Natural Family Planning (Fertility Awareness Methods)

Overview

Fertility awareness methods (also sometimes called FAMs, “natural family planning,” or “the rhythm method”) are all about tracking a woman’s body’s signs and symptoms to determine which days of the month they can get pregnant, also known as fertile days.

To find out when the fertile days are, a woman will need to pay very close attention to their body and its patterns, and they’ll also need to keep careful track of what’s happening. There are several different signs and symptoms of fertility that can be tracked, and there are multiple ways to monitor them.

Quick Facts

Very effective if used correctly. Hormone-free, no cost, no side effects.

Effectiveness

Pretty effective the way most people use them (but they’re not the easiest to use).
Perfect use: 95 to over 99% effective
Typical use: 77 to 98% effective
What are perfect use and typical use?

Hormones

FAMs don’t affect hormones at all.

Side effects

None

Cost

It’s free!

STI protection

Fertility awareness doesn’t protect against STIs.

Ongoing effort

Using a fertility awareness method requires a lot of effort including monitoring, tracking, and planning–plus you’ll need to use another method on fertile days.