In China the Jiangsu Family Health Institute conducted a trial of the Method, published in the Chinese Medical Journal in 1998, in which 992 women used it and there were only five user related pregnancies. All five women are continuing on with the method having realised that the rules really mean what they say. The study also demonstrated the effectiveness for couples wanting to conceive. and 32% of so-called infertile couples gave birth. In areas where the authentic Billings Method is taught the abortion rate has been dramatically reduced. Chinese Government bodies responsible for population control are acknowledging the efficacy of the Method and the obvious health and social benefits for women accompanying its use - not least the acceptability and high continuation rates reported.

Also in 1995 the journal, "Contraception" published a trial of the method, conducted by The Indian Council of Medical Research Task Force on NFP, which studied over two thousand women in 1995 resulting in 0.86% method related pregnancies. As well the first Billings website was started in 1995 so that the whole world could find information about this Method at the click of a link and learn it, with follow up, on the internet itself. Visits to the official web site, (www.woomb.org) have increased every year and videos about the Method can now be found even on You Tube.

A further development since the Fourth World Conference on Women has been the medical benefit of the simple daily record kept by woman. It reveals hormonal patterns over a period of time, providing medical practitioners with a valuable diagnostic tool. The benefits of the Method led Dr. Mary Martin (ob/gyn) to open the Billings Center of Fertility and Reproductive Health in Oklahoma City in November 2009, the first of its kind in North America. Medical students and residents register for university credit courses based on the Billings Ovulation Method (www.boma-usa.org).

Professor James Brown of Melbourne, Australia developed the ovarian monitor that enables a woman to measure estrogen and progesterone accurately throughout her cycle. While not ordinarily necessary, it has proved to be a valuable adjunct to the Method in cases of difficulty due to organ pathology or temporary readjustment of hormonal patterns. It enhances the confidence of women and assures doctors of their ability to interpret the changing mucus patterns of fertility and to identify the time of maximum fertility and ovulation. It also showed that a woman whose cervix is young and responsive to circulating hormones could identify the many days of unchanging sensation, a pattern that indicates normal times of infertility that all women experience at one time or another in their reproductive life.

The guidelines of the Method, formulated with the help of couples themselves and later verified by hormonal monitoring, have remained unaltered since the beginning. Now Professor Erik Odeblad of Umea, Sweden, after years of research into the structure and function of cervical mucus, has explained the mucus patterns and their significance in relation to sperm function and conception, providing further verification. His explanation of the role of the vagina in producing normal discharges associated with conditions such as breastfeeding and their relation to the patterns of ovarian hormones has confirmed the concept of the unchanging nature of the Basic Infertile Pattern. Of particular value is his contribution to our knowledge of post-Pill infertility and the damage caused to the cervix by synthetic hormones. He has explained the effect of age on the cervix and the consequent diminishing fertility that a woman is able to recognize in her mucus pattern. (*)

Professor S. Z. Qian of Jiangsu Family Health Institute, who conducted the China study, stated that "The Billings Ovulation Method is the safest and most effective method so far available for fertility regulation." Although news of it is spreading on its own merits, if there was political will to include it in the United Nations' Millenium Development Goals all the women of the world could be empowered with knowledge of how to monitor their health and be in charge of their fertility and infertility naturally, before 2020, without cost to governments. Those promoting the Method have no objective beyond improving the health and status of women through knowledge and self awareness of their fertility. There is no financial or population control agenda. The Method is cost free and it places the child at the centre of love and care in the family. As a woman from Camaroun commented to the Billings doctors on their travels, "This Method is Love." By S.Fryer infobillings@shaw.ca

(* Preface to, "The Billings Method" by Dr. E. Billings)