About NaPro Technology
Natural Procreative (NaPro) Technology is a root-cause approach to reproductive health and seeks to uphold the dignity of every woman, child, and family, while seeking to find and heal the underlying causes of reproductive health problems, including infertility.
NaPro also provides effective, cycle-cooperative treatment for problems like PMS, PMDD (severe PMS; ever feel like you can’t leave your house for several days each month?), PCOS, painful periods, postpartum depression and anxiety, cyclical migraines, and recurrent miscarriage.
Monica began her journey into the Creighton Model and NaPro Technology after the frightening obstetric emergencies she experienced, and the decision she and her husband made to live with a continued openness to life, without fear of future pregnancy. After listening to a presentation by Dr. Christopher Stroud, MD, OB-Gyn, and realizing that the NaPro approaches ~ the result of the amazing work of Dr. Thomas Hilgers, MD, OBGyn at the St. Paul VI Institute ~ he described could have saved her and her children from those emergencies and NICU experiences, she realized she had a calling to learn these tools and help make them more available to others. This training helped her see how very negatively fertility has been portrayed in culture and medicine (much of the focus in reproductive health being focused on how to turn fertility off), and how important it is to help women understand the beauty of their fertility, its relationship to their overall health, and the tools at their disposal to heal the issues that may threaten it.
NaPro is evidence-based, in ever-increasing demand, and utilizes some lifestyle and conventional medical approaches, as well as protocols using hormones when appropriate, and other treatments. In NaPro we never use artificial hormones or “artimones” as Dr. Hilgers refers to them, such as non-progesterone progestins or the other artificial “hormone-like” compounds in birth control pills that disable the body’s normal hormone signaling and reproductive processes (and often cause many other problems). "Artimones" are not natural to the body and are poor substitute for "the real thing." In NaPro Technology, we only use true hormones, such as real progesterone, and always properly timed to the cycle. This proper timing to the cycle can be accomplished because of the biomarkers a woman learns when she uses the Creighton Model FertilityCare System to track her cycle.
NaPro Technology is based on the Creighton Model FertilityCare System (cervical mucus based charting for tracking the woman’s cycle and seeing the many clinically relevant biomarkers in her chart), and can only be used in conjunction with the Creighton Model chart, with two important exceptions: current pregnancy, and post-partum depression.
If you are currently pregnant and have a history of: miscarriage, recurrent miscarriage, preeclampsia pregnancy induced hypertension or HELLP syndrome, preterm labor, PROM, prematurity, stillbirth, short cervix/cerclage, placental abruption, infertility, congenital uterine anomaly, or have a low progesterone level or pregnancy with multiples*
OR if you are experiencing post partum depression symptoms (such as strange or dark thoughts, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, disproportionate tearfulness or overwhelm, hot flashes, hopelessness, shakiness), there are excellent, effective NaPro protocols to help these situations and no current or previous Creighton charting is needed. Please email to schedule an appointment; openings are generally maintained for these issues so that you can be seen quickly, usually within days or a week.
*from Table 55-2, p. 728 from the NaPro textbook
FertilityCare Practitioners, who teach the Creighton Model System, and Medical Consultants for NaPro Technology do not recommend any approach for reproductive health that compromises or destroys fertility or the health or dignity of any person; therefore, no providers or staff at FFNW recommend, prescribe or refer for abortion, sterilization, contraceptives of any type, or any artificial reproductive technology, such as IVF, GIFT, ICSI, etc. However, patients who have used these approaches in the past are very welcome to seek help with our Creighton Model FertilityCare, NaPro and/or Functional Medicine services!
Some reproductive problems may need care beyond what can be accomplished medically, and may require a surgical solution. What makes NaPro surgeons different? NaPro surgeons, like NaPro medical consultants, work through a lens of upholding the dignity of the human person, having profound respect for the value of fertility and seeking true restoration of reproductive health. Surgical NaProTECHNOLOGY is "a specialized form of gynecologic surgery whose primary aim is to reconstruct the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries in such a way that pelvic adhesive disease can be eliminated and not caused by the surgical procedure itself. It is, in a sense, a “near-adhesion free” form of surgery." www.naprotechnology.com/surgical
Whether the issue is infertility or pelvic pain or irregular cycles, the woman's health should always be in a better place overall after NaPro Technology intervention. Unfortunately, this is not the case with many other common "reproductive health" approaches.
For more information:
Please see individual "Services" pages for more information on your area of concern.