Natural Family Planning Week: Billings, the unknown success story

Health bureaucrats should take note: natural approaches such as the Ovulation Method can offer a more focused health dollar.

The Billings Ovulation Method movement is urging more doctors consider recommending the method after a five year study found that sub-fertile women achieved a known pregnancy rate of 65 per cent using the Method.
While IVF remains the main course of action referred to by doctors for infertile couples, Billings is accredited by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to provide continuing professional development courses for GPs.
GPs need to attain a certain number of points every three years to maintain their membership. The Billings course gives GPs some of these points. The Australian College of Midwives has a similar arrangement.
The five year study involved 449 participants, of which 207 women had previously been classified as sub-fertile. Twenty couples in the study had been unsuccessful with IVF orArtificial Insemination but seven of these couples achieved pregnancy using the Billings Ovulation Method.  
Significantly, 66 per cent of over 38 year olds in the study also achieved a pregnancy using the Billings Ovulation Method. 
On average, couples had tried to conceive for a period of 15 months before participating in the study.
The average period from initial instruction in the Billings Ovulation Method to conception was 4.7 months. Kerry Bourke, President of the Ovulation Method Research and Reference Centre of Australia which conducted the study, hopes that women who have concerns about their fertility will be encouraged by the findings to seek natural fertility counselling with Billings consultants and that more GPs will recommend it as an option for sub-fertile women.
Aside from success rates, the economic arguments are also stacking up in favour of Billings playing an increasingly important role in addressing fertility problems.
From 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2005, the Australian Government spent, via Medicare, $584.6 million on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).
In 2007, 22 per cent of the Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) benefits went towards ART.
The average cost of ART per live birth is approximately $33,000.
The live birth rate for women aged 30 to 34 using IVF is approximately 24.7 per cent, while for women aged 35 to 39 the live birth rate is approximately 24 per cent.
The live birth rate for women aged 40 to 44 is approximately six per cent.
The cost of a live birth using IVF increases with maternal age. By comparison, the average cost of the Billings Ovulation Method per live birth is approximately $1,100. 
A proposal to conduct a three-year pilot programme in Melbourne, using the Billings Ovulation Method to assist sub-fertile women, has been forwarded to the Department of Health and Ageing for consideration.
The basis of the Billings Ovulation Method is helping women to observe and interpret personal patterns of fertility and infertility which are individual to each woman.
When a woman learns the signs of fertility she can easily learn to understand and use these to achieve or avoid pregnancy, regardless of the length of her cycle.
The study by the Ovulation Method Research and Reference Centre of Australia is being prepared for publication.