The Green Guide to Family Planning

Natural family planning is a green idea. It's good for our bodies and souls, women and men, children conceived, the health and well being of families and our planet earth.
Here's how:

1) Natural family planning doesn't pollute rivers, lakes and streams. Scientists have discovered a recent and disturbing phenomena, "intersex" fish found downstream from sewer plants. These abnormal fish contain both male and female features. Endangering these fish are the synthetic estrogen and other steroid hormones from birth control pills and patches that are excreted in urine into sewage systems.

2) Natural family planning doesn't hurt animals. Scientists are finding the presence of female hormones making the male species less male. This includes studies on frogs, river otters and fish. In some places off the coastal waters of southern California, up to 90 percent of the male hornyhead turbot, a common flatfish, have produced egg yolk proteins. These male fish had estrogen levels as high as females and low thyroid hormone that could impair the development of fish embryos.

3. Natural family planning doesn't hurt a man's fertility. According to L'Osservatore Roman, the Vatican newspaper, the birth-control pill is causing "devastating" environmental damage and plays a role in rising male infertility rates. Birth control pill inventor Carl Djerassi says that the “pill” has led to a "demographic catastrophe. It is having a devastating ecological effects of the tons of hormones discarded into the environment each year. We have sufficient data to state that one of the causes of masculine infertility in the West is the environmental contamination caused by the products of the 'pill’”.

4) Natural family planning is healthy for women. The International Agency for Research on Cancer reported that the pill has carcinogenic effects, including higher risks for breast cancer, liver and cervical cancer. The risk of breast cancer is over 40 percent if it is used before a woman's first child is born. Other side effects include high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke, and heart disease.

5) Natural family planning doesn't trick a woman's sense of smell. Studies show that women on the birth control pill pick bad mates because their sense of smell is off. Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes are involved in immune response and other functions. The best mates are those that have different MHC smells. Unfortunately, studies show that women on the pill prefer guys with matching MHC odors. Couples with matching-MHC show less satisfaction, higher levels of infertility problems, and breakdown in relationships when women stop using the birth control pill.

6) Couples who practice natural family planning have healthy libidos. Birth control has been observed to decrease a woman's a libido. After 30 years researchers are acknowledging that the pill can cause weight gain, depression, decrease libido and decrease sexual enjoyment. The birth control pill inhibits the production of androgens, including testosterone, in a woman's ovaries. Androgens have a direct effect on a woman's libido.

7) Couples who practice natural family planning have fewer divorces--less than five percent-- than couples who contracept. Healthy and happy family families create less waste and less energy consumption than couples who divorce and split up the family assets and properties.

8) Natural family planning cost less than birth control pills. Some forms of hormonal contraception costs up to $60 per month. That's money that could be put aside for a mini-vacation or other family uses. Natural family planning methods are as reliable, and even better than, birth control pills to prevent pregnancy. Also, natural family planning helps a couple to identify fertile times when pregnancy is more likely to occur, for those times when a couple desires to welcome children in their family.

9) Natural family planning empowers women to take charge of their health. Women who use natural family planning oftentimes receive early intervention and treatment for gynecologic and obstetric health because they are more attuned to their bodies. By charting the menstrual cycles, women can identify potential risk of miscarriage and infertility and have these problems treated. NaProTECHNOLOGY, a new women's health science, uses information gathered from women's charts. It is nearly three times more successful in assisting infertile couples than in vitro fertilization, 95 percent successful for treating premenstrual syndrome and postpartum depression, and is much less expensive than the artificial reproductive technologies.

10) Natural family planning respects the environment within the family setting. It respects the dignity of the woman, man, marriage and the children they conceive. Birth control pills, however, treat fertility and the conception of children as a disease. With the birth control pill, breakthrough ovulation may occur, and pregnancy may result. One of the actions of the pill is to make the uterine lining a hostile environment, thus acting as an abortifacient because it expels a small human embryo. Sadly, the marital embrace may thus become a "killing field" for a couple’s newly conceived children.

More people are going green with natural family planning. In France the use of the pill among women ages 15 to 24 years old dropped from 43 percent in 2003 to 26 percent in 2007. "The principal reason for this decrease is the attention paid by women to their health," says Genetique, a French bioethics organization. "It is now proven that the pill suppresses libido and causes weight gain. The fear of cancer and sterility are equally responsible."

Live green. Love green. That’s natural family planning. It is good for all God's children and creatures.