The Billings Ovulation Method® is a method of family planning that helps women to identify their fertile days by teaching them ...

May 31, 2019

The Billings Ovulation Method® is a method of family planning that helps women to identify their fertile days by teaching them to evaluate the characteristics of the cervical mucus during the menstrual cycle. One of the first scientific studies on the Billings Ovulation Method appeared in the medical journal The Lancet about fifty years ago. The authors, who included Drs. John and Evelyn Billings, described the method "to be both acceptable and successful" in a trial that was undertaken in the island of Tonga. In that trial "282 women used the ovulation method
 for a total of 2503 months, with one case of method
 failure and two cases of user failure."(Weissmann et al. 1972) 
In the same year and journal, Drs. Billings published the "Symptoms and hormonal changes accompanying ovulation", Where they "concluded that the time of ovulation
 can be identified clinically, without recourse to
 temperature measurement or more specialised tests."(Billings et al. 1972) 

1. Billings, E. L., Brown, J. B., Billings, J. J., & Burger, H. G. (1972). SYMPTOMS AND HORMONAL CHANGES ACCOMPANYING OVULATION. The Lancet, 299(7745), 282–284. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(72)90291-7

2. Weissmann, M. C., Foliaki, L., Billings, E., & Billings, J. (1972). A TRIAL OF THE OVULATION METHOD OF FAMILY PLANNING IN TONGA. The Lancet, 300(7781), 813–816. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(72)92164-2

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About This Project

Understanding the perspective of women who use the Billings Ovulation Method

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Fertility awareness-based methods (FABM) are a group of family planning methods that teach women how to identify their fertile and infertile days in each menstrual cycle. They can use this information to time intercourse to achieve or delay a pregnancy. The Billings Ovulation Method® is a cervical mucus FABM and this project aims to understand the beliefs, attitudes, experiences and behaviors from users. By doing focus groups we are aiming to improve program development and delivery.