The Marquette Model brings 21st-century technology to NFP by using urine fertility biomarkers collected at home that measure hormone levels. These biomarkers can be used in conjunction with cervical mucus or basal body temperature and an algorithm to confidently determine the woman’s fertile window. The Marquette University College of Nursing Institute for NFP has been providing professional NFP services since 1985. In 1999, a new NFP method using the ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor. Today the method has advanced to include several different biomarker devices to detect urinary biomarkers (estrogen, LH, and progesterone).

Who can use the Marquette Model of NFP?

• Couples seeking to space pregnancies
•  Couples struggling with fertility
• Breastfeeding women
• Perimenopausal women
• Women with irregular cycles
• Women interested in health monitoring

How can you learn more about NFP?

The Marquette University Institute for Natural Family Planning provides professional services for those who wish to practice NFP. Professional nurses who are specialists in teaching natural family planning provide couples with beginning educational sessions held monthly or longer as needed. Couples also meet with the nurse individually to discuss their unique needs.

Classes

Benefits of NFP

Biological

Women and couples who practice NFP chart important menstrual cycle signs that can be used to identify serious health problems.  Subcommittees of both the American Pediatric Association (APA) and the American Academy of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AAOG) have recommended monitoring the menstrual cycle as a vital sign for adolescents and young women. Others have recommended that women of all reproductive ages monitor their menstrual cycle to identify potential health problems. Studies have shown a link between indicators of the menstrual cycle with cardiovascular disease, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), metabolic syndrome, gestational diabetes, anorexia, unusual uterine bleeding, and sub-fertility.

Philosophical

The practice of NFP and periodic abstinence, far from harming married love, confers upon married life a higher human value.  The many positive benefits of being chaste within marriage and practicing NFP includes a better understanding of ones fertility, increased communication, self-mastery of one’s sexual desires, a greater generosity toward new human life and an openness to God’s will. 

Ongoing Natural Family Planning Research

HR-4276 Mira Monitor Case Series Study

Approved 4/4/23

Women who have serious medical and financial reasons to avoid pregnancy are looking for precise natural ways to identify the fertile and infertile days of their menstrual cycle. A serious medical reason, for example, is a woman under medical treatment for breast cancer who received hormones that can interfere with urine hormone monitor results. Women have been able to test urine hormones- at home for over twenty years using a device called the Clearblue Fertility Monitor (CBFM). During those years the Marquette Institute for Natural Family Planning has researched the effectiveness of the CBFM and developed protocols that helped women and couples with serious reasons to avoid pregnancy be successful at planning their family. The CBFM is on the market for couples to achieve pregnancy however, the Institute has developed protocols for the monitor to both achieve and avoid pregnancy.

The newest device on the market is a quantitative monitor called Mira.  The Mira monitor provides daily quantitative levels of reproductive hormones. Daily quantitative hormone levels could provide a better picture of the woman's true fertility physiologically. However, to know if the Mira monitor has been successful in helping couples to avoid pregnancy and to develop protocols we will collect and analyze at least 10 cases from women who used the Mira monitor and have been treated for cancer, are postpartum breastfeeding, have been diagnosed with PCOS, are perimenopausal and in regular cycles.  For more information, please contact the PI- mary.schneider@marquette.edu

Upcoming events

The 25th anniversary summit of the Institute for NFP will be held this year in July. Speakers will be presenting on topics such as Medical Management of Women ' s health conditions, New Developments in the field of NFP, and the pastoral aspects of NFP. If you are interested in attending follow link to Eventbrite page: Marquette Institute for Natural Family Planning 2023 Summit Tickets, Fri, Jul 28, 2023 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite

Publications:

Richard Fehring, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, MMCP (professor emeritus)
Marquette e-publications
Research Gate

Mary Schneider Ph.D., MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, MMCP
Marquette e-publications: Effectiveness of a Postpartum Breastfeeding Protocol for Avoiding a Pregnancy and Descriptive Analysis of Physiology of the Postpartum Transition