Ep. 106: Creighton vs. NaProTechnology - What are they?

What is the Creighton Model System? What is NaProTechnology? If you're looking into restorative reproductive healthcare, you may have stumbled upon these terms and wondered what they are, how they relate, and how they may help you. This episode gives an overview of both, and explains their different services to women and couples. When you are looking for ways to get off of birth control or searching for IVF alternatives, Creighton and NaProTechnology will be at the top of the list as helpful resources. This episode shares how they can help with both, along with the history of both, and how to get started!

NOTE: This episode is appropriate for all audiences.

SHOW NOTES:
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Woven Natural Fertility Care
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If you want more, join our email list!
Woven Well Episodes:
Ep. 6: The Pill - Facts about Birth Control
Ep. 2: Fertility Method of Choice: Creighton
Ep. 72: NaProTechnology with Dr. Kristina Pakiz
Ep. 84: Early Pregnancy with NaProTechnology
Ep. 85: Uterine Fibroids with Dr. Ashley Womack
Ep. 91: Ovarian Wedge Resection with Dr. Christine Hemphill

Charting your Fertility with a Certified FertilityCare Practitioner: Anyone can begin learning more about their reproductive health and how to identify root issues. It is never too late to begin this process! We'd love to help you get started by attending one of our Introductory Sessions - an online, virtual class available each month. Join us!

Talk with Caitlin (you do not have to be a client): Need a safe place to talk about your fertility journey, what you're going through (faith, infertility, medical concerns, etc) or anything else about your fertility? Caitlin would love to hear your story and talk with you during a consultation! 

Transcript

Caitlin: 0:06

Welcome to the Woven Well Podcast. I'm your host, Caitlin Estes. I'm a certified fertility care practitioner with a master divinity degree. Each episode will cover a topic that helps educate and empower you and your fertility while honoring the deep connection your fertility has with your faith. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast. This is the first time we've been able to actually talk without a guest in 2024. And so I just wanted to say I'm so excited to begin another year with Woven Well empowering women to understand their fertility while honoring their faith. The new year is a great time to decide what you want to prioritize in the year ahead, and I know that for many of you, you want to prioritize your fertility. Maybe in that process, you've heard of the Creighton system or you've heard of NaProTechnology, maybe even both, but you're not sure how they're connected exactly. What would be best for you? Do you need them both? How does it all work? Well, since I teach the Creighton system at Woven Natural Fertility Care, the organization behind this podcast, I thought this might be a great way to explain things and answer some commonly held questions about both. The Creighton Model system is a form of fertility appreciation, where you study and understand one of your primary fertility biomarkers, cervical mucus. The more you understand about your cervical mucus, the more you can know and pinpoint an incredible amount of information, things like hormonal imbalances, whether you're fertile or infertile on any given day, when your next period should start. And more so you aren't expected to know all this on your own. It's not like you're studying at home with a textbook. The Creighton system teaches you how to know these things by explaining your cervical mucus and teaching you how to observe chart and interpret it through the help of a fertility care practitioner. And once you learn it, it's yours. It's a resource no one can ever take from you. Plus it's extremely effective. And a study published by the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, it was found to be 99.5% effective at avoiding pregnancy. As you can imagine, it's incredibly helpful trying to conceive one too, because all of this is new to you, though you are working with a fertility care practitioner over several months to gain knowledge, experience, and confidence. So again, you're not on your own trying to figure it out. You have someone there with you to help you be successful and accurate, even as you're learning and understanding your body is so meaningful. I feel like we live in a world where we're left in the dark about understanding what's going on in our body and how God designed us to function. But there are ways built into our very design to understand our reproductive health. So the more we understand that not only do we begin to honor and respect our own bodies, but we also can honor and respect the God who created these bodies. So the Creighton tracking itself, it's going to reveal a lot of information about what's going on under the surface. You can actually see signs of infertility, progesterone deficiency, unusual bleeding, insulin resistance. I mean, there is a lot that shows up. That's where NaPro technology comes in. So Creighton allows you to track your cycle health while NaPro technology seeks to improve your cycle health. NaPro providers, as you'll most commonly hear them referred to, are OBGYNs and other medical professionals who actively use Creighton charting for their patients and who use that information along with other tools to help to improve the woman's reproductive system and overall quality of life. So NaPro technology stands for natural procreative technology. These are medical professionals who also want to honor and respect the way that God created your body and how it functions naturally. So these providers are restorative in function, meaning they want to help you get your body to its highest level of health and performance regardless of your pregnancy goal. So unlike mainstream women's health, NaPro providers believe that all women deserve to have healthy cycles and hormones, not just when you're ready to get pregnant. They also don't settle for bandaid solutions, which is something that I love about them. You are never going to hear a NaPro provider suggest birth control because birth control comes with hefty side effects and doesn't empower the woman to understand anything about her own health and fertility. You'll also never hear them use infertility as a diagnosis, Ugh , which is so, so important. Infertility is never the final answer. It's completely unacceptable that unexplained infertility is used as commonly as it is. Infertility is a clue that points them to the root cause of the issue. It's a symptom, not a diagnosis. And these providers work with you to pinpoint and address these underlying causes to improve your overall health and your chances at conceiving and carrying a healthy pregnancy. So you can learn the Creighton system without ever working with a NaPro provider, but as you begin to understand and respect your reproductive system, you may find that you want providers who are going to do the same, and you can count on NaPro providers to give you that kind of care. Now , personally, even though I'm a fertility care practitioner, I don't get any sort of financial benefit or otherwise from referring my clients to NaPro providers. But I do get the knowledge and the comfort and the satisfaction of knowing that my clients are going to work with providers who truly care and want to actively preserve and restore their natural fertility. And that means the world to me. Now, can you work with a NaPro OBGYN without using the Creighton system? Mm . Maybe. Because the Creighton charting provides such incredible insight into a woman's reproductive health, most NaPro providers are going to require it. So one guest doctor on our podcast said that Creighton charting is like gold to them because of how valuable they find it to be when they're diagnosing and treating a woman's concerns. So most are going to want you to chart for two to three cycles at a minimum before getting started. And to be honest, that makes sense, especially when you know the history of the two Creighton was developed over many years by Dr. Thomas Hilger and his team back in the seventies and into the early eighties. Now, the medical world was just beginning to understand the role and significance of cervical mucus in the cycle of a woman. And Dr. Hilgers used some current and then new research to create this standardized model that could be used by any woman in any reproductive stage of life. Of course, as a medical provider, he wanted to do this for scientific purposes, but he also did it because he felt called by God to create a more trustworthy, standardized system for natural family planning. He too saw that so many families were being told to go on birth control for so many different reasons when he knew that there was a natural way to either avoid or conceive a pregnancy. And the rhythm method had long ago been found to be less than ideal , and cervical mucus was providing this new avenue for cycle charting that actually let a couple see their fertility beginning and ending in real time . So for many people then and now, it was an answer to prayer. Dr. Hilter and his team continued their research long after the Creighton model was initially designed. They wanted to gain as much knowledge and insight as possible, and as they were collecting charts and data from the many women who were using the system, they were amazed at what they found. Creighton charting, in addition to letting them know if they're fertile or infertile on any given day, also revealed a great deal about the woman's reproductive health. So they increased their medical research, and soon NaPro technology was created. So it was out of the insights provided by Creighton charting that the NaPro approach to women's health was developed. This is why NaPro providers love Creighton charting, not just because of the history, but because it gives them a roadmap into hormone imbalances, cycle irregularities, and possible root causes for issues like period pain, infertility, and irregular cycles. Our reproductive systems are an incredible source of information when we know how to understand them. Absolutely any woman can use the Creighton system and work with a NaPro technology provider. You don't have to have a certain type of cycle, a certain reproductive goal, or be in a certain stage of life. Men arc to menopause. You can use Creighton. The Creighton NaPro combo is especially exciting though for women who have only known the standard options given by their traditional OBGYNs. So often women with issues like period pain or regular cycles are just told to go on the pill. Well, is the pill improving anything? Is it treating the cause of the pain or irregularity? No, it's just hiding it until later on when it'll pop right back up. When you go off the pill, you deserve so much more than that. You deserve care right now. And what about couples wanting to conceive a pregnancy? If they have trouble, they don't conceive after 12 months, they're given maybe a lab panel ultrasound, few cycles on Clomid before they're referred to IVF clinics. There are easier, quicker, safer, less costly, more ethical ways to approach conception difficulties. NaPro looks for the root cause and addresses them directly. You're not trying things blindly, but you're listening and honoring your specific body as you treat the issues at the root. So even women who are postpartum find Creighton and NaPro to be incredibly helpful. Often postpartum ladies feel totally in the dark about their fertility during that time. Like are they, maybe they're uncertain about if they could be fertile or not, or they're told, just insert an IUD at the six week follow-up . And you don't have to think about it. But Creighton teaches this woman how to understand exactly what's going on and how close she is to returning to fertility and NaPro . Well, they have a great natural treatment to the common experience of postpartum depression, and we all need more resources for our mental health in addition to our women's health. So these are game changers for any woman who values her body health and fertility. So how can you get started with Creighton and NaPro ? Well, you are certainly welcome to work with us. Woven Well is an outreach of Woven Natural Fertility Care, and we specialize in the Creighton method. I myself have been a certified fertility care practitioner for almost seven years at this time of the episode. And it's my full-time vocation to educate and empower women in this way. I would love to connect with you, hear your story, and get you started with the Creighton system. I lead an introductory session online each month for anyone who'd like to learn more, and I'll make sure to have that link in the show notes. I'd love to meet you there. And if you'd prefer to work with someone in person local to you, you can search for fertility care practitioners through the Fertility Care Centers of America. And the same is true for NaPro technology providers. But if you're one of my clients, I work with you to find really the best fit in your option of providers. So talk through your history and goals and try to connect you with a provider that's going to be the best fit for your needs, location and personality. I think that's important. We also have a special package available to clients called our Trusted Provider Program. So for those who add this on, when they begin learning Creighton, they get to have an appointment with three providers of their choice from our vetted, trusted provider list with no out-of-pocket costs from these providers. And there are several NaPro technology providers in this program, in addition to registered dieticians, pelvic floor therapists, mental health counselors, grief and infertility support ministries, and more. So we offer this because we know it can be intimidating or just overwhelming to have to search for and then try out new providers. We want to provide you with a way to do that, that's low cost and low effort. You deserve to work with great people. So now you know what the Creighton System is, what NaPro technology is, and I hope this has been an informative episode and you feel more confident as you choose how to prioritize your reproductive health in 2024 and beyond. Remember to check out the links and episodes in the show notes for any more info if you'd like. As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.