Crystal S.
wrote:
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Hi, guys —
I have a question about birth control.
I'm 20 years old, married, with four children (all lost due to miscarriages.)
Since my last miscarriage, over a year and a half ago, I have not
been able to become pregnant again. Since then, I have also
had irregular menstrual cycles. I've been to a few
doctors who all tell me that taking birth control for a month
or so should help fix some of the infertility and irregular
menses. The fertility issue is really all that
I am concerned about and I told them that.
I don't believe in trying to play God, by using any type of
birth control. I started thinking about it and I'm not
sure if taking birth control would help or hinder my goal of
trying to fix my fertility.
The doctors
said, the longer this goes on without using a hormonal
method, meaning a pill or patch, in order to try to correct it,
the greater the chance of scarring my uterine lining
— making it more difficult for me to support a pregnancy or
even conceive later on.
I've been praying for the past year, asking what I should do about
it, but I still don't know.
- What do you think that God wants?
Thank you,
Crystal
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Is it permissible to take the pill for legitimate therapeutic purposes? }
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John replied:
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Crystal,
Thank you for the question.
There are some misconceptions (pardon the pun) regarding the Church's
teaching on the use of the pill. One of them is that the pill can never
to be used for medical treatment.
It is true that the pill cannot be used as a form of contraception, but
it can be used for medical reasons such as the regulation of menstrual
cycles, as long as this scenario is not just an easy justification of artificial
birth control.
In your case, infertility would be a side effect of the medication, not
the intended purpose.
It seems like your intentions are pure. The circumstances you describe
also certainly seem to fit the Church's criteria so, I would say
you are free to proceed with your doctor's advice.
That said, you also have another option. The period of your treatment
seems relatively short, therefore, you and your husband could abstain from
marital love for the few weeks that you are being treated. You don't
have to, of course, but this could be a wonderful opportunity for your
relationship to grow in other areas and I have a sneaky suspicion that
this period of abstinence will, no doubt, be followed by a period of vigorous
attempts to conceive.
Under His Mercy,
John DiMascio
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Eric replied:
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Hi Crystal,
I would add one thing to my colleague John's reply about using birth
control pills for therapeutic reasons.
Often, doctors are quick to prescribe these pills to solve these problems
when there are alternatives. In your case, when you want to conceive, this
is especially relevant. Talk to a pro-life Catholic doctor about your options.
To find one, you might contact your diocese or the
One More Soul web site.
You may also want to touch base with:
Hope this helps,
Eric
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Ted Furton of the National Catholic Bioethics Center replied:
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Mike,
Taking the pill in these circumstances is permissible, in my
opinion, because the drug is used for a legitimate therapeutic purpose.
Indeed, the drug is being used to help her chance of regaining her fertility.
Ted
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