The Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University has developed a new method of NFP called the "Two Day Method".
The idea behind it is simple: if you observe ANY cervical mucus today or yesterday, consider yourself fertile.
Otherwise you're not fertile.
That's it in a nutshell. (But don't try it until you actually learn it-- that's a summary, not a lesson!)
It's been shown to be 96% effective with "perfect use" and 86% effective with "typical use".
With perfect use, you have a 1 in 25 chance of getting pregnant. With typical use it's 1 in 7.
Depending on whose numbers you use, it approximates the failure rates of condoms, which fail 2%-15% of the time.
And oh yeah: post-partum women should wait 3 menstrual cycles before using it.
Here's a summary of a study done in Rwanda
Here's the actual paper
The beauty of this method: it's so simple. You don't even have to judge the "type" of secretions, like you would with the Sympto-Thermal method.
For some women, it could mean more fertile days. For others, it could mean fewer. It depends on your personal patterns. I suspect you could be thrown off if you eat certain foods that produce secretions, such as popcorn or carrots.
The thing that reassures me about the Sympto-thermal method is that you KNOW when you ovulate. If you've ovulated and several days have passed, you can't get pregnant. It's simple.
For more social conservative news check out BigBlueWave.ca