I’ve been having trouble finding official information on this event  this weekend, but it was posted on the Facebook NFP Page. If you’re in the Houston area on April 30, 2011, and would like to hear Dr. Thomas Hilgers, founder of the Creighton Method and developer of NaProTechnology, you should go. The talk is at 10am in Jones Hall at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX.

Btw, did you know Dr. H has a web site? I didn’t know, either. (Link above. )

Well, I don’t know exactly how new it is, but I just noticed it. There are easily discernable sections, an updated header, and a font/ font size big enough to read! Now we just have to get Creighton and Hilgers to combine their many web sites into just one!

Kudos, PPVI Institute. Keep the updates coming!

6.2 million women experience some sort of compromised fertility in the United States. Are you one of them? If you are blessed with your full fertility, chances are you know someone who struggles with or has struggled with it.

In this FertilityCare Consult episode, show number fourteen on Infertility, Dr. Thomas Hilgers talks about the major differences between the ordinary approach to treating infertility and the FertilityCare and NaProTechnology way. The ordinary way is to treat the symptoms, and if all else fails, try IVF. The NaProTechnology way is to begin learning about and charting your cycle through the Creighton Method of FertilityCare, then working with your FertilityCare Practitioner and Medical Consultant to identify and diagnose the underlying problem to the compromised fertility. Napro treats the disease, not the symptom, and with much higher success, lower cost and much less suffering.

Do you know the success rate of pregnancies achieved and carried to term with IVF? It’s in the low to mid 20 %. With the Creighton Method of FertilityCare (charting your cycle) and subsequent diagnoses and treatment, do you know what the success rate is? At the lowest, it’s around 35%, and at best 80%, depending on the underlying cause.

If you’ve been having difficulty achieving a pregnancy, or have had recurrent miscarriages, you’ll definitely want to listen to this episode. You may wish to follow up by listening to the episode on Recurrent Miscarriages. So many people have amazing stories of going through the IVF process, only to find disappointment or disillusionment. But there is hope. Please pass this on to any one who might be interested or find healing in new hope for infertility, as well as insight for women’s wellness.

Henri Magritte, The Lovers

Have you listened to the previous podcasts with Dr. Thomas Hilgers? Your FertilityCare Consultant extraordinaire is back in show nine of sixteen, and the third on contraception.

In this show, host Chris McGregor continues her discussion with Hilgers on the dangers and ills of contraception, and will focus this time on barrier methods, which an additional overview of DepoProvera.

Condoms, female condoms and diaphragms are featured not only as purely contraceptive (contra–against, -ception–conception), which is slightly different than oral contraceptives, which have a contraceptive intent, but an abortafacient back up function.

So while barrier methods don’t have an abortafacient intent in their function, Dr. Hilgers speaks of the physical, emotional and spiritual barriers that develop as a result. The painting by Henri Magritte, above, to me illustrates exactly what a condom does in a relationship, whatever your religious or personal beliefs. Somebody else thought so, too, and graces the cover of Donald DeMarco’s “New Perspectives on Contraception.”

This is a fascinating insight which is being confirmed by studies that indicate that women who don’t use barrier methods during intercourse have much lower levels of depression. There is a chemical in semen that seems to facilitate lower rates of depression. Who knew? For more information on studies such as this (and a full bibliography), and you’re in the Midwest/ Madison, WI area, come to Vicki Thorn’s Lecture “The Biochemistry of Sex,” or what a friend calls, “What you didn’t learn in sex ed”!

Up next on the FertilityCare iPod: Teens & the Birth Control Pill.

Chris McGregor continues her interviews with Dr. Thomas Hilgers. We continue from the last post with “Contraception, p.2.” Dr. Hilgers talks about the orgin of the IUD (camels? really?), development of contraceptive technology, the politics of redefining pregnancy, the side effects of it all…

Dr. Thomas Hilgers is a rock star of reproductive health. Truly is on the avant-garde of  women’s health, and  his groundbreaking work is hidden from the masses. He approaches fertility as something beautiful and dignified,  rather than the disease that many people think it is. He’s the Director of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and the National Center for Women’s Health in Omaha, Nebraska. Last year he teamed up with an Omaha radio station to produce a number of shows. This week’s feature is Contraception, Part1.

About Dr. Hilgers: Thomas W. Hilgers, MD, is the director of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and the National Center for Women’s Health in Omaha, Nebraska. Working at the St. Louis University and Creighton University Schools of Medicine, Hilgers and his coworkers developed the Creighton Model FertilityCare System. Dr. Hilgers is currently a senior medical consultant in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine and surgery at the Pope Paul VI Institute. He is a clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska. In 1994, Dr. Hilgers was appointed to permanent membership to the Pontifical Academy for Life. In 2004, Dr. Hilgers published the definitive textbook on natural procreative technology, The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaProTECHNOLOGY.