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An unlikely source for recognizing the temperature sign was Dr. Christopher Tietze of the Population Council. I say “unlikely” because he was an advocate of contraception and abortion, but he was honest about the value of temperature charting as a sign of infertility.
In his 1970 article “Ranking of Contraceptive Methods by Levels of Effectiveness,” he wrote that the most effective methods were surgical sterilization, oral contraceptives, injectable progestational agents, and the temperature method. He stated the method failures from all these methods.
What did Dr. Tietze say about the temperature sign? In his words: “The determination of ovulation by means of basal body temperature and restriction of coitus to the post-ovulation phase of the cycle, also falls into the most highly effective group of contraceptive methods.” He quoted from two studies. 1) A single method failure in 17,500 cycles among a group of highly motivated and disciplined couples. 2) Five method failures in about 5,000 cycles.
If our readers want more information on the temperature sign, we have this information at our website and in our teaching manual, Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach.
Sheila and John Kippley