 | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
|
 Plan or Prevent Pregnancy Naturally
This edition of the CycleBeads newsletter focuses on the resources available to help healthcare providers offer this family planning option to patients. While many of you are not healthcare providers (at least not professionally), most of you know one. You may only know the one that you go to for your annual check up. But, given the lack of experience that many healthcare professionals have with natural family planning methods, we think it's important for everyone to know about the resources available to help providers counsel patients appropriately and effectively. Therefore, this newsletter includes information on training opportunities for healthcare providers, responds to an important question from a provider counseling a patient she suspects is in an abusive relationship, and shares stories about how some providers have integrated CycleBeads into their programs. We also want to address the concerns that we occasionally hear from women and even healthcare providers regarding natural family planning. Statements like, "natural family planning is ineffective", it's "too complicated", and "only a small number of women are likely to be interested". Unfortunately, these concerns have some validity. Traditionally, natural family planning methods have been difficult to use and required extensive training. This resulted in a higher level of unplanned pregnancies than other commonly used contraceptives and meant that only a small number of women were willing to use them. CycleBeads were developed to address this problem. They make natural family planning easy to use and accessible. The section of this newsletter on Contraceptive Comparison: Correct & Typical Use, addresses the concerns related to the effectiveness and complexity of natural family planning. The Provider Stories section shares stories from providers who have successfully integrated CycleBeads into their programs. These programs make it clear that CycleBeads appeal to a range of people for a range of reasons. While CycleBeads are simple, making them available through the healthcare community is not. It is critical that healthcare providers support their patients in using CycleBeads correctly. However, this requires significant education. Providers need to be aware of the method, understand the scientific basis, and be trained to counsel patients appropriately. That's why we've decided to focus this newsletter on the resources available to healthcare providers who want to offer an easy to use, effective, natural family planning method. We welcome any feedback! Sincerely, President Cycle Technologies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Effectiveness Comparison CycleBeads compare quite favorably both in Perfect Use and in Typical Use to other family planning methods. This is due to the fact that they were designed to be easy to use and therefore, people tend to use them correctly. The charts below compare the failure rates of different contraceptive options. The different options are listed from most effective to least effective based on their Typical Use failure rates: Failure Rate Comparison of Commonly Used Family Planning Options** (% of Women Experiencing An Unintended Pregnancy During the First Year of Use)
Failure Rate Comparison of Natural Family Planning Methods* (% of Women Experiencing An Unintended Pregnancy During the First Year of Use)
* Information adapted from Ch. 15 of Contraceptive Technology, 18th Edition, ** Information adapted from Ch. 9 of Contraceptive Technology, 18th Edition, *** CycleBeads are based on the Standard Days Method of family planning. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Provider Stories The following accounts of how healthcare providers are offering CycleBeads to their patients are paraphrased from interviews and printed with permission: We like to offer our diverse clientele a full range of birth control options. To encourage our clients to ask questions, we put up a bulletin board in the waiting areas of our clinics. On this bulletin board, we display all of the different contraceptive options available. Clients can then ask questions on anything they see and we try to counsel them on their range of choices. For patients interested in CycleBeads, we'll counsel them and then give them a set to take home with them. We have clients who have been successfully using CycleBeads since we first made them available in 2003. Joy Brychta, Director
I think it's important that a woman chooses a birth control method that suits her, but I also think she should be aware of how her fertility works. I always thought that religion was a major reason women chose to use natural family planning, but from what I've seen, it's more an issue that women are concerned about what they are putting into their bodies. I work in external community services with a range of groups including Hispanic women, teens, etc. We've found CycleBeads to be useful in communicating with these groups. We have used some interesting ideas to make women in the community aware of CycleBeads. We actually designed coupons for Collar del Ciclo (the Spanish version of CycleBeads). These coupons were handed out at a Hispanic women's conference. Women could then bring the coupons into our clinic and receive a discount on their beads. Yolanda Chavez, Sexual Health Educator
If you have a story that you would like to share with us, please send an email to info@cyclebeads.com. _______________________________________________________________ * The CFHC Cooperative Purchasing Programs are nation-wide and available to all non-profit, licensed locations. They help organizations save on pharmaceuticals, office supplies, medical and surgical supplies, diagnostics, etc. For more information about joining this organization, contact them at: The Family Planning Cooperative Purchasing Program |
