Educational Resource
Supplemented BBT and Regulation of Conception (1980)
Supplemented BBT and Regulation of Conception by Josef Roetzer in International Review of Natural Family Planning, Volume IV, Number 1, Spring 1980
The "supplemented" basal body temperature method includes self-observation of cervical mucorrhea during the periovulatory phase of the cycle. The woman is able to evaluate the temperature rise more easily and more securely by doing so in conjunction with the cessation of cervical mucorrhea. The method of self-observation proposed here was practical for 90.5% of the women of demonstrated fertility under study.
The supplemented basal body temperature method has an effectiveness equivalent to that of the Pill. The method also takes into account the individual peculiarities of the preovulatory (postmenstrual) phase of the cycle: we have so far observed no method failure from use of the postmenstrual days (the first six days of a cycle beginning with "true menstruation" are presumed infertile; no bleeding is called "true menstruation" unless it occurs at the end of the high-temperature phase of a biphasic cycle). A group of 180 women observed 3,542 cycles; there were 26 intended and 2 unintended pregnancies, for a pregnancy rate (Pearl Index) of 2/(3,542/1,200) or 0.68 per 100 women per year-user failures being included in this figure.
Josef Roetzer, M.D., is a longtime NFP researcher; founder and leader of the Marriage Advisory Service in Voecklabruck, Austria; and assistant professor of pastoral medicine at Innsbruck and at the Theolo.gical College of St. Poelton. English translation copyright© 1979, Josef Roetzer and R. J. Huneger.