In-vitro fertilization is the best way to treat infertility, right?

Many teachers of natural family planning would disagree.

“The medical profession has skipped over the root causes of infertility,” Dr. Thomas Hilgers, pioneer of one of the nation’s leading methods of treating infertility naturally, told a large crowd in Chicago recently. The less invasive and more natural methods are actually more effective in bringing a baby to term, he said.

The event was the Dignitas Personae conference held in Chicago March 28. It was a gathering of fertility practitioners, respect life workers, and infertile couples sponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago. Dignitatis Personae, Latin for “On the Dignity of the Person,” is the name of the document released last Sept. 8 by the Vatican that treats bioethical questions related to in-vitro fertilization, or IVF.

What may be surprising to the millions of women who cannot conceive and bring a child to term is that NaProTechnology, taught by Dr. Hilgers, is nearly three times more successful than IVF for assisting infertile couples, according to the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, a group founded by Dr. Hilgers at the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha.

Infertility at the institute is treated by determining the fertile time of a woman’s cycle, as well as by using surgical techniques such as laser treatment and ovarian wedge resections.

Infertility treatment usually begins with discovering a woman’s fertile time. This can be done with the Sympto-Thermal Method of Natural Family Planning. Find classes in the Chicago area by clicking on Local Classes. For more information, see the website of the Couple to Couple League International.