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New Choices Bring Wider Range of Women to Family Planning |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A study appearing in the March 2008 issue of the journal Contraception reports that the Standard Days Method®, a natural family planning method developed by researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center's Institute for Reproductive Health, brings new women to family planning. More than half the women who selected the Standard Days Method had never previously used family planning and on average, contraceptive use increased by 8 percent in communities where the method was introduced. "This is the first study that looks at provision of a simple, modern method of natural family planning in regular service delivery rather than in a clinical trial. This distinction is important because clinical trials usually provide more training and provider-user contact than in typical family planning services," said study co-author Rebecka I. Lundgren, MPH, Deputy Director of the Institute for Reproductive Health. As a visual tool, CycleBeads helps a woman track her cycle, know if she is on a day when pregnancy is likely or not, and ensure her cycle length is in the range to use the method effectively. In the new study, the most common reason study participants gave for choosing the Standard Days Method was that it "does not have side affects nor affect women's health". Service delivery settings ranged from maternity hospitals to community health services and included non-traditional healthcare providers as an agricultural cooperative and a program involved in water and sanitation. The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing and Health Studies, both nationally ranked, the world-renowned Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization.
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