A trial of the ovulation method of family planning in Tonga

M. Cosmas Weissmann; Leopino Foliaki; Evelyn L. Billings; John J. Billings

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(72)92164-2

Fertility Awareness · Use and Experience

A trial of the ovulation method of family planning in Tonga

Weissmann MC, Foliaki L, Billings EL, Billings JJ

Published October 14, 1972 Lancet (London, England), 2(7781), 813-816

DOI 10.1016/s0140-6736(72)92164-2 PMID 4116246

RRM Academy Synopsis

Ovulation method used by 282 Tongan women had one method failure

In a 1972 community trial in Tonga, among 282 women using the ovulation method, one had a method failure over a combined 2503 months, and two had user failures. Couples learned to read cervical mucus to tell fertile days from infertile days. The authors report that the method proved acceptable to the Tongan couples who learned it.

Key Findings

The ovulation method was used by 282 women over a combined 2503 months, with one method failure and two user failures.
Of the 395 women instructed after the project began in July 1970 (assessed February 1972), 331 couples opted for the ovulation method and 46 couples chose another method to avoid pregnancy.
Seven of the 18 women anxious to conceive became pregnant after attending to the mucus symptom and concentrating intercourse around the peak symptom.
The method failure occurred in a woman instructed immediately after a confinement; the user failures involved a long cycle misread as past ovulation and uncertainty about the instructions.
Fifty women had intercourse on a day when they recognized mucus and understood why pregnancy followed; all but one intend to use the method again.

Interpretation

The report describes a community trial in which Tongan couples learned the ovulation method and the authors recorded the pregnancies that followed. Couples entered only if they would give up coitus interruptus, which about 85% of those instructed had initially practiced. This kept its outcomes out of the ovulation method's record. A method failure was a pregnancy after faithful use of the instructions. A user failure was a pregnancy after an error the teacher could identify. The authors credit the results to several factors, among them a woman teacher who lived among the people, individual attention, and motivation that in many cases came from husbands.

RRM Context

Restorative reproductive medicine works with the cycle. Mucus charting, as in the ovulation method, gives both partners a shared view of the fertile days.

Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.

Abstract not indexed.

Topics

Fertility Awareness Use and Experience Method Teaching

Fertility Awareness › Use and Experience › Method Teaching

M. Cosmas Weissmann, Leopino Foliaki, Evelyn L. Billings, John J. Billings

L Foliaki, E Billings, Jack Billings, J Billings

PMID 4116246 4116246 DOI 10.1016/s0140-6736(72)92164-2 10.1016/s0140-6736(72)92164-2 Weissmann et al. 1972, Weissmann 1972

A trial of the ovulation method of family planning in Tonga

Ovulation method used by 282 Tongan women had one method failure

Key Findings

Interpretation

RRM Context

Topics

By this author

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