BY SHERI TRUSTY

PORT CLINTON – Ladies who attended Magruder Hospital’s Women’s Health Event on Oct. 27 had the opportunity to meet a family nurse practitioner (FNP) who offers a holistic approach to addressing fertility, menstrual, and menopause concerns. Stephanie Gonya is an FNP with a Magruder doctor’s group in Marblehead, and she is a FertilityCare Practitioner with Maranatha FertilityCare Center out of Port Clinton.

FertilityCare Center is unique because Gonya offers both education and medical care.

“Not everyone who teaches does medical care, and not everyone who offers medical care also teaches. I do both,” she said.

Gonya utilizes the Creighton Model Fertility Care System (CrMS), which is based on observation and charting, to walk women through a natural, non-contraceptive method of birth control and regulation of births. Unlike hormonal or surgical birth control methods, CrMS assists with both birth control and fertility.

“It’s all natural. I help women get pregnant and avoid pregnancy,” Gonya said. “I don’t prescribe birth control. If that’s what you want, I’m not your girl.”

When abnormalities are identified through CrMS, Gonya utilizes NaProTECHNOLOGY (Natural Procreative Technology) to address the problems. NaProTECHNOLOGY is used to help with infertility, repetitive miscarriages, maintaining pregnancy, irregular cycles, hormone problems, PMS, ovarian cysts, postpartum depression, and effects of stress.

Unlike many commercial medicines, NaProTECHNOLOGY uses bioidentical hormones.

“It’s the medical side of my work,” Gonya said. “The bioidentical hormones mimic what your body makes naturally.”

The natural hormones are created by Buderer Drug Co., a compounding pharmacy that has been in business since 1878. Buderer creates customized medication based on Gonya’s prescriptions.

CrMS is based on Humanae Vitae, a papal letter written by Pope Paul VI in 1968 that addresses “the transmission of human life” in marriage. Gonya first encountered the philosophies of CrMS when the Diocese of Toledo hosted a talk by a NaProTECHNOLOGY physician.

“I thought, ‘Why did I not learn this in school?’ It made so much sense,” she said.

Gonya attended NaProTECHNOLOGY training at the Saint Paul VI Institute in Nebraska, and she returned home not only with greater knowledge, but also with a healthier body. She had been struggling with female health issues that doctors at home refused to address.

“No doctor would give me an ultrasound,” she said. “When I was at the institute, I made an appointment. I had already been charting, so they looked at my chart and recommended an ultrasound. They were able to identify the problem and fix it.”

Gonya returned home and changed the lives of local women, helping them restore their health, and for many, helping them bring new life into the world. Gonya’s website is filled with photos of children who were born to mothers who utilized her services.

For more information, visit https://www.maranathafertilitycarecenterllc.com or call 614-378-6975.