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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff mom never told you from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: Kristen and I'm Caroline. You got rhythm, Caroline, No, me neither,

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Speaker 1: not at all. Well, we are going to talk about

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Speaker 1: the rhythm method today. Is that dancing? Um, it is.

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Speaker 1: It's sex sing, not to be confused with sex thing.

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Speaker 1: It's actually doing the sex. Yes, okay, but with a

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Speaker 1: metronome on the bedside table. Yeah, it's. Uh. It's definitely

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Speaker 1: a method that people employ to either help get pregnant faster,

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Speaker 1: more efficiently, or to prevent pregnancy in a natural way

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Speaker 1: that has nothing to do with hormones or devices. Yes,

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Speaker 1: the rhythm method is also known as the calendar method

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Speaker 1: and sometimes referred to as periodic abstinence if you are

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Speaker 1: trying to not get pregnant. Um, And but it is.

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Speaker 1: It's similar to some other natural family planning techniques that

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Speaker 1: you might have heard of, though, yeah, it's not exactly

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Speaker 1: the same as natural family planning and American Pregnancy dot

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Speaker 1: Org broke it down. Uh. They said that natural family

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Speaker 1: planning is a collection of methods using your body's natural

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Speaker 1: and normal functioning to determine the days of the month

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Speaker 1: you're most likely to get pregnant. It's also known as

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Speaker 1: fertility awareness, sympto thermal method, ovulation method, or Billing's method.

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Speaker 1: And uh looking at the simpto thermal method in particular,

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Speaker 1: that actually combines a couple of different ways of doing

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Speaker 1: natural birth control quote unquote, So they use the temperature method,

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Speaker 1: the cervical mucus method, and the rhythm slash calendar method

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Speaker 1: to combine into one giant track your body adventure. And

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Speaker 1: these kinds of natural family planning methods UM are popular

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Speaker 1: for UM a lot of women because they don't involve

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Speaker 1: any hormonal drugs or any kinds of devices like an

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Speaker 1: i U D that you would have UM inserted inside

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Speaker 1: of you that you leave in there. UM and studies

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Speaker 1: have found that when they are practiced perfectly, Okay, this

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Speaker 1: is we're talking perfectly. It's like the you know when

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Speaker 1: you hear about the birth control like taking birth control

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Speaker 1: pills and it's n effective when you take that pill

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Speaker 1: every day at the same time, that's perfect use, not

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Speaker 1: typical use. Uh So, the perfect use for this, according

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Speaker 1: to UM a two thousand seven German study, this was

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Speaker 1: with the sympto thermal method leads to an unintended pregnancy

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Speaker 1: rate of only point six per cent. And so that

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Speaker 1: seems wow, that that seems great. You don't have to

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Speaker 1: pay for anything. All you have to do is get

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Speaker 1: with your partner and make sure that you are each

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Speaker 1: keeping track of your well. First, you have to calculate

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Speaker 1: your menstrual cycles and keep track with him for about

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Speaker 1: twelve months. Keep an eye on that cervical mucus, keep

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Speaker 1: your you know, your basil, body temperature, and chick. It's okay,

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Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say. It's a lot more work

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Speaker 1: than than popping a pill every month. But nevertheless, because

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Speaker 1: it's not popping a pill, it is worth it for

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Speaker 1: some women. But for just the straight up rhythm method.

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Speaker 1: What are we talking about, Caroline? So this is when

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Speaker 1: the woman tracks her minstrel history, like you said, for

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Speaker 1: twelve orent months depends. Some people just do it for

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Speaker 1: half a year. Uh. So they tracked the minstrel history

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Speaker 1: to predict when she will ovulate, to help determine when

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Speaker 1: she's most likely to conceive. And this helps you determine

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Speaker 1: the best days to have sex to get pregnant or

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Speaker 1: the best days to have sex to not get pregnant. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and because uh, a lot of women will have irregular

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Speaker 1: cycles that some will last longer than others. Ladies, you

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Speaker 1: know what we're talking about. Um, you you want to have,

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Speaker 1: like you said, some Caroline, some people will just track

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Speaker 1: their mentoral cycles for six months. You probably want to

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Speaker 1: do that for and this is coming from the Mayo Clinic,

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Speaker 1: for closer to a year because of those varying lengths.

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Speaker 1: And so once you have collected all of that data,

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Speaker 1: you then do some adding and subtracting to determine the

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Speaker 1: longest menstrual cycle and the shortest minstrel cycle and the

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Speaker 1: window of time between that, which could be a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks out of the month. But it involves doing math,

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Speaker 1: that's says the journalism agents, like you have to you

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Speaker 1: have to find the length of your shortest minstrual cycle

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Speaker 1: and subtract eighteen that's the first fertile day of your cycle.

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Speaker 1: Then you have to find the length of your longest

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Speaker 1: minstrual cycle and subtract eleven from the total number of days. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and that's the last frittile day of your cycle. And

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into the math any more

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Speaker 1: than that because I would confuse myself and I would

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Speaker 1: confuse our dear listeners. There's probably I'm gonna guess that

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Speaker 1: there's an app for this. Yes, And actually I was

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Speaker 1: talking to a woman not long ago who I brought

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Speaker 1: up the Rhythm Method because I just can't help talking

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Speaker 1: about the podcast. Yeah. Um, and she she actually used it,

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Speaker 1: and she was very excited. I wish I could remember

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Speaker 1: and maybe a listener can fill me in, But she

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Speaker 1: was very excited about this calendar she bought that in

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Speaker 1: the back of it had like all of these different

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Speaker 1: calendars for women consumers of that calendar to track their

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Speaker 1: minstrel cycles. Yeah, and that would be I could see

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Speaker 1: how I would be really uh, I don't know, kind

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Speaker 1: of cool maybe to get that in touch with your body.

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Speaker 1: But it does take a lot of of work and

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Speaker 1: a lot of upkeep and a lot of abstinence, which

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Speaker 1: can be frustrating for couples and is a reason why

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Speaker 1: it's not always one reason why it's not always so

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Speaker 1: fool proof. Right. But um. Even though the Rhythm Method

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Speaker 1: might not be like as popular today, it was a

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Speaker 1: first and significant step toward family planning when it was

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Speaker 1: developed by doctor John Rock, who was a Catholic doctor

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Speaker 1: who thought that parents should have more resources for planning.

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Speaker 1: Family planning, and him being a Catholic doctor in particular

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Speaker 1: is significant because a lot of times the Rhythm method

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Speaker 1: is referred to as the Vatican roulette Um because by

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Speaker 1: and we'll get into this in more detail, the Catholic

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Speaker 1: Church's official stance on family planning is that you need

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Speaker 1: to go all natural. But back to Dr Rock, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Rock was very passionate actually about the notion that women

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Speaker 1: should have control over their own reproductive systems. And as

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Speaker 1: as a Roman Catholic, he said, you know, you should

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Speaker 1: have as many children as you have the means to support,

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Speaker 1: but women should have the power to stop expanding their families.

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Speaker 1: He actually founded the Rhythm Clinic in nineteen thirty six

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Speaker 1: at the Free Hospital for Women which is now Brigham

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Speaker 1: and Women's Hospital, and he would hand out you know,

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Speaker 1: I say hand out, you know, being frivolous, he would

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Speaker 1: give patients a scientific prediction dial yeah um. Over at

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Speaker 1: Harvard Magazine, they have an image of this ninety four

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Speaker 1: rhythm meter which was almost like it's a combination like

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Speaker 1: like it reminded me like of a of a most

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Speaker 1: complicated like avocus, so you could think of had like

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Speaker 1: a dial with a chart with a calendar. I think

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Speaker 1: that you needed a PhD. From Harvard to understand the

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Speaker 1: rhythm meter um. But really, at the time, in ninety

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Speaker 1: the rhythm meth it was the only like legal form

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Speaker 1: of birth control in Massachusetts, so you had to, you know,

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Speaker 1: get in there and do it. But then um, in

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Speaker 1: the early fifties, Dr Rocks Clinic conducted the first trials

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Speaker 1: of hormone based contraception that would later be branded as

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Speaker 1: in Avid UH podcast. All star listeners out there, you

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Speaker 1: probably know that is the name brand of the first

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Speaker 1: FDA approved birth control pill available in the United States. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: going back a little bit, this is writer Paul Vitterbo

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Speaker 1: in the journal Endeavor from March two thousand four, who

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Speaker 1: wrote what was the great title of the article I

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Speaker 1: Got Rhythm, Gershwin and birth Control in the nineteen thirties,

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Speaker 1: which officially is maybe my favorite study title that I've

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Speaker 1: ever run across. Do you want to hear a little

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Speaker 1: bit of the abstract please? Okay, because I couldn't find

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Speaker 1: the full text and I was very disappointed. Uh, he

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Speaker 1: writes Gershwin song I Got Rhythm serves here as a

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Speaker 1: backdrop representing the social context of the interwar yors on

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Speaker 1: center stage the particular aspect of the history of birth

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Speaker 1: control the app application of a new theory of ovulation

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Speaker 1: and contraception. For a short period, women could join ethel

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Speaker 1: Merman in the refrain I got rhythm, I got my man.

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Speaker 1: Who could ask for anything more? But the rhythm method

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Speaker 1: has not lived to its promise? And the play goes on. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he writes, the starting in night experiments finally revealed the

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Speaker 1: biochemical rhythm and women's reproductive cycle, which contradicted the idea

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Speaker 1: that ovulation and pregnancy could occur at any time. Prior

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Speaker 1: to this, most people kind of misunderstood ovulation and when

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Speaker 1: it happened. Uh. This is coming from Case Western Reserve University.

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Speaker 1: By studying animal behavior, researchers thought women were safe from

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Speaker 1: pregnancy at the midpoint of their minstrual cycle, which is

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Speaker 1: in fact when most women are most likely to conceive UM.

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Speaker 1: So we we get the we get the rhythm method.

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Speaker 1: And and even though that's only the starting point, like

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Speaker 1: one one step along the way to developing um hormonal contraception,

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Speaker 1: it sticks around, particularly in the Catholic community, and I

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Speaker 1: feel like we need to talk about that because it

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Speaker 1: is it's a very pertinent point. UM and I am

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Speaker 1: I am not a Catholic and wanted to know specifically

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Speaker 1: why the Rhythm method is closely associated with Catholicism and

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Speaker 1: the church's position on birth control relates directly to Pope

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Speaker 1: Paul the Six Six Thesists UH nineteen sixty eight Humanitie Vita,

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Speaker 1: in which he said that contraception was quote intrinsically wrong.

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Speaker 1: And that was from Timothy Egan writing about it in

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Speaker 1: the New York Times. But if you look at surveys

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Speaker 1: now of birth control methods practiced among American Catholics UM

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Speaker 1: and also just opinion polls UM on Catholics regarding birth control,

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Speaker 1: a majority of them now out say that the church's

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Speaker 1: position is a bit outdated. And in addition, a goot

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Speaker 1: Mocker Institute survey found that nine percent of sexually active

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Speaker 1: Catholic women have used a birth control other than the

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Speaker 1: Rhythm method. Because even UM, like when they're talking about

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Speaker 1: contraception being intrinsically wrong, that includes Stephen condoms. Well, one

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Speaker 1: Catholic woman who is very very pro Rhythm method, This

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Speaker 1: is Anne Green over at us Catholic dot org, she

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Speaker 1: read a really long piece about her own involvement in

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Speaker 1: When she and her husband were about to get married,

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Speaker 1: they had counseling and they learned about the rhythm method,

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Speaker 1: and like now they're crazy about it, and they teach

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Speaker 1: other couples about that method. And she wrote that in

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Speaker 1: addition to church approval, Mike and I appreciate the health

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Speaker 1: aspects of natural family planning, and like we said, that

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Speaker 1: kind of encompasses a lot of methods, then just the

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Speaker 1: rhythm methods, right, that's distinct from the rhythm method before

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Speaker 1: people start furiously typing, Yeah, exactly. Um, she said, more

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Speaker 1: people hold their food up to close scrutiny is it

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Speaker 1: organic or natural? In the same spirit, women who practice

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Speaker 1: natural family planning do not ingest artificial hormones containing possibly

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Speaker 1: toxic ingredients manufactured in an unknown pharmaceutical plant. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: I and I can completely understand that motivation. And and and also,

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Speaker 1: UH didn't mean to imply earlier that, um Catholic, all

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Speaker 1: Catholic women have just you know, thrown the uh Pope

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Speaker 1: Paul the Sixes advice out the window. There's still plenty

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Speaker 1: of women who Catholic women especially who prefer to stick

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Speaker 1: with the rhythm method or natural family planning or similar

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Speaker 1: forms of birth control. UM. But when it comes to

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Speaker 1: just the rhythm method itself of tracking the menstrual cycle

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Speaker 1: and paying attention to the calendar, not the whole all

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Speaker 1: the stuff with the body temperature and the cervical mucus, Uh,

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Speaker 1: there are UM low lights to those free and natural highlights.

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Speaker 1: For instance, the birth rate resulting out from the rhythm

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Speaker 1: method is not very impressive with typical use. Women out

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Speaker 1: of a hundred will get pregnant via rhythm method in

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Speaker 1: a year. Yeah, and that's I mean specifying that's unintended pregnancy.

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Speaker 1: That's not using it to get pregnant, right um. And also,

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Speaker 1: of course, the rhythm method does not protect because it's

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Speaker 1: not a barrier method. It is not protect against st

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Speaker 1: d s, s, t I S and the like. So

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Speaker 1: if you are not in a committed monogamous relationship, the

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Speaker 1: rhythm methods should certainly not stand alone. Right. Saying is

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Speaker 1: if you to read between those lines, I'm saying, use

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Speaker 1: condoms people. So that led to maybe the ultimate question

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Speaker 1: here regarding the rhythm method is not so much whether

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Speaker 1: or not it is effective. UM. But whether or not

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Speaker 1: it is really just the relic of a bygone era

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Speaker 1: of birth control before hormonal birth control and contraception was

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Speaker 1: legal in the United States, Because, according to statistics from

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Speaker 1: these Centers for Disease Control and Prevention UM, the Rhythm

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Speaker 1: method use among women fifteen to forty four years old

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Speaker 1: you have ever had intercourse since from two thousand and

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Speaker 1: six to two thousand eight, the percent of women who

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Speaker 1: had ever used it nineteen point point four percent, but

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Speaker 1: the percent of women who are currently using the Rhythm

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Speaker 1: method only point five per cent. Yeah, very very low

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Speaker 1: occurrence of that, but people relying on it. But then, uh,

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Speaker 1: there was a report. This is also coming from CDC statistics.

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Speaker 1: If you narrow that population down to younger women, the

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Speaker 1: Rhythm method might be becoming more popular. Yeah. According to

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Speaker 1: the CDC, sevent of teenage girls said they use the

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Speaker 1: Rhythm Method, up from eleven reported in a two thousand

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Speaker 1: two survey. But nevertheless, condoms withdrawal and birth control pills

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Speaker 1: were more popular, or I should say, are more popular

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Speaker 1: among sexually active teens. But for that age group, I

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Speaker 1: think it's still a call to or a sign that

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Speaker 1: we need more comprehensive sex education, especially in the United States,

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Speaker 1: because the rhythm method isn't protecting. Again, it's not protecting

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Speaker 1: against s T I S. It's a to me, it

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Speaker 1: is a signaled that we are thinking exclusively about pregnancy

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Speaker 1: risk and not about the um more dire I would

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Speaker 1: say s T I risk. Not to say that like

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Speaker 1: unintended pregnant CE is just like a moot point, but

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like the you can't you

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Speaker 1: can't forget about the other one as well and call

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Speaker 1: it call it a day. Yeah. Well, plus I mean, okay,

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Speaker 1: not to trivialize this, but do you remember being a teenager,

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Speaker 1: did you have time to like track your menstrual cycle

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Speaker 1: on a calendar every day, every week, every month. My

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Speaker 1: mother would get mad at me every day because I

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Speaker 1: would come home and instead of having a calendar, I

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Speaker 1: used my hand and sharpie and it was just covered

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Speaker 1: in things. I thought it was incredibly unladylike. So but

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Speaker 1: I mean, I guess you could keep your your menstrual

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Speaker 1: cycle on your hand if you went on to just

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Speaker 1: wear white gloves over dainty white glove. But again, there's

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Speaker 1: probably an app for that. But yeah, in terms of effectiveness, though,

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Speaker 1: the rhythm method is really uh, not where it's at,

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Speaker 1: but more UM intensive natural family planning methods, the sympto

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Speaker 1: thermal method, those have had higher rates of success. But

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Speaker 1: again that's with perfect use. You've got to look at

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Speaker 1: when you're looking at UM. If you are deciding a

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Speaker 1: type of natural family planning, be sure to look at

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Speaker 1: study methodologies and see if it's a typical use, because folks,

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Speaker 1: humans are forgetful creatures and we slip up a lot

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Speaker 1: of times. We were not perfect when we um take

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Speaker 1: our take our pills, or chart our cervical mucus secretions.

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Speaker 1: I'm intentionally saying that to make Caroline wins. I'm not

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Speaker 1: making a face. I'm definitely not making a face that

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Speaker 1: comfortable with your body. Caroline. That's fine. It's just the

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Speaker 1: idea of mucus in any form wherever it comes out

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Speaker 1: of take. And I will say that in the future,

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Speaker 1: we are planning to do an episode on withdrawal because

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Speaker 1: there have been those studies that have come out in

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Speaker 1: the past couple of years saying that withdrawals maybe just

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Speaker 1: as effective as birth control pills, so we need to

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Speaker 1: take a look at that as well. Things to look

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Speaker 1: forward to on stuff Mom Never told me you? Is

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Speaker 1: that a Freudian slip? So uh, send us to your

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Speaker 1: story people who have tried the rhythm method. If you've

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Speaker 1: been successful, or if you're listening to this while holding

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Speaker 1: a baby, um right to us mom stuff at Discovery

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Speaker 1: dot com. We're head on over to our Facebook page

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Speaker 1: where you can start a conversation with other listeners. So

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Speaker 1: before we get to our listener mail, I've got a

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Speaker 1: quick word from our sponsor that brought you this episode

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Speaker 1: Told You might enjoy the documentary Paris Is Burning, which

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00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:33,040
Speaker 1: our letters to kick things off. I've got one here

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Speaker 1: from Audrey on pregnancy sex. This is very appropriate for

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Speaker 1: this episode. She rights, Hello, ladies. First off, I had

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Speaker 1: to laugh and that is in all caps. Ha ha ha.

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Speaker 1: Pardon me about your ladist show topic. I am on

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Speaker 1: my third pregnancy and number one, I never had that

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Speaker 1: weird pregnancy confidence that you discussed. It sounds bizarre. Number two,

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Speaker 1: I never had a glow that intrigued My husband said

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Speaker 1: my that I was irresistible. Uh. Number three, I never

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Speaker 1: had a second trimester surgeon hormones that made me feel

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Speaker 1: recklessly randy. Mostly the first trimester is terrible. The second

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Speaker 1: trimester you feel better. But I guess it depends on

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Speaker 1: the woman if you really feel like having sex and

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Speaker 1: third trimester usually the only reason to have sex is

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Speaker 1: to induce labor. Something about the semen on the cervix

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Speaker 1: stimulates labor. I'm sure other women may have had different experiences,

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Speaker 1: and I'm certain it also depends if it's the first

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Speaker 1: pregnancy or if you're taking care of toddlers and still

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Speaker 1: getting up at night. Wow. Yeah, I can see how

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Speaker 1: that might put a crimping things. My hubby shirts seems

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Speaker 1: more interested in me. And my friend said her husband

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Speaker 1: was really into her when she was pregnant, something about

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Speaker 1: being really proud of creating her new shape. And I

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Speaker 1: would guess that it all depends on the woman's usual

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Speaker 1: drive too. She writes, Uh, you'll get a kid kick

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Speaker 1: out of this CareLine. I can't wait for you gals

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Speaker 1: to re listen to the show when you're expecting, whenever

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Speaker 1: or if ever that happens. So, I would say, based

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Speaker 1: on the emails that we received regarding pregnancy sex, the

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Speaker 1: one thing that is consistently stood up of everything that

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Speaker 1: we talked about is men being more attracted to pregnant

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Speaker 1: women as a number one thing being confirmed. Interesting, take

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Speaker 1: it away, Caroline, um. So, speaking of like, you know,

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Speaker 1: everything that we just talked about with the Rhythm method

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Speaker 1: and natural family planning, we have a letter from Ellen

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Speaker 1: who actually was writing to request the preceding episode, okay,

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Speaker 1: and we just totally like knocked it out of the

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Speaker 1: ballpark and got it before she even Yeah, We're like

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Speaker 1: you're welcome Ellen, episode for you Ellen. So she says,

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Speaker 1: I am a Roman Catholic, and I have heard a

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Speaker 1: lot about natural family planning. I try to be open

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Speaker 1: minded and non judgmental, so I understand that this method

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Speaker 1: of preventing or delaying pregnancy is not for everyone. My

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Speaker 1: request is that you try to incorporate this method into

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Speaker 1: your podcasts more, just so that your listeners are aware

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Speaker 1: of it. Too often people did not know it exists

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Speaker 1: or they don't think it will work. I like this

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Speaker 1: method because it enables the woman and her partner to

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Speaker 1: get in touch with her body or with their bodies,

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Speaker 1: rather than just taking a magical pill or i U

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Speaker 1: D that will keep a baby away. Also, maybe I'm biased,

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Speaker 1: but I have read that natural family planning is more

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Speaker 1: effective and she has in parentheses. Natural family planning doesn't

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Speaker 1: have to just be for Catholics either, Many couples could

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Speaker 1: benefit from it. It doesn't disrupt the natural hormonal rhythm

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Speaker 1: of a woman, resulting in a real period each month,

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Speaker 1: nor does it require the desynsitization of a condom, So

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Speaker 1: although the couple will have to limit their amount of sex,

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Speaker 1: it will be better sex and they will both get

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Speaker 1: more enjoyment from it. What I would really like to

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Speaker 1: stress to young adults today is that there is nothing

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Speaker 1: wrong with our bodies. Periods are not gross, they are

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Speaker 1: a natural and healthy process. Vaginas and servixes are not disgusting.

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Speaker 1: And yes, we should get in touch with ourselves and

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Speaker 1: inspect down there. It's there anyway, and ignoring does you

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Speaker 1: no good. And I totally Ellen, Yeah, I agree, get

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Speaker 1: down there, investigate, get to know your body, be happy

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Speaker 1: with your body, et cetera. You be your own vaginal

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Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes wear a hat. So thanks Ellen, and thanks

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Speaker 1: to everyone who's written into mom Stuff at Discovery dot com.

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Speaker 1: You can also find us on Facebook like it's over there,

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00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: leave us a comment or tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast,

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00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:21,320
Speaker 1: and you can also head over to our tumbler and

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00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:24,200
Speaker 1: follow us there It's stuff Mom Never Told You dot

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00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 1: tumbler dot com. And if you would like to learn

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Speaker 1: more about pregnancy and birth control, do we have so

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Speaker 1: many articles for you at our website It's how stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com for more on this and thousands of

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Speaker 1: other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com