Women, married or unmarried, have unique health care needs. Modern women’s health care practices a mostly conventional form of medicine that can conflict with being a Catholic Christian woman. Does the Catholic Church provide a holistic, effective alternative to conventional women’s health care or leave us ladies stranded? I spent the past two years discovering a school of medicine that recognized my intrinsic dignity and the complexities of womanhood.

What is NaProTECHNOLOGY?

According to the Pope Paul VI Institute’s website, “NaProTECHNOLOGY (Natural Procreative Technology) is a new women's health science that monitors and maintains a woman's reproductive and gynecological health. It provides medical and surgical treatments that cooperate completely with the reproductive system.” Furthermore, NaPro diagnosis and treatment comes from 30+ years of studying normal and abnormal states of the menstrual and fertility cycles. This system of medicine cooperates with a woman’s natural cycle to identify and hopefully correct diagnosed medical issues. To learn more: http://naprotechnology.com/

Why Creighton NFP vs. Other NFP Methods?

From age 13-25 I exhibited predictable and healthy cycles each month, year after year. Then life threw me a medical curveball in my mid-twenties. Afterwards, I noticed my cycles changed and concerns emerged. I confided in a close, at the time unmarried, friend who shared her personal struggles and concerns about her cycles. My friend had first learned Sympto-Thermal NFP until a Couple to Couple League Mentor from our parish recommended she learn Creighton NFP. Creighton NFP would help her identify and diagnose reproductive issues. Family history and my friend’s journey into Creighton NFP lead to my practicing Creighton NFP.

Why I chose NaProTECHNOLOGY for my women’s health concerns?

Because I had two options: 1.) Go to a traditional Gynecologist who would perform the usual exam and tests with a Band-Aid prescription for some type of hormonal birth control. 2.) Or I could delve into a mystifying and somewhat demanding world of NaProTECHNOLOGY and maybe find real answers and real solutions. I choose option number two.

After two years of Creighton NFP charting and treatment with a local NaPro doctor, I traveled to Omaha, Nebraska for exploratory laparoscopic surgery. Waiting for the elevator at Pope Paul VI Institute, I read a wall placard honoring donors and sponsors of the Institute. The first two names on the board read: St. John Paul II and the Vatican Fund. Two reasons I chose Creighton NFP and the women’s healthcare I would receive.

Why Charting and NaPro for an unmarried woman?

Unmarried women are designed with the same God-given reproductive system as a married woman. Somewhere in my 8+ years of Jesuit education and Catholic formation defined by St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, I realized my body was good, even my reproductive system and all it’s fascinating function. I didn’t “use” my reproductive tract for sex, marriage and babies, but my reproductive system was active and alive by merit of being a woman. Like any organ system of the body, a women’s reproductive system can become unhealthy or ill.

What is NaPro About?

NaProTECHNOLOGY really means ownership of womanhood and all that entails. The joy and the sorrow. The complexities and the triumphs. Women truly are an amazing creation. With the intrinsic beauty of womanhood comes certain complexities involving hormones, cycles, fertility, and infertility. Woman have more complex reproductive systems than men and more chances for elements of that system to become unhleathy or taxed. By asking the tough, uncomfortable questions about my women’s health, topped with loads of patience and God given grace, I didn’t settle for unknowns or maybes, but charged forward in pursuit of healing, restoration, and health.

What Now: Two Years and One Surgery Later?

Three incisions and two and half hours of surgery later, I can with much gratitude and hope state I’m 100% endometriosis free. If I had chosen conventional women’s health care, I would not be endometriosis free at 27 years old and would be becoming sicker by the year threatening increased illness and infertility. My NaPro therapy and treatment continues. My journey with Creighton NFP and NaProTECHNOLOGY only just began. I hope to have a lifetime of ups and downs. I hope and pray someday I will use Creighton NFP for Family Planning purposes and pregnancy maintenance. But I know for certain Creighton NFP and NaPro will forever be a part of my women’s health care.

My Hope for Women?

Dare to dream beyond the pain, suffering, frustration, hopelessness, or uncertainty. Whether married or unmarried, I hope and pray God will guide you to physical, mental, and emotional healing. Caring for your womanhood and health is important. Natural Family Planning isn’t just about marriage, sex, and babies. NFP, especially Creighton NFP, provides tools for diagnostic healthcare for women. Creighton NFP and NaProTECHNOLOGY, aligned with God’s grace, means a chance for healing, restoration, and health.