Question

What is Periodic abstinence?

Answer 1

Also known as fertility awareness, natural family planning and the rhythm method. The definition is in the name itself.

Complete answer:
It is a type of natural contraception where couples avoid sexual intercourse during ovulatory phase i.e., from day 10 to 17 of menstrual cycle. Couples avoid it because there are higher chances of getting pregnant as ovulation (release of ova) is expected these days. In detail, what happens is that after sexual intercourse, the sperm live in the female reproductive tract for around 7 days and the eggs remain most fertile for around 24 hours therefore women are most fertile during this period.

The menstrual cycles are not always regular due to which the user needs to be careful while predicting the fertile period and usually there's difficulty in predicting the ovulation in women with irregular menses. This method is the best and the natural one. There are no side effects of this method.

Thus, Periodic abstinence is defined as the natural contraception method where couples avoid pregnancy by not doing sexual intercourse during the period of ovulation i.e., from day 10to 17 of menstrual cycle.

Additional Information:
During the period of ovulation, couples are even not recommended to use the barrier methods like using condoms or the cervical caps for birth control on those days.

Note: The principle of this method is that when the woman is most fertile i.e., during the time of ovulation and there should be no sexual intercourse in order to avoid the birth. Ovulation occurs 14 days before the menstrual cycle so the users should be careful while calculating the time of fertile period.