WOOMB International Forum at the United Nations
The Forum entitled “Full and Effective: Women as Independent Actors in Fertility Management” was held via ZOOM at 5 pm on 17 March 2021, New York time.
WOOMB International, the international organization of the Billings Ovulation Method® was allocated Forum time at the 65th annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as a parallel program.
The panelists were Dr Mary Martin (USA), Dr Marguerita Duane (USA), Dr Flor Ortega (Guatemala) and Dr Lek-Lim CHAN (Malaysia).
Lek-Lim was the first to speak and he outlined how from his experience of teaching and promoting fertility awareness through the Billings Ovulation Method® (BOM), he has found empowerment of women as they come to understand their fertility and infertility cycles, much more than just taking note of bleeding alone.
He outlined that those who have irregular bleeds are in a worse situation. Oftentimes, they don’t know why and are frustrated that they are not like other ‘normal’ women and all they get is ‘medication’ to get them to bleed and not pin-pointing the root cause. Sometimes, a couple may find difficulty in conceiving after some years of marriage and all they need is to learn to identify when the wife’s fertile phase is and not depend on the mythical Day-14 ovulation.
Dr Chan highlighted how a woman can have regular bleeds but not ovulating and the BOM chart will reveal that.
He gave a case study of a 31 year-old woman who was told by her gynaecologist that she would probably reach menopause in two years after a female hormone test was performed. But the chart showed normal regular bleeds with follicular activity but likely without ovulation. The Vitamin D test showed deficiency and topping that up by supplementation with Vitamin D3 coupled with her knowledge of her fertile days, led her to conceive after eight years of waiting.
He gave a second case of a woman married for four years without conceiving. She had very sporadic bleeds. Both parents were diabetic. The 5-point GTTI (Glucose Tolerance Test with Insulin) devised by Prof Pilar was performed and it revealed her very bad insulin resistance. She was also Vitamin D deficient. Treatment started and she eventually had regular bleeds and later with ovulation. She then conceived, much to her and her husband’s surprise. The knowledge of her underlying issue and of her fertility and infertility cycle empowered her to further conceive her second child.
Mary Martin started by saying that despite her very wide medical training including obstetrics and gynaecology, she did not really learn gynaecology until she went for the BOM training in Australia.
She stated that if a couple fails to conceive in three (3) fertile cycles, that would warrant further investigations. She also echoes Prof Pilar Vigil’s definition of what an abnormal menstrual cycle is – two (2) consecutive cycles without ovulation OR any three (3) cycles in a calendar year without ovulation. (This can of course be monitored through charting of the menstrual cycles) She continues, “That would set us apart in approach from our colleagues.”
Next to speak was Marguerita Duane, a co-founder and Executive Director of FACTS (Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach the Science). She started by talking about how FACTS is dedicated to educating healthcare professionals and students about scientifically valid natural fertility awareness based methods of family planning.
She described the signs of the female cycle as the 5th Vital Sign, the four others being 1. Respiratory rate, 2. Heart rate, 3. Temperature, 4. Blood pressure. Another important point Marguerita highlighted was that fertility awareness-based methods of natural family planning are truly family planning methods as they are useful for both achieving pregnancies as well as postponing.
Being a TeenStar educator, she shared about her involvement in teaching fertility awareness to girls so that they come to appreciate and respect their bodies. (TeenStar®, an off-shoot of the BOM is a wholesome sex education for teens)
Marguerita mentioned a case of a 15 year-old girl brought in by her mother after discovering discharge on her underwear thinking that she might have become sexually active or having an infection. After instruction for her to start charting, it was found it was normal cervical mucus and the young girl was thrilled to learn the symptoms telling her of her next bleed. But the mother did not recall having such mucus because she was on the contraceptive pill which had suppressed her natural hormones, signs and symptoms.
The last speaker, Flor Ortega from Guatemala started sharing that she herself was married for three years without conceiving. And then she discovered natural family planning leading her to conceive her first child. She shared the case of one of her patients who had irregular bleeds, obese and unable to conceive. After going through all the normal medical protocols unsuccessfully, she came to see Flor who finally treated her for insulin resistance and she happily conceived.
The presentations were followed by a Question & Answer session.
The recording of the session can be viewed at https://youtu.be/2ktSTag9XQE
–Contributed
