Con·vic·tion
/kcn0vikSH(c)n 1) an instance of being convicted of a criminal offense. 2) the action or process of convicting. 3) a firmly held belief or opinion. 4) the quality of showing that one is convinced of what one believes or says.

We’re not talking about the legal definition of the word; we’re talking about the convictions we hold in our hearts - our world view.   Our beliefs help us make choices that guide us to keep us accountable to our God.  Having a conviction and living it showcases our beliefs.  This showcase can have unintended consequences.  That is very true for BOMA’s dear friend, Dr. Mary Martin.

As a new practitioner, Dr. Martin faced the challenge of being a female in a field dominated by men, so dealing with the “good ol’ boy” fraternity was nothing new once she graduated and started her practice.  She was managing things well, despite the male dominance until March 1, 1999.  That was the day God convicted her about prescribing birth control, and she made a decision to stop.  From that moment on she has faced increasing opposition and “push back” from the establishment when she applied for positions to practice at hospitals and medical centers. Dr. Mary has lost a number of job opportunities because of her convictions.

Most recently Dr. Martin applied for an OB position in a practice in Cozad, Nebraska, a position for which she was hired. She bought a home, farmed out her horses, and was hours away from driving from Oklahoma to Nebraska when she got the call from the new CEO of the Nebraska company. The CEO was letting her know that they would not be hiring her.  Their former CEO knew about her convictions of not prescribing birth control, and had no problem with it; however, he had retired and the new CEO didn’t share the same perspective.  He didn’t believe that Dr. Martin would be a good fit within the practice.

Subsequently, she took a temporary position to provide gynecology care in a Federally-Qualified Health Center in Illinois and was to start in May of this year. The contract was withdrawn three days before she was to start because she doesn’t provide “full-service obstetrics & gynecology.” In other words, she doesn’t provide contraception.

Her most recent experience was with a Primary Care practice in Texas who hired her to provide OB/Gyn services. Once again, she prepared to move and was willing to start building her practice when she discovered that the clinic was supervised by an LPN who was not supportive of her plan to not to prescribe birth control.  She also discovered that the practice was short of funding and they refused to pay her what she was already owed. They also lowered her salary, in spite of her many years of experience in the field.

After grappling with that disappointment, and being unemployed since August of 2019, Dr. Martin found positions with three telemedicine companies providing a number of different services.  After she started the telemedicine jobs in July, she found that seeing patients online was a satisfying alternative to starting all over in a new practice in south Texas where she would have been the only employee.

Dr. Martin is very happy staying on her ranch in Oklahoma, working from the comfort of her own home. At the time of our interview she was looking forward to being reunited with her horses.  She has also renewed a relationship with someone she met when she was 15 years old, and is looking forward to seeing where that relationship goes.

In the future Dr. Martin is hopeful that she will be able to work for Evolve, a company that works with men and women who are seeking hormonal replacement therapy and which Dr. Martin’s practice has provided for many years. While her convictions created challenges, struggles, and heartache, she stood up for what she believed and persevered through it all.  We’re glad to see that she’s found a niche that allows her to provide medical care without the animosity she faced in years past, and we look forward to seeing her life unfold in the years to come!

​If you are interested connecting with Dr. Mary Martin you can contact her by emailing joe.miller@evolvecompanyinc.com for appointments. A patient care coordinator will first reach out for your medical history, etc. and then Dr. Mary Martin will join the call/telemedicine consult.

Q.        Conversion stories are usually fascinating. Please share how you ended up converting from Buddhism to Catholicism.

Strictly speaking, my parents were not Buddhists but Confucianists who taught us good manners, including respect for elders. And so, you can say I was brought up as a Confucianist.

When the time came for me to go to school in 1961, my father wanted to send me to his alma mater, an Anglican school (one of two top schools at that time, the other being the Catholic school); enrolment was full. Eventually, he sent me to the Catholic school. It was in this school that I learned Catholicism. When I was about to leave for New Zealand after high school in early 1975, I told a priest I was keen on becoming a Catholic. He advised me that time was too short for preparation but instead to approach a priest in New Zealand for help. I did this, and then I was baptized in New Zealand in July 1975.

Q.        Tell us about your family. Are you all currently living in Malaysia?

I am a 4th generation Malaysian. My great grandfather left China in search of greener pasture as a teenager in about 1850. His descendants and family are now dispersed in many countries throughout the world. We have two children; a boy, Aidan (Tiong-Eyong), and Lucinda (Hoon-Hong). They are both Billings children. They are still single, although Aidan was to be married in June this year.  The wedding had to be postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19. Lucinda graduated in English language and linguistics from Christchurch, New Zealand, and is currently teaching English in a language school in Shanghai. Aidan graduated in Mathematics and Economics from Cambridge, England, and has been working in monitoring share markets in Kuala Lumpur until a week ago when he relocated to Singapore but is still in the same line of work.

Q,        How did you first hear about the Billing Method™ after being a forester and making a rather dramatic career change to the healthcare field?  What inspired you to become much more involved?

Before I left for New Zealand (NZ) to study forestry in 1975, a local priest I knew well, even before I was Catholic, used to talk about the couple, Drs. John & Lyn Billings, and their Billings Ovulation Method®. At that stage, the Billings couple had been to my home city (Kuching) to give teaching sessions on the method.

One day while only a few months in NZ, I happened to be at the Christchurch Catholic Bookshop, and there I saw The Ovulation Method, the first book written by Dr. John Billings. Without hesitation, I bought the book.

In 1982, I returned home to Malaysia. In November 1984, I was engaged to Agnes, whom I had met after returning home. We were planning to be married on May 1, 1984, and shortly after the engagement, we looked for a Billings Ovulation Method® teacher and we found staff nurse Mary Lu.
Having found how beneficial and simple the method was, Agnes and I were always promoting and encouraging people to learn and use the method.

In 1987, my archdiocese started the Marriage Preparation Course, and the course included the Billings Ovulation Method® and still is part of it. I used to help Mary Lu when she was teaching the Billings Ovulation Method®, giving presentations on its use.

In 1994, a Teaching Training Program was being organized in Penang, and I decided to attend at my own cost. Then after being coached in the practicum, I started teaching the next year.  Within two years, the committee members of the Natural Family Planning Service of Malaysia (NFPSM), now known as Natural Fertility Awareness Service of Malaysia (NFASM), noticed somehow my progress and zeal and they asked me to join the training team.

In 1997, I was elected the Vice-President of NFPSM, and in 2001, the President.

A turning point occurred in the year 2000, the Jubilee Year. I saw that Melbourne was organizing a Jubilee Year Conference.  What came to my mind was this: “In a Jubilee Year, a person may make a special pilgrimage.   And for a Billings Ovulation Method® teacher, the ‘Rome’ is Melbourne, and to Melbourne, I must go.” It was there that I realized how far behind we were in Malaysia in the teaching of the method and, more importantly, how much I could learn. From the year 2000, I have attended every conference organized by WOOMB International or Ovulation Method Research and Reference Centre of Australia; I am still learning.

In the next five years or so, I was resolved to update all our Billings Ovulation Method® teachers throughout the country, a task which was difficult at times as old habits are hard to change.

In 2003, WOOMB International celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Billings Ovulation Method® with an international conference. As President of NFPSM, I managed to garner enough interest for a Malaysian delegation of 35 to attend the conference, including our Spiritual Director, Bishop Murphy Pakiam, who returned to Malaysia to become the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur.  This 2003 conference was noteworthy because I met Dr. Pilar Vigil for the first time – the beginning of a lot of learning for me because her research helps women discover their underlying health issues through their Billings Ovulation Method® charts.

In order to explain the change from Forestry to Natural Medicine, I must emphasize that the Natural Medicine resulted from the Billings Ovulation Method® and not the other way around. So it was from Forestry to the Billings Ovulation Method®, then on to Natural Medicine. Let me explain.  As I stated, my involvement in the Billings Ovulation Method® went deeper and deeper to the extent that we needed to promote it among the doctors of the medical sector. Without some medical background, the doctors would wonder if I was speaking confidently on the medical aspects of the Billings Ovulation Method®. When I reached this crossroad, I was already in my mid-40s, not only a little too old to start a full medical degree, but also opportunities did not abound in Malaysia. It was then that a friend introduced me to a course in Natural Medicine!

Q.        Back in the day, international conferences in Australia included natives Drs. John and Lyn Billings, Dr. James Brown, Dr. Kevin Hume, and occasionally, Dr. Erik Odeblad of Sweden. How did your frequent attendance at those conferences and the ability to personally meet with the leaders influence you?

Of your list, the only one I never met was the deceased Dr. Erik Odeblad.

In 2000, it was a very emotional moment to meet Drs. John and Lyn Billings for the first time. They appeared at dinner before the conference started, and as they entered, somehow the atmosphere changed. I found them to have no special airs but the ever-willingness to share with people. Gentle and kind are probably the simplest yet most appropriate descriptions.  I have learned this from them.
Dr. James Brown was a real keen scientist, always wanting to uncover the truth and was always enthusiastic in sharing his findings. This certainly had a bearing on my approach to understanding fertility, particularly the concept of the ovarian continuum. I certainly want to emulate his enthusiasm.

Although soft-spoken, Dr. Kevin Hume was always a keen promoter of the Billings Ovulation Method® and he never failed to find opportunities to do so.   I, too, always look for the slightest opportunity to encourage and teach the Billings Ovulation Method®. Perhaps unknown to many, Dr. Hume served in Labuan Island, Malaysia, right after World War II giving medical attention to Australian forces.

Q.        As a trainer of Billings teachers, are people coming to you for Teacher Training with a Billings background, or are they like those in the United States who often have experience with other methods, particularly the Creighton Model?

We don’t have any other natural family planning methods in Malaysia. Trainees are either from purely Billings Ovulation Method® background or from artificial methods.

Q.        With COVID-19, how are your remote trainings going?  We have seen a significant serge in the number of teachers we are training now that we offer remote trainings and not just the correspondence course.

We have not had a Teacher Training Program in COVID-19 times. If there are requests from our local representatives, we may go into remote training.

Q.        What are some of the challenges you face in Malaysia regarding the acceptance of the Billings Method™?

Most people are open to it, but some may resort back to rhythm thinking once they see they have ‘normal’ cycles of 28-32 days. Then they are very surprised one day when they suddenly have unplanned pregnancies.  They wonder why the Billings Ovulation Method® is not reliable when, in fact, they are not practicing the Billings Ovulation Method®.

No matter how much we stress the importance of day-to-day observation and tracking fertility, there are usually some who eventually fall back to the Rhythm Method.

Another challenge we have is that the state medical system is pushing hard for contraceptives when mothers return for postpartum follow-ups. Part of the KPI (key performance index) of each maternal and child health clinic is measured by the number of couples they serve who are using contraceptives.

One very common challenge is getting women to pay attention to vulval sensations, which are more important than the discharge they may see. We are told to tell women to go back and do their observations, then come back say two weeks later with their chart for a follow-up. What happens is the chart will come back with most, if not all, descriptions of what discharge they may see. I then discovered that in our local situation (and true around the world), when we tell a woman to observe, they automatically think that means ‘observe with the eyes.’ So, we need to emphasize that the key observation is the sensation during teaching.

Likewise, when women here record ‘cloudy sticky’ or ‘sticky cloudy,’ most would mean that it looks ‘cloudy’ as well as looks ‘sticky.’ So it is not a description of sensation. By ‘sticky,’ they usually mean it looks thick like nose mucus at the end of the flu.

Q.        Over the last couple of decades and as one of the WOOMB Directors, you have been committed to helping the Billings Ovulation Method® both nationally and internationally.  We know the Billings Method has not changed once the rules were defined, but what about our teaching approach? Has that changed much during the past several years?

I think the approach over the years to teaching has changed, though not dramatically. The reason for this is that research has been on-going, and we are becoming clearer on the science behind the method and the charts. And we are continually improving, making the teaching simple and easy to understand by women themselves. The ‘invention’ of the slide rule comes to mind.Q.        We have enjoyed having you as a speaker for a couple of our conferences. We especially appreciate the case studies that you share. We are looking forward to your November 17 webinar when you will discuss infertility along with the importance of Vitamin D. How did you become interested in the role of Vitamin D and fertility?

If I remember correctly, at the 2003 Golden Jubilee conference, Dr. Pilar Vigil spoke about how fertility can be affected by Vitamin D deficiency and other underlying causes of menstrual abnormality. (Note that by ‘menstrual abnormality,’ I include women with regular bleeds but not ovulating.)

At first, I did not pay too much attention to it and hardly sent women for Vitamin D tests. Then I heard Billings Ovulation Method® teacher Darcy Hemsted from the USA spoke a few times at meetings on the importance of Vitamin D.  Eventually, I got the message.  Now, I will not miss testing Vitamin D for women with difficulty conceiving. Even in a tropical country like Malaysia, people suffer from Vitamin D deficiency.

Q.        We know from the work of Dr. Pilar Vigil that what is considered a normal Vitamin D level is quite low in her professional opinion. What are the latest levels that Dr. Vigil recommends for healthy fertility (and good health, in general)?

Dr. Pilar Vigil sets her minimum 25-Hydroxy-Vitamin D level at 80 nmol/L or 32 ng/mL. Some labs are using 75 nmol/L in Malaysia, but it seems in many countries, 60 nmol/L is quite common.

A few years ago, I presented a case study at a BOMA-USA conference in either 2014 or 2016. The case was a Malaysian woman who was not ovulating when her level was 62 nmol/L, although she was regularly bleeding. She had been trying to conceive for six years. Her chart shows much improvement after supplementing her with Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) until she reached ovulation. She eventually conceived. Dr. John Worden, who was in the audience, commented that labs were still using 60 nmol/L in the USA.

At an Australian natural fertility conference in 2014, I presented the same case study. Dr. Raffaella Pingitore, a gynecologist from Lugano, Switzerland, who was in the audience, commented that 60 nmol/L was used in Europe.
 
Dr. Lek-Lim will be presenting a webinar for BOMA-USA on Tuesday, November 17 at 8:00 pm. If you’d like to register, sign up here.
 

Check out this great online conference with featured speaker, Scott Hann!

He will include success stories and explain the importance of adequate Vitamin D levels.

Tuesday, Nov. 17th
8 pm Central
$25 (members)
​$40 (non-members)

If you enjoy social media and are interested in helping us get the word out, we are looking for a volunteer to help our PR Committee.  The impact of social media in today’s culture is powerful!
Help us reach our ideal audience. Contact Ann Marschel at amarschel21@gmail.com.

by Heidi Giroux, P.T.

My interest in Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy came shortly after the birth of my first son. I had third-degree tears and significant swelling; recovery was slow. Although the birth of this baby was surrounded by excitement, the aftermath induced a bit of fear.

I remember being in the parking lot approximately five weeks postpartum and carrying my son in the car seat. I had a full bladder, and the car seat pressed against my abdomen. I lost complete control of my bladder and had a full episode of incontinence in the parking lot. I remember crying and wondering what just happened. I had been a practicing physical therapist before the birth of my son, and I remembered reading information about how this problem can be helped.

This kind of treatment was relatively unknown 25 years ago, but there were therapists assisting patients with these issues. I decided to order the level one home study course to learn techniques and exercises to help my condition. Thankfully, the incontinence resolved itself through exercises and techniques (which are much more than Kegels).

However, after the birth of my fourth and fifth children, I again noticed leaking when I coughed or sneezed. The problem also happened when running after my children.

It was interesting to notice that it was most pronounced during the luteal phase of my cycle. This discovery piqued my interest in how hormones affect the pelvic floor muscles, reproductive organs, and supporting structures.

As I continued to study, and as I learned and understood the reproductive cycle taught in the Billings Method™, I was able to assist many patients and Billings clients with practical advice in the physical rehabilitation of the pelvic floor.

What is Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy?
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy is a specialized area of physical therapy that involves evaluating and treating musculoskeletal and neuromuscular dysfunction related to the pelvis.

The pelvic floor is made up of muscles and other tissues that form a sling from the pubic bone to the tailbone. They assist in maintaining an upright posture, supporting abdominal and pelvic organs, and help to control the bladder, bowel, and sexual activity.

Pelvic floor dysfunction refers to a wide range of problems that occur when the muscles of the pelvic floor are not functioning normally and are often too tight or weak. Typically, there are related impairments of the abdomen, sacroiliac joint, low back, coccyx, and/or hip joint that accompany this condition, and can contribute to pain and loss of function.

Pelvic floor issues are rarely isolated. It is common for symptoms to emerge together or for one problem to cause a cascading effect and should be treated comprehensively to resolve the symptoms.

In my physical therapy practice, I schedule each patient for a one-hour session. I work to treat a wide variety of conditions but predominately urinary incontinence and pelvic pain.

On average, for urinary incontinence, patients require 6 – 8 sessions. However, many times there are other orthopedic issues. Sometimes these are combined with pelvic pain, so, for those patients, they average more like 10 – 12 sessions.

How many types of urinary continence are there?
​
There are three categories of urinary incontinence: urge incontinence, stress incontinence, or a combination of both. Urge incontinence, in particular, can be triggered by such seemingly innocuous things as cold, running water, or putting a key in the door.

All three types are treatable with physical therapy that includes behavioral techniques and lifestyle changes, and physical retraining.

When treating Urge Incontinence, we apply these seven steps:

Step 1: The patient keeps a diary over a 72-hour period that includes the number of voids, the volume voided, incidents of leakage, potential food irritants, and fluid intake.

Step 2: Bladder retraining is achieved by increasing the amount of time between bathroom visits. The optimal is to void every two to five hours. However, a patient with urge incontinence voids every hour or more often. I will ask the patient to increase that by minutes or hours. When the patient has increased time between voids with ease, and there are no accidents, we consider this success.

Step 3: The patient focuses on healthy fluid intake. That means slowly sipping throughout the day, 40-50% of body weight.  She also will be encouraged to avoid bladder irritants, which are found in fluids that are more acidic such as coffee and sodas.

Step 4: We initiate the goal of completely emptying the bladder during each void. Often during this step, breathing techniques or double voiding are discussed and practiced.

Step 5: Now we are at the point where we incorporate urge control techniques:

• Sit down when the urge comes
• Do Kegel exercises 5 – 10 times to inhibit the bladder
• Put pressure on the perineum
• Do diaphragmatic breathing
• Try to distract oneself to avoid emphasizing the immediate urge to void,
• Raise the heels or walk on your toes (my favorite and easiest)

Step 6: We discuss optimal voiding postures, such as avoiding a hunched over position.

Step 7: Avoid “just in case peeing” because when voiding for no reason, only “just in case,” the brain becomes trained to go all the time. 
These steps can be taught at any age, even during the later years. We have found that staff in nursing homes can help patients with cognitive impairment by getting them to void at intervals, such as every two to three hours. It often improves urge incontinence.

Stress Incontinence can happen during physical activity such as coughing, laughing, sneezing, running, or lifting something heavy, which puts pressure on the bladder causing urine to leak.

When treating stress incontinence, we apply these four phases.

Phase 1:  We start therapy by discussing breathing techniques. When we inhale, the pelvic floor drops. When we exhale, the pelvic floor should lift and the deep abdominal muscle contracts. Effective breathing is extremely important for continence because it gives proper pressure control.

Phase 2:  The second phase has the patient working on pelvic floor muscle and abdominal contractions coordinated with breathing. The goal would be for a patient to contract the pelvic floor with the abdominal muscles for 10 seconds 30 times per day. Caution is advised for post c-section or those athletes who tend to have very tight abdominal muscles.

Phase 3:  The patient is then taught about getting the pelvic floor muscles to work synergistically with the hip, gluteal and abdominal muscles with proper breathing patterns.

Phase 4:  During this final phase, we work on functional movement combined with proper pelvic contraction coordinated with effective breathing. Movement practices are going from lying to sitting; sitting to standing; bracing with coughing/sneezing, reaching, squatting, climbing stairs, lifting, walking, jogging, and other impact exercising.
Whether my patients are postpartum or menopausal, I take them through these phases. They help women throughout their reproductive life as well as post-reproductive life.
 
 
Some conditions treated by pelvic rehabilitation physical therapists include:

Women:
Urinary Incontinence
Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Fecal Incontinence
Constipation
Urinary Urgency/Frequency
Voiding Dysfunction
Vaginismus
Vulvodynia
Vestibulitis/Vestibulodynia
Painful Bladder Syndrome/Interstitial Cystitis
Chronic Pelvic Pain
Chronic Abdominal Pain
Levator Ani Syndrome
Coccydynia
Pregnancy related issues

Men:
Urinary Incontinence
Fecal Incontinence
Constipation
Urinary Urgency/Frequency
Chronic Prostatitis (non-bacterial)
Post-Prostatectomy Urinary/Bowel Dysfunction
Chronic Pelvic Pain
Testicular/Penile Pain
Coccydynia

​Physical Therapy Treatment:
Postural education and functional training
Education on dietary irritants and bowel/bladder diaries
Manual Therapy: soft tissue mobilization, trigger point therapy, connective tissue manipulation, dry needling, myofascial release
Movement and Exercise Training
Relaxation Techniques, breathing, down training, chronic pain education
Modalities: biofeedback and electrical stimulation

​Q.  Tell us about your family and where you grew up.
 
I was born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco, also known as the “City of Roses” and the cradle of many iconic things associated with Mexico such as the mariachis, tequila, the Mexican Hat Dance, and the sombreros. My father was an army surgeon, and my mom was a biochemist; I only have one brother who is a computer engineer.  We grew up having both of our parents work full time, so my dear aunts and grandma often helped, and I became very close to them. I think on those days and immediately smell my grandma’s kitchen and hear the beautiful voices of ten people talking about their daily activities. 
 
When I got older and moved to Mexico City to pursue my career, I was very fortunate to not only accomplish professional dreams but to find the extraordinary person with whom I have walked, ran, and flew for the last 21 years.  At that time, Fernando was a general surgeon resident, and currently, he is an ear, nose, and throat physician. As in any marriage, we have many stories to tell, and the best of all is about welcoming our three children: Sofia, Jose Fernando, and Natalia.
 
Q. How old were you when you knew you wanted to become a physician? Where did you study medicine?  
 
Because of my father, I was exposed to medicine from an early age. He worked in a public hospital in the evenings, and in the mornings, he had his medical consult in our home. So, quite often, I booked appointments and greeted his patients. I first had a hint of becoming a physician/researcher when I was 14 years old. My grandmother, who was like a second mother to me, was diagnosed with a rare variant of lung cancer. I remember the day when she came back from a doctor’s appointment, and she asked me to read her the pathology report. Since I had no clue what it meant, I searched for the terms in a book. What I read was devastating! I remember telling her that everything was going to be all right, even though I had a knot in my throat. She died within a year after diagnosis. Four years later, I was accepted to the University of Guadalajara, School of Medicine, and later, I moved to Mexico City to do my specialty in Internal Medicine.
 
Q. How did you end up in Durham, NC?
 
It started around 16 years ago when we started a subspecialty at the University of Alabama. At the time, I was 36 weeks pregnant with our second child, and all our belongings were inside four suitcases. We were coming only for two years, but two years became four, and so on. Because of my husband’s job, immigration policies, and educational opportunities, we have had to move several times, making Durham, NC, our most recent move, but not the last one. We are pleased to share that we are moving to Houston, TX, in a few weeks, and we hope that this will be the last one!
 
Q. How do you mix your Catholic faith with being a physician/scientist?
 
To me, being Catholic is part of who I am. It sets the values and standards that guide me. It was that feeling that inspired me to take the Certificate in Bioethics offered by the National Catholic Bioethics Center a couple of years ago. It was beneficial and a great learning experience. I appreciate having the benefit of Catholic sources to guide me in making informed decisions following the values that I cherish.
 
Q. When did you first hear about the Billings Method™, and what led you to become a teacher of Billings?
 
I heard about the Billings Method™ for the first time when I was a 4th year medical student. At that time, we were required to teach contraception to our patients. Because that conflicted with my Catholic faith, I decided to explore the methods of natural family planning that were available. That way, I could speak with my patients about these natural methods as well. The Billings Ovulation Method® caught my eye, not only for its simplicity but for the science behind it. Therefore, I decided to take the course at my home parish, and I loved it! While I did not teach the Method at that time, I talked about it to my patients. I remember women getting excited and surprised to know that a reliable, natural, and healthy method of family planning, such as the Billings Ovulation Method (BOM), existed.
 
In 2013 the priest of my local parish in Virginia invited me to teach NFP. It was at that time that I came across with the Billings Ovulation Method – USA Association (BOMA-USA). I took the teacher training course. Since then, I have been involved in different levels within the association: as a Board Member (now finishing my 3-year term), as part of the Education Committee, and as Chair of the Hispanic Committee.
 
Q. Why do you think medical students typically are not taught about NFP?  And, what can be done to change that?
 
I think there are many factors at play. Usually, among the scientific community, NFP methods are seen with skepticism and underestimated because they are perceived as unreliable and ineffective. This misconception might be due to the lack of knowledge of the various NFP methods, their differences, and their effectiveness rates. For example, the CDC, in one of its pages, lumped together all the Fertility Awareness-Based Methods and, in another, gives an incomplete and vague description of them. At least they have recently updated their website and now mention a current systematic review about the effectiveness of NFP1. That’s a small milestone! Also, within the CDC, the National Center for Health Statistics conducts the National Survey of Family Growth. This organization estimated that only 0.2% of “all women” were “current” users of NFP between 2011-2015 2; however, upon careful reading of the survey, it seems they only included users of the Sympto-Thermal method 2. These are just two examples of how the information about NFP is represented to clinicians, scientists, and the public. Misconceptions need to be clarified, so that accurate evidence about NFP is used. More well-designed research studies about NFP published in peer-reviewed journals will translate to more evidence being accessible to clinicians and the scientific community, in general.  
 
Q. As a member of the Education Committee and Chair of the Hispanic Committee, you have a lot going on in addition to your life as a wife, mother, and physician. Tell us about some of the plans the Hispanic Committee has in the works.
 
Navigating current times has been challenging, but it has opened opportunities for adaptation and growth both in professional and personal life.
 
As part of the Education Committee, and in our efforts to build evidence-based information, we have been putting together a focus group study on women users of the Billings Ovulation Method through the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
 
Concerning the Hispanic Committee, it has been a unique and fulfilling experience coordinating it. We are a small committee born about 18 months ago in response to the needs of the growing Hispanic community within BOMA-USA. Since we had our first meeting, we have reviewed translated materials, training sessions, and worked to implement best practices. We are also working hard to get to know our community via fellowship hours and webinars. Currently, we are happy to be working on the first Spanish Remote Training that began on July 25. As a new committee, we have many other projects and goals that we would like to achieve and will do so one step at a time. We hope we can keep growing and getting more people interested in joining the committee.
 
 
 
 
1 Peragallo Urrutia R, Polis CB, Jensen ET, Greene ME, Kennedy E, Stanford JB. Effectiveness of fertility awareness-based methods for pregnancy prevention: A systematic review external icon. Obstet Gynecol 2018;132:591-604
2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, July). National Center for Health Statistics. National Survey of Family Growth. URL: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/key_statistics/n.htm#natural

 
In the spirit of today’s distance learning trend, FEMM is offering a set of three talks by Dr. Pilar Vigil of Santiago, Chile, for $75. The talks are Ovulation as a Sign of Health,
The Ovarian Continuum, and Cycle Patterns.
  
To register for the 3-course bundle, use this link.