Scientists Confirm Natural Method Produces More Babies than IVF

By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer

Researchers are confirming that a natural family planning method known as NaPro Technology (NPT) results in comparable or superior birth rates among infertile women than in vitro fertilization (IVF).

According to LifeSiteNews.com, scientists at the International Institute of Restorative Reproductive Medicine published the results of a study of 1072 infertile couples in Ireland who sought medical attention. The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that NPT can often resolve infertility or miscarriage by detecting and correcting underlying causes that are often overlooked by conventional approaches.

“Nearly half the patients we see have been told they have unexplained infertility,” said Dr. Boyle, one of the study authors and director of the Galway NaProTechnology Medical Centre.

“After NPT investigations, 2/3 of the patients had a hormone abnormality and more than 1/4 were diagnosed with cervical mucus dysfunction, a critical factor for sperm survival and transport. Once these and other problems were identified and treated, NPT enabled the couples to conceive using a natural act of intercourse.”

Dr. Boyle found that 52.8 percent of patients completing treatment could expect to have a successful live birth, which rivals previously published results for expensive in vitro fertilization (IVF), which may require patients to endure multiple invasive treatments to achieve a similar success rate.

The NPT result is even more remarkable given that a third of these patients had already failed IVF, were older and had tried longer to have a baby. For patients who hadn’t tried IVF, the live birth rate rose to 61.5 percent.

NPT was developed from thirty years of scientific research in the study of the normal and abnormal states of the menstrual and fertility cycles by Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers. Dr. Hilgers is the director of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and the National Center for Women’s Health in Omaha, Nebraska. He is currently a senior medical consultant in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine and surgery at the Pope Paul VI Institute and a clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Creighton University School of Medicine.

“This study represents a landmark publication that demonstrates that NPT is a safe and highly effective alternative to existing treatment options, even for patients who have unsuccessfully tried other reproductive treatments,” said Professor Joseph Stanford, the paper’s lead author. “General Practitioners and Obstetricians who were previously not aware of NPT will now be able to inform patients that they have other viable and effective choices to help them have a baby.”

According to Dr. John B. Shea, medical consultant for LifeSiteNews.com, NPT has not been accepted by the majority of the medical profession because “in reference to female infertility, NPT competes against a well financed option, in vitro fertilization [IVF], that is already deeply entrenched in the marketplace and in political circles.”

“Furthermore, physicians who might be interested in NPT experience a lot of peer pressure to view NPT as an oddball kind of medical care simply because they had not heard of it in medical school,” Dr. Shea explained.

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