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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

> But people capable of passing high school biology should grasp the concept of ovulation.

People capable of passing high school biology should also grasp the concept of a) "whoops!" and b) sex being enjoyable enough to risk even if ovulation is possible.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/11/lets-ta...

> According to the Guttmacher institute, the typical use failure rate of NFP is around 25%. Of course, Catholics have taken issue with this number, insisting that it is way too high. So I looked around and another number sometimes used for NFP’s typical use failure rate was 12%. One Catholic writer suggested that it was 2% to 5. Note that even that last number shows that the typical use failure rate for NFP is higher than IUDs and implants.

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Then again, the typical use failure rate of the standard male condom is 18% [1]. Personally, I'm more interested in perfect use failure rates than typical use failure rates.

[1] http://www.contraceptivetechnology.org/wp-content/uploads/20...

The CDC says condoms are 12% to fertility awareness's 24% (i.e. twice the risk). http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/contraception/unintend...

That means fertility awareness has worse odds than Russian roulette.

I'm not the slightest bit interested in perfect use failure rates, because humans are rarely perfect (especially not the ones who think they are), and the consequences of a whoops are pretty immense, both for the couple and for the unwanted child that results.

Meanwhile, an implant has a 0.05% typical use failure rate, and an IUD 0.2%. I'm not taking any chances - I'm infertile, have had a vasectomy, and my wife has an IUD. My current set of twins (via donor sperm) are plenty of work for my liking.

>I'm not the slightest bit interested in perfect use failure rates, because humans are rarely perfect

But what other people do is of no interest or consequence to me. I know what I do, thus I am interested in perfect use rates. Which are better than condoms.

"Whoops!" is meaningless. And you can still have sex when pregnancy is possible, simply use an alternative entrance, or use a short term contraceptive option like a condom.

According to actual studies rather than people trying to push an agenda, failure rate is comparable to condoms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_birth_control_me...

The CDC doesn't agree.

http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/contraception/unintend...

Condoms are also pretty crappy in typical use, so I wouldn't consider that a success even if the number lined up. IUDs and contraceptive implants are massively more reliable than either in typical use.

>The CDC doesn't agree.

That is because they are dishonestly presenting the data on the rhythm method and fertility awareness combined as fertility awareness. That is obviously silly, as one method is significantly more reliable than the other.

>Condoms are also pretty crappy in typical use

Typical use matters for population control, not for a responsible individual's personal use. I know if I am putting a condom on or not. The large percentage of people who do not put one on despite relying on them as their sole contraceptive does not lower the failure rate for me, it merely brings down the average failure rate across the population. Other people's failures do not cause me to fail.

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