When women chart their cycle through models like the Creighton Model or Fertility Education and Medical Management (FEMM), Duane said a doctor can “identify abnormalities and then make a … diagnosis and then [prescribe an] effective treatment.”
“It is designed to work with the body and restore normal reproductive function,” Duane said.
Sometimes infertility problems are caused by the results of lifestyle choices, such as obesity, or drugs or alcohol usage in either the man or the woman. In other cases, there can be conditions — such as endometriosis, fallopian tube blockage, polycystic ovarian syndrome, cesarian-section scars, or inflammation inside the uterus — that would require medical and possible surgical treatment.
Gavin Puthoff, a gynecologist and the medical director of Veritas Fertility and Surgery, told CNA that a “comprehensive, in-depth diagnostic evaluation” can often determine the cause for infertility, because infertility is a “symptom as opposed to a disease.” He said “what women and couples really want” is the reason for the infertility.
“They’ve been asking themselves the ‘why’ for months if not years,” Puthoff added.
When medication is used to assist in conception, he noted that the medication “cooperates with their cycle” rather than trying to supersede it: The treatment in this case is “supporting their own natural fertility.”
Puthoff said the NaPro technology helps ensure “a pregnancy in a state of health.” He contrasts this with IVF, which he said is “ignoring the issue and going around it” and noted that preborn children conceived through IVF have higher rates of congenital abnormalities, preterm delivery, and miscarriage.
Additionally, Puthoff added that NaPro shows “respect for each embryo — each life — from the moment of conception” and supports “the dignity of marriage.”
“This is a very pro-life and pro-woman, pro-marriage and pro-family type of treatment,” he said.
What are the results?
Although the data on NaPro success rates is sparse, a 2012 study of 108 people using the treatment in Ireland found that 66% of couples who received the treatment were able to conceive and give birth to a child within 24 months.
Puthoff said the success rate for his patients ranges between 65% and 80%, depending on what the underlying condition of the infertility is. Although the process takes more time than IVF, he argued that it is “more effective.”
The success rate for IVF treatments resulting in a live birth is about 50% for women under the age of 35, but significantly lower as women get older.
Virginia resident Katie Carter, a patient of Duane’s, told CNA that she conceived two children after receiving NaPro treatments to address her infertility. One is now 2.5 years old and the other is 3 months old.
Prior to receiving the treatments, Carter suffered three miscarriages. Her doctors referred her to IVF for treatment, but she worried she “would continue to miscarry” because the clinics were not “getting to the root problems.”
She said the doctors “kept telling me I had unexplained infertility and they never really tried to figure out why.”
When a friend referred her to Duane, Carter began charting, which she said “really hones in on how your body is responding and how your hormones are working,” allowing the doctor to diagnose the underlying conditions causing her issues.
She ultimately required surgeries to address the conditions that were causing her infertility, which she credited with helping “heal [her] body” and successfully giving birth to two children.
“I think every woman deserves this kind of care,” Carter said.