Fertility issues have always worried women. Some mothers are in no hurry to become - for them the issue of contraception is acute, which will not harm (without taking hormonal drugs, establishing a spiral, etc.). Others, on the contrary, dream of motherhood and want to know exactly the days of their own ovulation in order to conceive a child as soon as possible.
In both cases, the SMRP will come to the rescue - a symptothermal method for recognizing fertility, which is desirable for all the fair sex to own.
What it is?
It is difficult to imagine, but in medicine, the sperm was discovered in the 17th century. And in order to "get acquainted" with the female reproductive cell (oocyte or egg cell), it took humanity more than half a century. Such a concept as ovulation, in general terms, was described only at the beginning of the last century. And from that moment, the first primitive methods of planning according to the "marriage calendar" became widespread, which implied that in the first 10 days after menstrual bleeding, a woman cannot become pregnant.
As you can imagine, the method often “let down” and gave “misfires”. It quickly became apparent that there was a need to continue researching the issue of female fertility. After observing women, doctors of that time suggested that the period of the onset of fertility is preceded by certain signs and changes in the body of the fairer sex. This is how the family planning method for ovulation began to emerge. But it was not accurate enough, because ovulation can shift, not occur at all, and a variety of factors can affect this: cold, stress, long trip, age.
In 1938 the temperature planning technique: Doctors have noticed that basal temperature (the temperature inside the body) is sensitive to ovulation. The graph that a woman could build on her measurements allowed her to know when ovulation began and when it ended, but, unfortunately, did not give any idea about when the fertile period actually begins, when the egg begins to mature.
It took another 30 years to combine the two methods - temperature and calendar. This is how an extended method for determining fertility appeared. However, its accuracy, although it was incomparably higher than all previous options, could not suit women.
And then the Billings method was created. Dr. John Billings and his wife Evelyn have dedicated their entire lives to researching family planning. Their work helped to understand that A woman can ovulate only once a month, and the egg cell lives and retains the ability to conceive for no more than 24 hours.
Also, the spouses-scientists established the effect of cervical mucus on the behavior of sperm. The mucus secreted by the cervix during the fertile period reduces the acidity of the vaginal environment and promotes the advancement of sperm to the target - the egg. It is the nature of such mucus that, according to the Billings method, should prompt a woman the most favorable time for conception.
And almost immediately after this discovery, the symptothermal method of fertility recognition was presented to the world, the author of which was a female doctor from Austria, Dr. Rötzer. It has incorporated the developments of all predecessors. The SMRP includes three components:
- basal temperature indicators;
- monitoring the secretion of the cervix;
- position and condition of the cervix.
The method opened up new opportunities for millions of women: with its help, even those representatives of the fair sex whose cycle does not differ in regularity can find out with great accuracy when exactly their body is ready to conceive.
It is noteworthy that the method became the first, having managed to show its effectiveness for lactating women, who generally have no idea after childbirth, after how long, if they have breastfeeding, their cycle will recover.
The method requires a large organization from a woman, but it gives her the opportunity every day to know as much as possible about her own reproductive state, as well as in the early stages to determine some gynecological and other diseases and pathologies that affect the course of the menstrual cycle.
The method was supplemented and improved 40 years ago in Birmingham, England, therefore the modern version of the method is called the Birmingham modification. Symptothermal fertility recognition has become even more accurate - British doctors have introduced "double confirmation".
The female cycle was divided into:
- period of infertility prior to ovulation;
- the period of fertility when conception is maximum possible;
- the period of post-ovulation infertility, when the egg has already died, and conception is no longer possible for this reason.
Both the beginning and the end of each of these periods must be confirmed by double signs in the English modification.
Since 2002, the Birmingham modified version of the symptothermal method has been taught in Russia. Today it is used by over 100 countries.
The World Health Organization, which is usually quite suspicious of non-barrier and non-hormonal contraception, was forced to admit the results of a study that showed that the accuracy of the method is up to 98%.
In addition, the WHO recognized that many couples with established infertility, thanks to the SMRP, were still able to conceive and bear a baby.
How it works?
Before a woman decides to use this method, it is better for her to attend special classes, where experienced teachers of the SMRP will give the basics of the physiology of the female body, tell in detail about the laws of the menstrual cycle, about conception. Also, a woman will be taught to listen carefully to her body and record signs that will allow drawing conclusions about fertility.
The fact is that a woman is fertile only during the day within one cycle. This is the very day on which her egg lives. After menstruation, the luteal phase of the cycle begins, during which follicles mature in the ovaries. One will become dominant and continue to grow, the rest will be suppressed by the woman's hormonal background.
Around the middle of the menstrual cycle, the follicle bursts and releases a mature egg into the wide ampullar part of the fallopian tube. If at this moment there are live sperm in the genital tract, they will be able to fertilize it (this is possible if sexual intercourse was 3-4 days before ovulation). If intercourse occurs on the day of ovulation, conception is also highly likely. If you have sex for a couple of days after ovulation, then the probability of conception will be low, because the egg will already die.
Symptothermal method precisely allows you to know exactly when the fertile window begins and when it ends, which will be useful both for those planning a pregnancy and for those who use contraception.
A woman needs to observe the characteristic signs of her fertility every day for several cycles (usually at least three) in order to understand the peculiarities of her own cycle, because it can last not 28, but 30 days or even more, ovulation may not be constant, etc. Signs to be monitored are basal temperature and cervical mucus in combination with cervical position. The woman should enter the data in a special table.
Basal temperature is measured at the places where blood vessels pass: anus, vagina, sublingual space. The temperature measured in the rectum and in the vagina is considered more accurate. When measuring, certain rules should be followed.
- The measurement location should not change. If a woman has chosen the rectum, then she should take all subsequent measurements only in it, without changing the place on the vagina.
- The thermometer must be constant. Different thermometers can have errors, and everything is important for diagnostic accuracy - up to a tenth of a degree. It is better to use a mercury thermometer, it is more accurate than an electronic one.
- Measurements should always be taken at the same time, convenient for the woman. You cannot measure today at 7 am, and tomorrow at 10. Measurement is taken immediately after waking up before the woman gets out of bed and goes to the toilet and bathroom. It is important that awakening is facilitated by a full night's sleep (in the extreme case, at least 3 hours of sleep).
At first, many women admit, disciplining yourself can be difficult. But then measuring BT (basal temperature) becomes the same natural thing as having to brush your teeth after waking up, go to the toilet. It is important to immediately enter the thermometer readings into a special graph.
The graph that will turn out during the cycle will show whether there was ovulation at all: it will be reported by a sharp jump in temperature to subfebrile values. This is how the body reacts to high levels of progesterone. The graph will show how the ovaries work correctly in the second part of the female cycle, whether there are enough hormones to plan a pregnancy.
A high (more than 37.2 degrees) basal temperature during the second phase of the cycle, that is, after ovulation, can speak of conception.
Only once the temperature will drop by one day - at the moment when the baby is implanted into the endometrium of the uterus. The temperature will then be high again.
The examination of the cervix is carried out with a clear understanding that the cervix does not respond to progesterone, but to estrogen - an equally important female sex hormone. Under the influence of estrogen, the maturation of the egg occurs. And therefore the cervical mucus will gradually thin out and become more stringy and abundant. Often women compare it to raw egg white on the day of ovulation.
The position of the cervix with the beginning of the fertile window is such that it rises, softens and opens slightly. The glands inside the cervical canal begin to work hard, thinning the mucus. The amount of clear mucus peaks just before ovulation. As soon as the egg leaves the follicle, that is, ovulation occurs, progesterone will begin to be produced, and the cervix will return to its original state.
The woman conducts the examination of the cervix on her own, with clean hands, carefully inserting two fingers into the vagina and bringing them under the cervix, closer to the anus. All this is taught in special courses, self-study is also possible. There are many detailed and accessible video tutorials on the Internet that will teach you how to correctly recognize and correlate signs of fertility.
Are errors possible? Opinions of doctors and reviews of women
This method, as you can see, is non-calendar, not tied to the calculations on the calendar, and therefore it is more personalized, tied to the characteristics of a particular woman. Its effectiveness is higher than just counting ovulation on the calendar.
The so-called Pearl index was used to assess the effectiveness of the symptothermal fertility recognition method. This index essentially represents the likelihood of an unplanned pregnancy. According to large-scale studies, which involved thousands of couples using this method, the Pearl index was only 0.3. It means that only three out of a thousand couples, according to the WHO, became pregnant, despite the use of the technique. This is what gave the doctors reason to consider the method quite effective.
In practice, alas, things don't always work out that way. The opinion of obstetricians and gynecologists is almost unambiguous: the method will be effective only if the woman observes many conditions for self-diagnosis and does not make mistakes in the interpretation of the results. Any mistake can cost an unplanned pregnancy, and therefore it is not worth considering the method as a reliable method of contraception for all women. But for conceiving a baby, it is quite suitable.
According to women, the method is not as difficult as it seems at first.
All measurements and fixation of all necessary indicator signs does not require more than 10 minutes a day. But after three months, the woman notices that the method not only gives her valuable information about her own women's health, cycle and fertility, but also promotes self-discipline.
About the methods of teaching SMRP - in the video below.
