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Fertility Awareness Method Report Card

FERTILITY AWARENESS METHOD REPORT CARD OF 2014 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE INACCURATE The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) often gets a bad rap. Many prestigious organizations routinely lump FAM in with the ineffective Rhythm Method and report inaccurate efficacy rates. We graded these organizations on how accurately they represent the Fertility Awareness Method compared to current scientific research. The following sources were graded on how accurately they reported FAM's efficacy rate, whether they included citations for their data, whether they distinguished FAM from the Rhythm Method, and how well they described the practice of performing fertility awareness for birth control. Bonus points were awarded simply for including a picture of a fertility chart. When available, we focused on the data reported about the Sympto-Thermal Method (STM). In this report card, 'FAM' is used synonymously with STM. EFFICACY RATE STM CHART GRADE POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! Taking Charge of Your Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler is the go-to book for all your Fertility Awareness needs. This book should be the gold standard for all things FAM! A+ FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS Fertility THEY GOT FAM ON LOCK YES 102.5/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! This is a great resource for someone who's new to FAM and curious to learn more. She A+ Holistic Hormonal Health gets it. FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS GOOD TO GO! YES 102.5/100 STM CHART EFFICACY RATE Wikipedia checks all the boxes. They have the right efficacy rates, describe FAM correctly, cite everything, and even provide some thoughtful discussion on the POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! Wikipedia advantages and disadvantages of the A+ CITATIONS Fertility Awareness Method. They've even got a neat history lesson on fertility awareness methods - we learned something FAM ACCURACY YEAH, THEY FIGURED IT OUT YES new! 100/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART We were impressed with Planned Parenthood's in-depth discussion of fertility POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! TEMP ONLY Planned Parenthood B+ awareness methods. However, they're still using 'FAM' as an umbrella term for the Rhythm Method, the Sympto-Thermal Method, and everything in between. It's time for a change. FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS VERY GOOD NONE 89/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART It was a little confusing whether the efficacy rate they cited was for the Sympto-Thermal Method or the Temperature Method, but Contracept's depiction of FAM is a great start! We wish they had gone into a little more depth about the method, but Contracept did a good job representing FAM. POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! B+ Contracept.org FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS DECENT NONE 87/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENTI Bedsider did a pretty good job accurately representing FAM. We were almost impressed. If only they hadn't referred to cervical fluid as "a distinct kind of goo," they might have scraped by with a B. C+ BEDSIDER FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS PRETTY GOOD NONE 63/80* EFFICACY RATE STM CHART According to Dummies, either one of a woman's ovaries may decide to evict an egg at an irregular interval without any symptomatic warning. Even if this was true, we have real-world data that demonstrate POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! FOR DUMMIES CITATIONS that FAM is effective. We could come up with a big list of hypothetical reasons why FAM might not work, but that doesn't change FAM ACCURACY COULD BE BETTER NONE the demonstrable fact that it does. 74.5/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals didn't even mention the Sympto-Thermal Method in their summary of FAM. They're seriously behind the times! C- FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS ARHP POOR NONE 71/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! The World Health Organization provides some pretty basic information, but they lumped the Sympto-Thermal Method in with the Rhythm Method. That makes us sad. C- FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS WHO N/A NONE 70/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART The American Pregnancy Association had a decent explanation of the biological basis for fertility awareness, but they mistakenly claim FAM requires considering past cycle Pregnancy history to determine future fertility. But they POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! American FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS did have a pretty picture of a fertility chart, so we gave them a few bonus points. ASSOCIATION NOT TOO BAD NONE 66.5/100 STM CHART EFFICACY RATE POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! WebMD They didn't include an efficacy rate. That's pretty important in choosing a birth control method. CITATIONS FAM ACCURACY MEH SOME 63.5/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART The CDC has a very rudimentary summary of fertility awareness, and they only provide a typical use efficacy rate. They didn't even mention cervical fluid or basal body temperature. At least they cited their sources. POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! CDC not a perfect use FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS BARELY ACCURATE YES 61/100 STM CHART EFFICACY RATE For such a prestigious government website, their knowledge of FAM was pretty disappointing. Office on Women's Health explicitly refers to Natural Family Planning (another name for FAM) and the Rhythm Method as the exact same thing. Don't they realize this is the twenty-first century? POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! Womenahealthgov CITATIONS FAM ACCURACY DISAPPOINTING NONE 45.5/100 EFFICACY RATE STM CHART POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! THEActors The TV Show The Doctors did a short segment on avoiding pregnancy with fertility awareness. Unfortunately, they got everything wrong. Everything. CITATIONS FAM ACCURACY ABYSMA NONE 45/100 STM CHART This New York Times article not only gave EFFICACY RATE FAM an ignorantly bad rap, but all birth POOR SATISFACTORY EXCELLENT! The New York Times mathematical error by mistaking control methods! The author made a huge F- How Likely Is It That Birth Control Could Let You Down? independent events for dependent events. The efficacy rates in this article are flagrantly wrong and unnecessarily frightening. You can read a more in-depth analysis for why in this article. FAM ACCURACY CITATIONS By GREGOR AISCH and BILL MARSH N/A NONE 12.5/80* POINTS KEY EFFICACY: 50 ACCURATE DESCRIPTION: 20 DIFFERENTIATES FAM & RHYTHM: 25 CITATIONS: 5 BONUS CHART PICTURE: +2.5 *These sources weren't graded for how to use FAM correctly because they weren't intended to be instructional, or they linked to a different source for more information. To learn more about how to chart and track your cycle using the Fertility Awareness Method, visit kindara.com. Email [email protected] for a complete list of sources. All trademarks are property of their registered owners. by KINDARA (3)

Fertility Awareness Method Report Card

shared by Kindara on Feb 27
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There's a lot of misinformation about the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) on the internet. Kindara, makers of a fertility tracking app, created the FAM Report Card, providing feedback to each organiz...

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