Research articles

  • A key concept in understanding the effectiveness of a contraceptive method or natural family planning method is typical and perfect use rates.

  • Typical use indicates how effective a method is under "“real life” conditions (i.e. when users do not always use the method correctly 100% of the time).

  • Perfect use indicates how effective a method is under ideal conditions (i.e. when users use the method correctly 100% of the time).

  • Secondly, studies quote the Pearl rate/index, which is an approximate measure of the number of unintended pregnancies per 100 users over 12 months (i.e. if 100 women used the method over 1 year, how many of them would get pregnant?).

  • Below are brief summaries of a few studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of the Marquette Method. This section will be updated periodically with more recent articles.

Effectiveness of Marquette for avoiding pregnancy

  • Randomized comparison of Marquette monitor vs mucus methods (note: Marquette has a separate protocol, which uses changes in cervical mucus to identify the fertile window).

  • Randomized to monitor group (N = 197) or mucus group (N = 160)

  • Monitor group: unintended pregnancy rate 7 per 100 users over 12 months; with perfect use, 0 per 100 users

  • Mucus group: unintended pregnancy rate 18.5 per 100 users over 12 months; with perfect use, 2.7 per 100 users

  • Conclusion: with perfect use, efficacy of Marquette monitor and mucus methods are very good (98-100%) and comparable to the pill

Fehring, R. J., Schneider, M., Raviele, K., Rodriguez, D., & Pruszynski, J. (2013). Randomized comparison of two Internet-supported fertility-awareness-based methods of family planning. Contraception, 88(1), 24-30.

Postpartum / Breastfeeding Protocol

  • 198 postpartum women ages 20-45 using postpartum protocol

  • Result – 8 unintended pregnancies per 100 women at 12 months; 2 pregnancies with perfect use

  • Conclusion: Marquette postpartum/breastfeeding protocol is effective for avoiding pregnancy

Bouchard, T., Fehring, R. J., & Schneider, M. (2013). Efficacy of a new postpartum transition protocol for avoiding pregnancy. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 26(1), 35-44.

Evidence for achieving pregnancy

  • Followed 124 women using Marquette mucus or monitor methods (or both) to try to achieve pregnancy

  • Pregnancy rates 81 per 100 women at 12 months of trying when intercourse happened on high/peak days of fertile window

  • Pregnancy rate 6 per 100 women when intercourse happened only on low days of fertile window

  • Conclusion: focusing intercourse on high or peak fertile days using the Marquette method increases probability of achieving pregnancy

Mu, Q., & Fehring, R. J. (2014). Efficacy of achieving pregnancy with fertility-focused intercourse. MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 39(1), 35-40.