Natural Family Planning is true family planning

 

Welcome!

Welcome to the Diocese of La Crosse Natural Family Planning Program Web Page. Take the time to check out our site and learn more about the good news of natural methods of family planning and Catholic Church teachings on life and love.

Natural Family Planning

Office of Marriage & Family Life

Coordinator: Alice Heinzen
(click to email)

1-800-255-6226

 

 

Take a Fresh Look at Natural Family Planning


What Couples Say about Natural Family Planning

Click Here to read about how NFP changed the life of one married couple.

 
NFP News

Local News

 

Healthy Youth Act of Wisconsin

 On February 24, 2010, Governor Doyle signed into law an act that dramatically changes the way human growth and development curriculums will be taught within the public school systems of Wisconsin. The act requires all schools providing health classes to include information on sexuality that is medically accurate and age appropriate in the following areas; importance of communication about sexuality between a student and a student’s parents, reproductive and sexual anatomy, including physical and emotional changes during maturation, puberty, pregnancy, parenting, body image and gender stereotypes, skills for making responsible decisions, including recognizing and refraining from inappropriate verbal, physical, and sexual behaviors; the benefits of and reasons for abstaining from sexual activity, stressing abstinence as the most reliable way to prevent pregnancy and STDs; health benefits, side effects, and proper use of contraceptives and barrier methods; the develop of healthy life skills; the affects of alcohol and drugs on decision making; and the impact of media on thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in relation to sexuality. The legislation does not weight the amount of time spent on each element.

In addition to this information on sexuality, health classes must promote self esteem and positive social skills, identify resources for survivors of sexual assault, and use materials and methods that do not promote bias against certain pupils.

There are a couple of areas that are truly detrimental in this bill. First, gender stereotype information is mandated. The door is now open for education on homosexuality. There is nothing that can be done to close this door. Secondly, there is no way a teacher can link sexual activity to marriage. The legislature may look at a link of sex to marriage as a ‘bias’. The best one can do is link the research on child development and well-being to the security of marriage.

Because this legislation is the current law of our state, parents are urged to find out more about how their local school districts will abide by its assurances. In general, we would make the following recommendations to all children who are within a Wisconsin public school.

1.    Take the time to review your local school district’s human growth and development curriculum. Become familiar with the lessons at your child’s grade level.

2.    Remember, you are the primary educator for your children. Do everything you can to teach the correct information to your children BEFORE they are subject to any of this information in the classroom.

3.    If your child seems any bit annoyed or anxious about hearing this information within the classroom, opt out of the education. If you take this route, make sure you provide your child with information on the beauty of human sexuality. It is incorrect to opt your child out of the classes and then provide no instruction at all.

4.    If you opt to keep your child in the class, view the entire curriculum before the lessons take place. Then go through the potential problematic areas with your child in advance of the class. If you can, provide possible questions/facts that your child may ask/present in the class during the lesson.

 

 

NFP Classes Offered Online for Clients and Teachers!

The Natural Family Program for the Diocese of La Crosse is now offering online Natural Family Planning courses for clients!  Click on "NFP Class Registration" to see more information on all three modes of instruction that are available in the diocese.  Registration forms for all three methods are also available from that page.

The office has also developed an on-line NFP teacher training program. Individuals or couples interested in becoming NFP instructors for the diocese can now complete their training through an on-line course. If you are interested in becoming an instructor, please contact us. We’d enjoy sharing the requirements and responsibilities with you! (Instructors are needed in the La Crosse, Eau Claire and Wausau areas.)

 

Both online programs are offered through Northwest Family Services.

 

NFP & Contraception in Science

Oral Estrogen Linked to Unfavorable Vascular Effects in Women Without Troublesome Hot Flushes

 

Laurie Barclay, MD as reported in Medscape Medical News

October 1, 2009 — Oral estrogen is linked to unfavorable vascular effects in women without troublesome hot flushes, according to the results of a randomized controlled trial reported in the October issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

"Postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) was once recommended for the prevention of cardiovascular disease," write Pauliina Tuomikoski, MD, from Helsinki University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues. "This recommendation was based on the marked reduction (approximately 40–60%) of cardiovascular disease risk in the numerous observational studies when recently postmenopausal women, typically with severe vasomotor hot flushes, had decided to initiate HT. However, when older women with no or minimal vasomotor hot flushes were treated HT had no beneficial effect in secondary or primary prevention of cardiovascular disease."

"Women without troublesome hot flushes are susceptible to unfavorable vascular effects after oral estrogen treatment, resulting in less compliant vasculature," the study authors write. "This could partly explain the divergent results between observational studies and randomized clinical trials in which HT-related cardiovascular disease effects have been assessed, since in observational studies, women were likely to have experienced hot flushes when initiating HT, whereas women entering clinical trials did not have troublesome hot flushes.

For more information on this study please refer to: Obstet Gynecol. 2009;114:777-785.

 

 

Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Associated With Fracture Risk in Young Women

 

Nancy A. Melville as reported in Medscape Medical News

September 16, 2009 (Denver, Colorado) — Long-term use of the contraceptive depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) has been associated with impaired bone-mineral acquisition in adolescents and accelerated bone loss later in life, but new research, presented here at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 31st Annual Meeting, indicates that the bone loss translates into a greater risk for fractures in young women.

Concerns about DMPA's effect on bone-mineral density were significant enough to prompt the US Food and Drug Administration to issue a black-box warning for the drug in 2004, yet more than 9 million women continue to use the contraceptive worldwide.  With many users being teenagers, the concerns about the drug's effects on early adulthood bone development are particularly significant.

Compared with nonusers, women with 3 to 9 prescriptions and more than 10 prescriptions had a significant increased fracture risk, with the highest risk seen among women with long-term use, of more than 10 prescriptions, and a treatment duration of more than 2 to 3 years.

For the complete report, please refer to: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 31st Annual Meeting: Abstract 1057. Presented September 12, 2009.

Another Reason to Reject Injectables: Increases the Risk of Obesity

A study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology involving 703 women who were beginning the use of either birth control pills or DMPA (DepoProvera), and compared them to women who used a form of non-hormone contraception. Over the 3 year study period, DMPA users gained significantly more body fat than oral contraceptive (OC) and non-hormone (NH) contraception users, the researchers reported, adding that women of normal weight were found to gain much more body fat than women who were obese at the beginning of the study. "It is a concern that women who were not obese at the start of the study were twice as likely to become obese over the next 3 years if they selected DMPA over non-hormone contraception," study authors Drs. Abbey B. Berenson and Mahbubur Rahman of The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, write. (Baklinski, Thaddeus M. Study Finds Injectable Contraceptive Leads to Obesity. Galveston: LifeSiteNews.com, 2009.)

Mercedes Wilson, founder and president of the natural family planning (NFP) organization, Family for the Americas, observed that hormonal contraception is devastating women's health in the third world. "The pill, IUDs, injections, and the patch are devastating to the poor because they all carry the same steroids, which are known to be toxic and carcinogenic. 21 scientists with the World Health Organization in 2005 confirmed that estrogens in birth control methods are carcinogenic of the number one type, which is the most dangerous type of all," Wilson told LifeSiteNews in an interview in 2008. "In the third world, however, they are still using the 3-month injections the most," Wilson noted. "It does so much harm to the poor. They are given it while mothers' are breastfeeding their babies. The steroids are going right through the breast milk to the babies and that is a calamity. It causes cancer, heart disease, you name it; the list is interminable. And with the lack of the health facilities in the third world, it is criminal."

Article from Northwest Family Services NWFS Update. August, 2009.

 

Here's a List of All the Stories in the Current "NFP Realities" Newsletter

see the latest edition

  • Letter from the NFP Coordinator
  • Human Fertility Conference
  • Oral Estrogen Linked to Unfavorable Vascular Effects in Women Without Troublesome Hot Flushes
  • Healthy Youth Act of Wisconsin
  • Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Associated With Fracture Risk in Young Women
  • Another Reason to Reject Injectables: Increases the Risk of Obesity
  • Human Fertility Conference
  • Latest Adverse Event Data on Gardasil Vaccine
  • Federal Study Confirms Contraception-Breast Cancer Link
  • New Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines Opposed by Societies
  • Frequent, Brisk Exercise After Menopause Lowers Breast Cancer Risk


Did we get your attention? Read more about true reproductive health in our News & Views page.