WHAT IS NAPRO TECHNOLOGY?

From popepaulvi.com

"In the early 1970’s, the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology began the process of sub-specializing into three areas: perinatology, gynecologic oncology, and reproductive endocrinology. The early programs in reproductive endocrinology focused extensively on surgical treatments for women experiencing infertility or other reproductive abnormalities. However, in 1978, after the firstin vitro fertilization (IVF) was performed, these fellowship training programs changed dramatically in their scope. They began focusing almost completely on advanced training in IVF and the other artificial reproductive technologies with a decreased emphasis on restorative surgical techniques.

In the late 1980s, Dr. Veasy Buttram, a well-known reconstructive pelvic surgeon initiated a one-year fellowship program in reproductive surgery. The program was developed because he recognized that most graduating residents in obstetrics and gynecology were not fully trained in modern reproductive (infertility) surgery. This was the first of a group of ad hoc fellowship programs which were developed mostly in non-university hospitals by private physicians. This has now evolved into an advanced endoscopy fellowship training program sponsored by the Society of Reproductive Surgeons and the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists.

In the meantime, a good deal of progress has been made over the last 15 to 20 years in one of the problematic areas of reconstructive pelvic surgery: the potential for adhesion formation associated with these procedures. Adhesion-prevention techniques have been outlined and their success documented in the new medical textbook, The Medical and Surgical Practice ofNaProTECHNOLOGY.

The reproductive endocrinology programs do not represent universal ethical principles which are applicable to all patients. The embryo-destructive nature of IVF procedures excludes a large population of patients from being assisted by these approaches. Furthermore, the artificial reproductive technologies are oriented towards “skipping over” the underlying disease process and attempting to treat the reproductive abnormality by replacing it with an artificial approach. All in all, the overall success rates with such approaches have remained relatively stagnant over the last 25 years. 

In a research program which began in 1976 at St. Louis University School of Medicine and continued at Creighton University School of Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1977 to 1985, Thomas Hilgers, MD, Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, developed a natural means of regulating fertility called the Creighton ModelFertilityCare System. Since 1978, Dr. Hilgers has been training allied health professionals called FertilityCare Practitioners (FCP) to teach this system (over 1,000 FCPs have gone through this 13-month program). These programs have been affiliated formally with Creighton University on a continuous basis since their origin in 1978. Since 1981, these programs have also trained physicians in the basic principles of the medical applications of natural fertility regulation. The students, upon satisfactory completion of the course material, receive a certificate signed, not only by Dr. Hilgers, but also the President of the University and the Vice President for Health Sciences.

In 1991, in a book entitled The Medical Applications Of Natural Family Planning (Pope Paul VI Institute Press, Omaha, NE, 1991) and subtitled “A Physician’s Guide to NaProTECHNOLOGY,” Dr. Hilgers first described the new women’s health science of NaProTECHNOLOGY (Natural Procreative Technology). This new approach to women’s health care had a universal moral and ethical application, while at the same time, an acute focus on making a diagnosis of the underlying cause of the reproductive abnormality.

In 2004, the first definitive textbook on NaProTECHNOLOGY was published (Hilgers TW: The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaProTECHNOLOGY, Pope Paul VI Institute Press, Omaha, NE 2004). In this textbook, the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, which is the foundational family planning system to NaProTECHNOLOGY, along with its laboratory support systems, its applications in a medical setting, its applications in infertility and obstetrics and its surgical applications were all, for the first time, definitively described. This textbook, and the work of NaProTECHNOLOGY over the last 14 years, has generated a considerable amount of interest among physicians and there is a growing number of young obstetrician-gynecologists who are requesting advanced training in this approach."

For more information, click: http://www.naprotechnology.com