once gently put it to me: ‘Your sister was an accident, Andrew, but you were a mistake." And people wonder where I got my tact from.