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Fertility Treatment is Hugely Successful but Largely Ignored by Medicine

Commentary by Thaddeus M. Baklinski

March 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - NaProTECHNOLOGY (Natural Procreative Technology or NPT) is a dramatically successful, but not well known or practiced method of diagnosing and treating gynecological diseases and infertility in women. It is a morally acceptable and very cost effective method of restoring fertility, using a fertility-care based medical approach, rather than a fertility-control approach.

This new reproductive science works cooperatively with the natural fertility [menstrual] cycle. It has been developed as a series of medical applications based on a standardized assessment of the biomarkers of the fertility [menstrual] cycle, known as the Creighton Model FertilityCare System. It can be used to evaluate and treat infertility, miscarriage, irregular cycles, ovarian cysts, premenstrual syndrome, postpartum depression and many other women's health conditions.

When used to treat infertility alone, NaProTechnology has a success rate of 76% in assisting couples to achieve pregnancy - remarkably superior to the 10-15% success rate of in vitro fertilization, and without the enormous financial cost and adverse emotional and other psychological effects of in vitro fertilization.

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, director of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and the National Center for Women's Health in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Hilgers 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.

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.

"Also, since NPT originated in the Pope Paul VI Institute, there may also be an element of anti-Catholic bias and an element of 'go-along-to-get-along' pressure involved."

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine  (ASRM), which maintains a fully staffed Office of Public Affairs in Washington D.C., and a web site that contains a vast amount of information on reproductive matters, does not have any information on NPT posted on its website.

Chuck Weber (http://www.saintmaxworldwide.org) has reported that a spokesperson for ASRM, when asked to comment on NPT, declined to comment, saying, "We tend to just ignore these people".

In an article entitled "10 Reasons to Choose NaProTechnology Over InVitro Fertilization" by David Picella
( http://culture-4-life.com/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=56&page=0), the moral implications of IVF are clearly delineated.

IVF involves the destruction of embryos: "An analysis of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) data from 1983 to 1986 demonstrated that the transfer of 1,372 embryos (3.2 per woman) resulted in 81 live births. From this data, it is necessary to create 16.9 living embryos to produce one live birth. The higher reported rates of success for IVF procedures usually means more embryos are being transferred which increases the risk of multiple births."

IVF necessitates "Selective Reduction": "One of the most objectionable things about IVF is that it can result in a situation where a woman is forced to deal with a dangerously high multiple pregnancy rate. Pregnancy risk increases dramatically with the number of babies in the womb. Frequently, women are compelled to selectively "reduce" (i.e., kill) additional babies in the womb due to unacceptably high pregnancy risk."

NPT employs natural sexual intercourse rather than a laboratory procedure: "In IVF, the sperm and eggs (gametes) are collected through masturbation (male) and harvesting (female) where they meet in a laboratory to form embryos which are then reintroduced into the woman's body. NPT, on the other hand, relies on a natural act of intercourse to achieve pregnancy."

Information on NPT may be obtained from the following websites:
The Pope Paul VI Institute
http://www.popepaulvi.com/

The American Academy of Fertility Care Professionals
http://www.aafcp.org/naprotechnology_and_infertility.html

The Institute for Restorative Reproductive Medicine
http://www.iirrm.org/

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