Fertility awareness

You need to learn and understand your menstrual cycle, and all the signs of fertility, before you can use fertility awareness for contraception. By understanding your menstrual cycle, and all the signs of fertility, you can work out when to have sex or not.

Learn more about periods

If you were very good at it — in theory — fertility awareness for contraception could be 97% effective at preventing pregnancy. 
 
In reality, one in four people who try to use fertility awareness for contraception will get pregnant. 

Fertility awareness often fails because:

• People have not been taught correctly
• People do not understand how to use the method
• People have sexual intercourse during their fertile time
• It’s difficult to recognise the signs of fertility

Advantages:

• No health risks or side effects — except for a high risk of pregnancy
• Suitable for people who can’t or don’t want to use hormonal contraception
• Cheap
• Acceptable to different faiths and cultures
• Many people can use this method, with proper training
• Can be used to plan or prevent pregnancy
• No chemicals or products involved

Disadvantages:

• Doesn’t protect against STIs
• High risk of pregnancy
• Takes time to learn and use confidently, and accurately
• Relies on you checking and keeping a daily record of your fertility signs — like temperature and cervical mucus
• May require long periods of not having sex
• If you have irregular periods it is much more difficult to accurately track
• Need to use other contraception or avoid sex when you are fertile
• Can be impacted by illness, stress, change of routine

There are no health risks or side effects with using fertility awareness for contraception — except for the high risk of pregnancy. 

We strongly recommend you talk to an experienced fertility teacher before using fertility awareness as a method of contraception.

You need to know how to:

• Understand your menstrual cycle
• Check your cervical mucus
• Take your temperature
• Recognise other signs of your fertile phase
• Use this information to plan or avoid a pregnancy

It’s a really good idea to use condoms and lube when you’re learning fertility awareness.

If you want to have sex while you’re fertile, it’s best to use condoms or avoid vaginal sex.

If you’re ever unsure if you’re fertile or not, it’s best to use condoms or avoid vaginal sex.

Fertility awareness can’t protect you from sexually transmissible infections (STIs). Condoms and oral dams can protect against STIs.

If you think you might have an STI, see us for an STI test. 

It’s really important that you talk with an experienced fertility awareness teacher before you try fertility awareness for contraception.

Check out Natural Fertility NZ for more information. 

We can help you get your fertility tested — or connect you to a specialised fertility awareness teacher. 
 
Anyone can visit our clinics. If you want to talk with us, we want to talk to you. 

Make an appointment