Talk:Symptothermal method

What should be in this article?

There is currently no unique content in this article. Everything presented here is already in the fertility awareness article.

What is the purpose of having a separate article for STM? Are others seeing unique characteristics that could be added to this article? Or are there things in it not applicable to FA in general that should be spun off (so the FA article would be shorter and more specialized)? Lyrl ^Talk _C 03:12, 4 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Just as a note, there are many distinct sympto-thermal systems. The system taught at the Fertility Awareness Center in New York (which was picked up by Toni Weschler), the system taught by the Couple to Couple League, the system taught at Justisse in Canada, the system taught at Northwest Family Services, etc. A comparison article between these systems would certainly justify a content fork from fertility awareness. Lacking such content, however, I do not believe readers benefit by coming to a stub page rather than being redirected to the main article on this topic. Lyrl^Talk _C 04:15, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Independent article

The symptothermal method is a distinct method of contraception which is proven to be highly effective. However, the Fertility awareness article describes the history and development of different methods of fertility awareness but not the modern symptothermal method. This method deserves to be described in more details: how it works exactly, as well as its effectiveness, advantages and disadvantages. I would also like to add that the symptothermal method is independent from the catholic church who suggests to stay abstinent during the fertile days. But there are other ways to avoid getting pregnant during the fertile days like the barrier methods. Therefore I suggest an independent article about the sympthothermal method. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dokiwi (talk • contribs) 19:45, 31 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

To clarify, which symptothermal method or methods do you believe should be covered here? As I described in the paragraph just above yours, there are a number of unique methods that are all symptothermal methods. Also, there are both secular and Catholic organizations that teach symptothermal methods. While their teaching on abstinence during fertile days is unique to Catholics, the method for identifying the fertile days is not.

The fertility awareness article does describe the history and development of modern symptothermal methods. From the section "First symptoms-based teaching organizations":

The first organization to teach a symptothermal method was founded in 1971. John and Sheila Kippley, lay Catholics, joined with Dr. Konald Prem in teaching an observational method that relied on all three signs: temperature, mucus, and also cervical position. Their organization is now called Couple to Couple League International.... The first secular teaching organization was the Fertility Awareness Center in New York, founded in 1981. Toni Weschler started teaching in 1982 and published the bestselling book Taking Charge of Your Fertility in 1995. Justisse was founded in 1987 in Edmonton, Canada. These secular organizations all teach symptothermal methods.

Thanks for your comments on this article; please feel free to add any further comments or requests here or at Talk:Fertility awareness. Lyrl^Talk _C 23:31, 31 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The study of Frank-Herrmann et al. 2007 The effectiveness of a fertility awareness based method to avoid pregnancy in relation to a couple's sexual behaviour during the fertile time: a prospective longitudinal study. pmid=17314078 proves the effectiveness of the symptothermal method of the german NFP group in Duesseldorf. The method relies on two symptoms: the basal body temperature and either cervical secretion or the cervix position and form. The pearl index is 0.6 for perfect use and 1.8 for typical use. But till yesterday I did not know that this particular sypmtothermal method has not spread over the world yet. However, it is a method which is easy to learn and safe also for beginners when they stick to the rules. The method is described in a very coherent way in the book of the Arbeitsgruppe NFP (Hrsg.): "Natürlich und sicher." 17. akt. u. ergänzte Auflage 2005. |id=ISBN 3830432410 But, as a guideline for this particular method does not seem to be available in English yet I understand why there was no independent article for it till now. However, the German wikipedia has an independent article about the symptothermal method - maybe because it is more common here.Dokiwi (talk) 09:57, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The German article discusses multiple symptothermal methods: that developed by Roetzer, and also the method used in the study you cited, which Google translates as "working NFP". As I stated in the previous section, in the U.S. there are also methods promoted by the Couple to Couple League and Toni Weschler, there is the Justisse method in Canada, as well as methods used by smaller groups. There is definitely enough information among all these methods for a good Wikipedia article. Just no one has gotten around to writing it yet.

Writing a new article is rather low on my priority list, but if you have references you can cite and want to write the article, I would be happy help with formatting and such. Lyrl^Talk _C 13:30, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply. I would like to write an article about the symptothermal method and compare the different methods that are in use. I think that it is indeed necessary to compare these methods in one article to separate them from the other fertility awareness methods which include the calendar method. I will start the research as soon as possible. Is there another way to stay in touch with specific users on wikipedia? That might be helpful in this case. Dokiwi (talk) 15:09, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

All users have user talk pages that are good for discussing things not directly related to an article. Many users have also enabled email: if you are looking at a user page, on the left side of the screen will be a link "email this user". For discussions about an article, the article talk page is best. Even if only two people are commenting, others may be interested in following the discussion, or future editors may find it useful to look at past discussions. Lyrl^Talk _C 16:06, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]