Fertility Awareness-Based Methods (FABMs)

Fertility Awareness-Based Methods (FABMs) are science-based methods to track and read fertility signs (biomarkers) in the menstrual cycle. In RRM, FABMs can serve to monitor health and to time tests and treatments. Couples can also use them to achieve or avoid pregnancy.¹

A 2025 systematic review examined 20,339 people across 16 studies. It found that FABMs, used correctly, were associated with high rates of success. The review reports results for each use on its own: to avoid pregnancy and to conceive.²

FABMs invite partners to take part and help couples talk with each other. They build body literacy. Tracking the signs shows when a woman is fertile. The signs can also help find hormone and cycle disorders. One example is polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), formerly polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Methods include the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, the Billings Ovulation Method, the Sympto-Thermal Method and the Marquette Method. The Creighton Model FertilityCare System is one of these FABMs. Its founders describe it as a system of natural family planning.

Women chart it in the same set way each day, as the cycle unfolds (prospective charting). This method of charting makes it distinct within the wider FABM family.