Current Method: Marquette
Previous Method: Creighton Model
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- Tell us a little about yourself.I am a convert to Catholicism. I converted while in college, a year or so prior to marriage. I have been a Catholic for 12 years this spring, and have been married for 11 years this spring. I am also Family Nurse Practitioner, practicing in Family Medicine, Urgent Care, and Orthopedics. I did my graduate education at a Catholic University (Georgetown) but spent less than a day learning about NFP... as a future primary care provider being educated at a Catholic graduate school... this continues to be something I would like to see change. I had a secondary conversion into the faith about two years ago and the biggest fruit from that was finally (but grudgingly) submitting to church teaching on fertility and starting to fully practice NFP within my marriage. Saying I wrestled with the teaching is an understatement and within a two week period, I attended confession twice, once with a priest telling me barrier methods were acceptable followed by another priest telling me I was damning my soul. I had a night where I felt like I was flooded with negative thoughts about the horrible things that would happen to my marriage if I followed church teaching and fully practiced NFP. The next morning I realized that someone really didn't want me to follow church teaching- and it wasn't God. It was the first time I encountered spiritual warfare firsthand. Despite all the mental gymnastics I did surrounding NFP, medical ethics, theology, Church teaching, and Church history... I finally threw in the towel and decided that this was one area I would just submit to. I can only describe what happened next as grace. I quickly found a Marquette instructor who had a similar background and personality to my own at Feminine Genius Ministries. Her authenticity and online course helped my husband and I feel less crazy as we did something entirely counter cultural and began practicing NFP. It fell into place easily. Which still shocks me. I don't mean to sound like a cheesy premarital counseling brochure, but our marriage deepened and we found that we liked this natural method of avoiding pregnancy much more than other methods we had used. As someone with a feminist personality and a background in medicine, I saw the beauty and true empowerment behind this method of family planning. I love the Marquette Method and only wish I had learned about it and used it sooner.
- What effects has fertility awareness had on your relationship?It has strengthened our marriage. It has also made us more generous and open to life.
- Current Method: Marquette - How did you find your instructor?I found an instructor by accident, on Instagram. After deciding we would practice NFP, God literally put an instructor in my path quite unexpectedly. I do not remember the cost. We used Feminine Genius Ministries and paid for follow-up.
- Describe your daily charting routine.We began charting when we first got married 11 years ago. We continued to use barrier methods because I never fully trusted the methods. We used sympto-thermal as well as Creighton. I hated Creighton and unfortunately abandoned the whole teaching for years because of a very negative experience with it.
- What made you choose this method?Marquette felt 100% objective. I did not feel the pressure to over analyze CM or make judgement calls on my own. That was paralyzing in seasons where we felt called to avoid but I felt like figuring out fertility was on me. Something about the objective nature of Marquette gave me renewed confidence and healing in this area.
- Has charting helped you to understand your overall health?Yes. I feel more confident than ever before regarding what is going on with my body.
- Did you switch to this method from another one? If so, why?I was on HBC for the first few months of my marriage. I got off during grad school when I was studying to be a Family Nurse Practitioner. I was terrified after learning the adverse effects it could have and recalled a patient I took care of in undergrad who was in her 30s and had suffered a stroke while on hormonal contraception. Getting off BC was an easy decision once I fully understood the risks.
- Previous Method: Creighton Model - How did you find your instructor?A friend put me in touch with a Creighton instructor.
- Describe your daily charting routine.Creighton was not a good fit for my personality. I never felt confident with the method and became scrupulous with the charting. My husband and I abandoned it because it was truly damaging to my mental health and our marriage. I think it's so critical to know what methods are out there. I wish someone would have let us know there were other options or pointed us to Marquette during this struggle. I think this is why it is so important that priests who hear confession have a list of resources for their parishioners struggling with this teaching.
- Has charting helped you to understand your overall health?I feel like Creighton lead to over diagnosis of fertility issues that never manifested. My instructor warned me my charts had signs of low progesterone, I would likely not be able to sustain a pregnancy because of this, and that I showed signs of endometriosis. She did not have a medical background. Unfortunately this lead to a lot anxiety. I recognized this tendency to over diagnosis by some NaPro providers. As a mother, I never encountered any of the issues she gravely warned me about. This is simply my experience. I am alarmed by how many Creighton couples tell me they have low progesterone or endometriosis. I am concerned that to some degree, we may be creating unnecessary anxiety, especially among newlyweds.
- Did you stop using this method? If so, why?Above. It was a poor fit for my personality and marriage. It required too much focus every time I went to the bathroom and felt very unnatural. I found Marquette to be less time consuming, less invasive, and more objective.
