A free program focused on menstrual cycle education for teenage girls and their parents will be launched at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte starting Oct. 13. Entitled “teenFEMM” (short for “Fertility Education and Medical Management”), the program was developed by the World Youth Alliance, which advocates for pro-life and pro-family policy at the United Nations.
Rather than wait to first introduce couples to the information as part of marriage preparation, Batrice Adcock, director of the Natural Family Planning Program of Catholic Charities, wants to educate young women and their parents in this knowledge-based health program that teaches them to understand and monitor hormonal and other indicators of their health.
“Teens will come to understand how their bodies work,” Adcock notes. “They will see how daily choices about food, sleep and exercise effect their menstrual cycles and overall health. The teens will be empowered to take charge of their health.
“We will teach teens to recognize normal and abnormal patterns in their menstrual cycles. In the case of an abnormality, specially trained medical professionals can provide more accurate testing, diagnosis and treatment by working with biological indicators provided by the teen’s own observations.”
“Often, the first sign of an underlying health problem is an irregularity in the menstrual cycle, most easily identified and treated during the teen years,” Adcock adds.
Monitoring her cycle, the teen has access to a monthly report card reflecting her health, equivalent to another vital sign, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“We want to give teens and their parents access to a diagnostic tool and medical management for menstrual problems that far exceeds what is available to them in the band-aid approach of the pill. The pill does not treat the underlying cause of their problems, but puts them at risk for depression, breast cancer and blood clots, to name a few,” Adcock says.
Such programs have also been shown to delay the onset of sexual activity, decrease sexual activity in sexually-active youth and improve attitudes towards abstinence.
The program at St. Vincent de Paul Church will begin with Mass and will be followed with a talk on the dignity women have being made female in God’s image. Adcock will then present to parents first, then their daughters, information about the menstrual cycle. A similar program is being piloted for young men and will be launched in the diocese when it is available.
“We want to help teens to become vibrant and healthy and to come to a deep appreciation of their gender,” Adcock says. :”I often meet young women in the context of marriage preparation who would have liked to learn about their menstrual cycles as teens or even earlier, with the onset of puberty.”
For details about teenFEMM and to attend the free program, contact Adcock at 704-370-3230 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
— Catholic News Herald
At www.ccdoc.org/natural-family-planning: Learn more about natural family planning classes being held across the diocese, and find helpful guides on NFP apps, NFP-supportive doctors and much more
Did you know?
Natural Family Planning and other life-changing programs at Catholic Charities are funded in part through the generous support of many people and organizations in our community. Learn more about Catholic Charities and donate online at www.ccdoc.org.
2018 NFP Workshop Calendar
July 21st — St. Vincent de Paul, Charlotte, One Day Class, 1:30 to 5 pm
August 18th — St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Hickory, One Day Class, 1:30 pm to 5 pm
September 15th — St. Matthew Catholic Church, Charlotte, One Day Class, 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm
October 20th — St. Matthew Catholic Church, Charlotte, One Day Class, 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm
CHARLOTTE — Three Diocese of Charlotte leaders who help teach local Catholics about “Humanae Vitae” reflect on the 50th anniversary of the encyclical and share their perspectives on putting its teachings into practice in their own lives:
Jessica Grabowski is a married mother of three and the diocese’s Respect Life program director.
Humanae Vitae is a profound document which foretold many intricacies of the future of the family – which is the culture as we see it today – in a truly prophetic way. I had the privilege to study this and other papal documents in moral theology classes at The Catholic University of America (my alma mater).
In one particular class, Christian Marriage and Family Life, which I unknowingly took with my future spouse (and taught by my future father-in-law), I had the opportunity to study “Humanae Vitae” and the detrimental impacts birth control has had on families and marriages throughout the last five decades.
Despite the warning signs provided in this document, I realized how far the good of the family had fallen because of the Pill. By focusing on the beauty of what marriage and family ought to be when husband and wife fully give themselves to God, one another and their families, we as a family try to emulate all that marriage and family should be according to His divine will. We truly believe that leading through example and prayer in our family life is the most powerful way to help bring the sanctity of marriage and family back into our culture.
Families and marriages need support and enrichment to stay strong, especially with the state of our current society. So we look to the example of other strong marriages and families and try to provide that same example by prayerfully following God’s will in our family.
Batrice Adcock is a married mother of three and the diocese’s Natural Family Planning director.
When I think about my own experience with Natural Family Planning, by God’s grace my husband and I were introduced to a priest right here from our own diocese when we were discerning marriage. He really explained to us the beauty of the Church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality and family planning, so that when we got married we were able to embrace Natural Family Planning.
It has been very helpful for us throughout our almost 15 years of marriage, for avoiding pregnancy when we needed to, for achieving pregnancy quickly when we tried and for helping me overcome problems with my health that were causing miscarriage.
So we are really thankful for what Natural Family Planning has provided for us.
It totally changed my career path. Pope Paul VI even mentioned this in “Humanae Vitae,” saying that often couples, through their own experience, would be inspired to share this with others.
Ultimately, that is what has happened with me. I am very thankful to be in the position that I can share this with others in our diocese.
Elizabeth Harris is a nurse and Natural Family Planning instructor.
Catholic health care workers are called to courageously uphold the Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life by being informed on the harmful effects of contraception, sterilization, artificial fertility treatments and abortion, and by boldly sharing this knowledge with patients and colleagues – even if it means risking their job and their worldly sense of security. At the end of our lives, all that will matter is what we have done for God.
I would like to see a world where women who are lost in the current culture of the women’s movement find authentic freedom in living a life of purity and chastity because that is where our dignity and empowerment truly are. This virtue allows our God-given beauty to shine radiantly, from the inside, and for our total gift of self to be given in the act of the marital embrace the way that God intended.
In the first sentence of “Humanae Vitae,” Pope Paul VI states, “The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator.” This act is sacred and holy, and it is not intended to be used outside of a covenantal marriage. It is also not meant to be distorted and made into something that is self-serving, such as pornography, which harms God’s beautiful design for love, sexuality and marriage.
How can we seek to uphold one another as God’s creation in our relationships and see each other as His masterpieces, instead of like objects to be used like a commodity? That is degrading of one’s dignity and is a cheap imitation of sexuality and love.
God wants so much more for us.
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
At www.ccdoc.org/natural-family-planning: Learn more about natural family planning classes being held across the diocese, and find helpful guides on NFP apps, NFP-supportive doctors and much more