In 1972, Drs. Evelyn and John Billings and colleagues published a seminal article demonstrating that 22 women, adequately trained, could detect the approach of ovulation in the fertile window of their menstrual cycle...
Subsequently, Dr. Thomas Hilgers and colleagues introduced a standardized system for women to record these symptoms…This developed further the concept of fertility biomarkers, which provide information about normal ovarian cycle conditions or suggest the presence of pathological conditions…Many other clinicians and researchers have also expanded our knowledge of the medical applications of fertility biomarkers.
These findings established the biological foundations of a tool of fertility awareness tracking that has facilitated the development of restorative reproductive medicine: an approach that can be applied to identify and treat the underlying causes of infertility/subfertility…
However, the emergence of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1978, with the first successful birth of a baby girl, introduced a solution that operates independently of the causes of infertility. As a result, the RRM approach, which focuses on uncovering the underlying biological causes of infertility, has lost priority in clinical practice.
Commentary on Infertility and Restorative Reproductive Medicine
