Natural contraception using the Billings ovulation method

Abstract

Objective: The Billings ovulation method (BOM) is a medical model of a natural procreation education method based on scientific observation of the changes in the cervical mucus. In this study weexamined Turkish women's interest in accurate usage of cervical mucus changes in determining the ovulation time.Method: Fifteen regularly cycling women monitored their fertility patterns in30 cycles using the BOM and urine luteinizing hormone (LH) kits. At the end of each cycle, the cervical mucus monitoring chart and LH kits were collected from the subjects and analyzed.Results:The cervical mucus symptoms defined a potential fertile period of 10 days' average length, with the 'peak' mucus characteristic occurring at a mean of day 13.65 ± 2.62 of the cycle. The durationof the LH surge, as observed in early morning urine samples, averaged 5 days, with the peak occurring at a mean of day 13.40 ± 2.58 of the cycle. Data indicated that there was a strong correlationbetween LH in the urine and the peak in self-observed, cervical-vaginal mucus (p = 0.001).Conclusion: This study proved that women can distinguish patterns of ovulation and anovulationby self-detection of variations in cervical mucus characteristics, and that urinary LH levels strongly correlate with ovulation.