Doctor focuses on Women’s health

More than 400 health care professionals from 11 countries and 35 states gathered to learn about NaProTECHNOLOGY, a new reproductive and gynecologic science, at the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals’ 23rd annual conference July 21-24 in Omaha..

The theme of the four-day conference, sponsored by the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha and Creighton University Medical Center, was “Introducing NaProTECHNOLOGY to the World: Medical Science at the Service of the Human Person.”

Developed at the Pope Paul VI Institute, NaProTECHNOLOGY – Natural Procreative Technology – uses a women’s cycle to help determine underlying causes of abnormalities and treats those causes so they don’t suppress or destroy the reproductive system.

Dr. Thomas Hilgers, director of the Pope Paul VI Institute and co-developer of the Creighton Model FertilityCare System and NaProTECHNOLOGY, presented his medical textbook, “The Medical and Surgical Practices of NaProTECHNOLOGY,” during the international conference.

Hilgers, board certified in obstetrics, gynecology and gynecologic laser surgery, is a member of the Society of Reproductive Surgeons. He is also a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Morally acceptable

NaProTECHNOLOGY “is a morally and professionally acceptable approach to a wide-ranging scope of medical problems uniquely suffered by women,” Hilgers said during his talk on “NaProTECHNOLOGY: Discovering the power in a woman’s cycle.”

These health problems include infertility, recurrent spontaneous abortion, recurrent ovarian cysts, abnormal bleeding, pelvic pain, prevention of preterm birth, premenstrual syndrome and postpartum depression.

NaProTECHNOLOGY may also provide new clues to the evaluation and management of those women who are at high risk to develop osteoporosis, endometrial cancer and even breast cancer, he said.

This new science is different from current reproductive technology because instead of just treating the problems, it finds the underlying causes of those problems and treats them.
That happens by targeting a woman’s menstrual cycle using the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, a natural means to regulate fertility developed at the Creighton University School of Medicine, Hilgers said.

“If you have endometriosis, we treat it. Those women usually have limited mucus cycle. We treat that. Limited mucus cycles have abnormal hormone function and ovulatory function. We treat that,” he said. “You put the whole package together and you have a new way of treating infertility, which can be very, very successful.”

Hilgers, who said he was inspired to create NaProTECHNOLOGY after reading “Humanae Vitae,” has used it to help women with infertility problems, as well as those who have other hormone-related problems.

The results, although not 100 percent accurate, have been better than what is available to women today in the area of reproductive science, he said.

NaProTECHNOLOGY has about a 70 percent success rate in dealing with all forms of infertility compared to the less than one percent of all women with impaired fertility who are helped with in vitro fertilization programs in the U.S., he said.

If they are medically unsuccessful, Hilgers encourages adoption “because adoption for these families can be a very, very fulfilling way of building their families when they realize by diagnosis and subsequent treatment that they’re not going to overcome their infertility.”

Spreading the message

Since 1991, the Pope Paul VI Institute has trained nearly 30 doctors a year in NaProTECHNOLOGY, and it plans to expand its training program to include post-graduate fellowship training programs for physicians.

Dr. Philip Boyle, a FertilityCare educator and practitioner in Galway, Ireland, who spoke at the conference, began using NaProTECHNOLOGY in 1998, and since then has founded at least 30 FertilityCare centers in Ireland and has helped 95 couples achieve 123 conceptions.

“The key to NaProTECHNOLOGY is that we apply both medical and surgical intervention in a timed fashion with respect to the FertilityCare chart,” he said.

At the conference, six women also gave testimonials in areas of women’s health, including premenstrual syndrome and postpartum depression.

Stephanie and Anthony Epolite, both attorneys in Sacramento, Calif., spoke about how Hilgers helped them conceive a child using NaProTECHNOLOGY after battling infertility for four years. They spent nearly ,000 on two unsuccessful in vitro fertilization treatments before coming to Hilgers.

Other speakers included Sister Renee Mirkes, OSF, director of the Center for NaProEthics; Raymond Arroyo, news director at EWTN; and Cardinal James Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

“We are blessed by the advances that the Pope Paul VI Institute has developed in helping us to understand human sexuality and reproduction,” Cardinal Stafford told The Catholic Voice. “It has increased the confidence of women and men in using this technology that Dr. Hilgers has developed.”

Archbishop Elden Francis Curtiss delivered the conference’s opening remarks.

“To be able to promote medical science at the service of the human person with the technology and professional expertise that we have here in Omaha is not only a blessing for the church of Northeast Nebraska, but a blessing for the whole church and for our society,” he said.

A pre-conference program on Surgical NaProTECHNOLOGY was held the two days prior to the conference.

The American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals, founded by Hilgers 25 years ago, is the only professional organization in the field of natural family planning.