Fertility control should be reliable, harmless, immediately reversible, and inexpensive.  It should not detract from the pleasure of sexual intercourse and it should encourage a good emotional and sexual relationship between partners.  Many women find the various methods of contraception available to be unsatisfactory or unacceptable.

In practice every known method of fertility control has a failure rate.  Some methods have a significantly lower failure rate than others.  The Billings Ovulation Method™ has been independently trialled by the World Health Organisation and other reputable bodies and been found to be as successful for avoiding pregnancy as any method of family planning available today.  It has the distinct advantage of also being able to be used to assist a couple to achieve a desired pregnancy.

Since the 1970's, trials of the Billings Ovulation Method™ have been carried out in every decade in countries as diverse as Australia, Korea, India, Ireland, USA, Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, El Salvador, New Zealand and China.

From the earliest trials, method-related pregnancy rates were as low as 0 to 4 per cent.  As teaching methods were refined and updated, these rates fell close to zero.  Continuation rates were consistently high.

It is generally accepted that acquisition of accurate knowledge of the Billings Ovulation Method™ by the couple, combined with motivation and co-operation ensure success.

One of the largest trials, a 12-month multi-centre study in China which included couples of different social/education status in rural and urban China, considered the effectiveness of the Method in avoiding pregnancy when compared with the IUD and the combined use of the Billings Ovulation Method™ and the IUD.  The method-related pregnancy rate of the Billings Ovulation Method™ user group was zero and their continuation rate was significantly higher than those in the IUD group.

The trials continue to show low levels of pregnancies attributable to faults in the Billings Ovulation Method™.  It was demonstrated that the Method is applicable to all phases of reproductive life, beneficial in the solution of seeming infertility and useful in diagnosing reproductive abnormalities.

The most common cause of pregnancy is the couple’s decision to have a baby, which knowledge of the fertile signs readily enables them to do.

The benefits of the Billings Ovulation Method™ go far beyond accuracy in regulating fertility.  The need to become aware of the signs of natural fertility and infertility adds another dimension to the relationship between the couple as they agree to wait without intercourse for a few days, when the woman recognises that she is potentially fertile, in order to achieve their aim for fertility control.  The bond between them strengthens and the family becomes stable and secure.  Rather than something that ‘just happens’ between them, the physical sexual relationship becomes part of a powerful communication, with times of abstinence being another way of declaring their love for each other and their family.