Not many babies are born when their parents are on vacation, but many babies are conceived when their parents are out of town. Any kind of birth control, including the rhythm method, requires prior planning when couples travel out of town. Even couples who use the rhythm method of family planning need to be aware that daytime flights across the ocean can accelerate ovulation.
The rhythm method relies on three main ideas. The first assumption is that women ovulate 12 to 16 days before menstruation begins. The second assumption is that the man's sperm can survive inside the cervix and uterus for three days. And the third assumption is that the egg released during ovulation only can be fertilized within 24 hours of release.
Traveling across multiple time zones changes a woman's reproductive clock. A trip from west to east can speed up ovulation. Ovulation is stimulated by the release of a surge of luteinizing hormone (LH) from the pituitary gland in the brain. Typically, this dramatic dump of LH occurs in late afternoon, local time. A woman traveling, say, from New York to Tokyo can enter her fertile period a day early.
There are also issues for couples traveling south to north in the Northern Hemisphere or north to south in the Southern Hemisphere.
Although ethical concerns prevent clinical trials on humans, studies of animals suggest that a sudden shift to a longer day (either traveling to the North or South Pole in summer or traveling in daylight across the ocean) can cause the massive release of LH that might cause the release of the egg a day or two earlier than expected. Normal ovulation typically is restored the next menstrual cycle.
Robert Rister is the author or co-author of nine books and over 2,000 articles on natural health including the essential travel topic Coping without Toilet Paper. Be sure to consult your physician before changing dosage or schedule of any medication.
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