Catholic OB-GYN finds life-changing alternative to IVF
Caroline MolloyDr. Christopher Stroud was a Catholic OB-GYN who prescribed birth control and gave referrals for in vitro fertilization (IVF) until a priest admonished him in the sacrament of reconciliation. Now Stroud runs a life-affirming fertility clinic that uses Natural Procreative Technology — a treatment model that embraces life-affirming Catholic ethics.
“It changed my life,” Stroud said of the confession. “Probably for all eternity, it changed my life.”
Stroud said he still “get[s] emotional” just talking about the impact of the clinic. Couples send him photos of their babies — it has grown into a wall of photos now.
Since his change of heart in 2012, his practice has “just exploded.” The clinic has grown so popular that there’s a six-month wait period.
“We are blessed with a busy, busy practice,” he told CNA.
While Stroud’s clinic is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he received his training in Nebraska at St. Paul VI Institute — an organization founded in 1985 that trains doctors in “NaProTechnology.”
And the demand for NaProTechnology? It’s “unlimited,” Stroud said.
What makes NaPro different?
NaProTechnology is “a problem-based approach to fertility challenges,” Stroud explained.
The model is “a recognition, more than anything, that infertility is a symptom — it’s not a diagnosis,” Stroud explained.
Rather than jumping to IVF — which is often expensive, arduous, and carries ethical issues with the creation of unused embryos — NaProTechnology applies basic principals of contemporary medicine to fertility treatment.
“Everywhere else in contemporary medicine, we use symptoms to point to a disease state, and then we treat the disease state; then we ask, did the symptom go away?” Stroud said.
But with the advent of IVF in the late 1970s, doctors were taught to promptly refer clients for IVF, Stroud explained.
NaProTechnology is highly effective, Stroud has found. Fertility specialists can address the underlying health issues preventing conception “more times than not,” he said.
