Full Question
When you are perimenopausal, do you have to stop having sex altogether if you do not want to get pregnant?
Answer
It is never morally licit to use our sexual faculties and at the same time subvert either of the ends of sex, namely procreation and unitive love. Therefore, the use of contraception is out of the question.
In order to avoid pregnancy in a way that is consonant with God’s design for sex, a couple can reserve sexual intimacy to infertile periods during a woman’s cycle and abstain from sexual intercourse during her fertile periods. This is called Natural Family Planning.
Now, given your situation tracking your fertile and infertile periods is a bit more difficult due to the irregularity of the menstrual cycle that accompanies perimenopause. I would encourage you to contact the Couple to Couple League (www.ccli.org) and/or the Pope Paul VI Institute (www.popepaulvi.com), since they specialize in these issues. They will be able to give you direction on how to obtain counsel in practicing Natural Family Planning despite the irregularity of your cycle.