(Nov. 25, 2009) Natural Family Planning (NFP) is one of the means recommended for infertile couples hoping to conceive, the U.S. bishops’ ruled at their conference last week.

NFP does not frustrate the unitive aspect of the marital act.

In the face of widespread use of in vitro fertilization, which involves donated eggs, sperm, or embryos, the bishops said that such means were immoral because they violate the unitive aspect of the marital union, “just as its unitive aspect would be violated by sexual relations with a person outside the marriage,” says the document.

The document, issued at their Nov. 18 meeting in Baltimore, titled “Life-Giving Love in an Age of Technology,” examines the procreative and unitive aspects of marriage which lead to the creation of children, and analyzes how technology can be used to assist infertile couples.

Restorative Treatments and NFP Recommended

Instead of IVF and other disruptive means, the bishops recommended “hormonal treatment and other medications, conventional or laser surgery to repair damaged or blocked fallopian tubes, means for alleviating male infertility factors, and other restorative treatments,” as well as natural family planning (NFP) techniques for infertile couples.

NFP, often used to avoid pregnancy, can also be used to help a couple conceive because it determines the fertile time of a woman’s ovulatory cycle.

Restorative means to treat infertility are the goal of NaProTechnology of Dr. Thomas Hilgers, as taught at 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.

Classes in the Sympto-Thermal Method of Natural Family Planning are offered by the Couple to Couple League (CCL) to married and engaged couples, and can be taken at 15 locations in the Archdiocese of Chicago, IL and surrounding area, including southeast Milwaukee and northwest Indiana. A homestudy course is also available at CCL Central.

The next series of classes in northeast Illinois will begin Fri., Jan. 29, 2010 at 7:30 pm at Holy Family Hospital in Des Plaines. To register, and for a list of classes, go to the CCL Central class locator & registration. Or go to the Chicago CCL’s Classes by location and maplinks.