(Mar. 5, 2009) Couples in Des Plaines, Mt. Prospect, Morton Grove, IL and other Chicago suburbs might be interested to know that a top medical journal has hinted of a looming problem with birth control pills, saying that there hasn’t been enough research on the connection between contraceptive hormones and cardiovascular disease.

Are there heart and artery problems in relation to hormone-based birth control methods?

The effect of the female hormones estrogen and progestin (a synthetic version of progesterone) upon a woman’s heart and arteries is not known, says a review of literature in a recent issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.  “If these were male contraceptives, we’d know so much more already,” contends coauthor Noel Bairey Merz, director of the Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai, as reported in U.S. News & World Report.

Natural family planning (NFP) researchers have long tracked the difficulties with artificial birth control devices and chemicals, and offer a healthy alternative in the form of fertility awareness, say the Chicago chapter of the Couple to Couple League, one of the world’s largest providers of the Sympto-Thermal method of NFP.

Classes in NFP will be offered at Holy Trinity Church in Westmont beginning May 17. For more information, contact Lloyd & Monica Cassidy at 847-724-7206, or visit our NFP class date calendar.