Making America Fertile Again
Dr. Monique Ruberu believes the answer to the nation's fertility crisis lies in restoring reproductive health—not bypassing it.
Dr. Monique Ruberu's marriage was on the brink of collapse.
Ten years in, the board-certified OB-GYN and her husband had two children, a third on the way, and a crumbling relationship. Desperate, she turned to the one person she knew could repair all broken things—and He delivered.
"God really kind of stepped in and healed my marriage," Ruberu told Restoration News.
Overwhelmed with gratitude, the pro-life Catholic sought to express her thanks through service. She'd heard of pro-life activists who would pray outside abortion clinics. Maybe she could change minds, too.
As it turns out, she could. Ruberu's compassionate advocacy outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic saved an unborn child's life. It also redirected her career.
"Somebody I met [outside the clinic] gave me a book about NaProTechnology," Ruberu recalled. "I had never heard of NaProTechnology in my life."
The book transformed her approach to medicine, shifting her focus from symptom management to treating the underlying causes of infertility and other reproductive issues.
Now a fertility expert, Ruberu focuses her practice on root-cause medicine and helping women conceive in a natural, God-honoring, and life-affirming way.
A Restorative Approach
NaProTechnology, or natural procreative technology, is a form of root-cause reproductive medicine devised by Dr. Tom Hilgers, director of the St. Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction.
Inspired by Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, Hilgers sought to develop natural, Catholic-friendly methods for managing fertility and identifying reproductive disorders. What he came up with was a system that involves the close monitoring and charting of women's menstrual cycles, including their timing, associated symptoms, patterns, and more.
The goal: work with—not against—women's reproductive systems.
For Ruberu, the concept was revolutionary. "It was amazing for me because I had been trained in the typical GYN system, where basically everything was all about shutting down the cycle, using contraceptives to just address the symptoms," she said. "I had never understood that you could do anything different."
As an example, she pointed to ovarian cysts. "You can actually treat with [the natural hormone] progesterone to resolve that cyst, rather than going straight in for surgery or . . . trying to suppress your cycle with contraceptives," Ruberu said. She added that progesterone could also improve the symptoms of postpartum depression, staving off any need for risky antidepressants.
Ruberu's training in NaProTechnology led her to start researching how the body's other systems interact with and affect the reproductive system, "because everything is truly related," she said.
Dr. Monique Ruberu, board-certified OB-GYN and owner of Natural Women's Health in Huntingdon Valley, Pa.
Ruberu discovered that, when it comes to fertility, a litany of factors could affect a woman's ability to conceive. The more obvious aspects, such as hormone levels and egg quality, are well known. But a woman's hydration, diet, gut health, thyroid function, or even her hair and skincare products could also be gumming up the works.
"It's truly a holistic issue," Ruberu said. "We're looking at not just what do your labs show, but what are you eating? How are you sleeping? Who are you interacting with? What are your habits? All of those things play in it."
Another factor Ruberu said often goes unexplored is the prospective father's fertility. "Sadly, with male fertility, typically the only workup they really get is a semen analysis, and that semen analysis is analyzed in terms of IVF," or in vitro fertilization.
Sperm quality depends on motility, concentration, and morphology, or shape. But Ruberu noted that, for just one cycle of IVF, a clinic only needs so many good-quality sperm. And as the clinicians can pick and choose which ones they use, the bar for a "normal" rating is very low. "But for natural fertility, the numbers that you actually want are much, much higher."
Ruberu said, in her experience, she has never encountered a patient whose husband has been offered a thyroid panel, insulin resistance testing, or even basic hormone testing. That's why she offers a male opportunity program, too. "Nine times out of 10, we will find abnormalities there," she said.
Standing Firm on Faith
While Ruberu treats patients of all backgrounds, there are certain lines her faith will not allow her to cross, and that has at times caused friction.
"In my office, I do at times wonder when I'm going to be punched in the face," she joked.
Ruberu noted that she will not treat the partners of unmarried women or help such couples to conceive. "I'm happy to address every GYN issue you have, but I will not cross that threshold," she said.
To do otherwise, she explained, would be to rubberstamp her patients' sexual sin. "You can do whatever you want with your life, but I cannot actively help you to do that. I have babies in heaven, and I need to get to them at some point."
In that vein, Ruberu does not prescribe contraceptives, which are endocrine disruptors that she noted may actually mask or contribute to underlying health concerns. She also discourages the use of IVF because it "has so many issues associated with it."
First, the procreative act, meant to be between man, wife, and God, is instead performed by a stranger in a sterile lab. Further, to procure the necessary specimens, Ruberu noted that the husband is typically handed pornography "to get him to masturbate." His wife, meanwhile, receives hormone injections that force her ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs in one cycle—a process that could cause ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, or OHSS, a potentially life-threatening condition.
After the clinicians create the embryos, they grade them based on their perceived quality. Those that don't make the cut—a majority, due to high rates of genetic abnormalities—get discarded.
"For parents who are wanting so badly to have one healthy child, they don't realize that they are already killing off a few of their children right then and there," Ruberu said.
Of the few embryos that survive this culling, most end up in a frozen limbo. Meanwhile, those that implant could result in one or two live births—or they could "take off like gangbusters," as Ruberu put it, and split into even more babies.
At that point, the pregnancy becomes very high-risk. To lower the chance of complications, Ruberu said doctors will encourage parents to "reduce" their babies' number. "And 'reduce' is a really nice-sounding word for abortion."
Ruberu, however, opposes the destruction of innocent life, which begins at conception. "That is an embryological fact," she noted. She also rejects the pro-abortion narrative that dependence on others disqualifies a person from basic rights. "I don't believe that your value as a life is tied to what you can offer society. I think your value is given just in the fact that you were created, and just being created is enough."
Sadly, Ruberu said many parents will agree to abort some of their IVF-conceived children out of fear they could miss their one shot at having a biological child.
Those parents should know there is still hope.
Making America Fertile Again
In 2025, the U.S. fertility rate hit its lowest-ever mark at just 53.1 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 41. Meanwhile, one in 10 women ages 15 to 44 reports having received fertility services, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. The data point to a growing fertility crisis—but Ruberu noted that it's not just infertility that's on the rise.
"Just considering the way that society's health has been deteriorating over the past decades, I would assume that all medical problems are worsening," she said. "The rates of cancer seem to be worsening, the rates of infertility seem to be worsening, the rates of abnormal uterine bleeding, and painful periods, and endometriosis, and PCOS [polycystic ovarian syndrome], and endocrine disruption, and all of these things."
The prevalence of chronic disease has in fact been increasing for decades. In 2023, a staggering 76 percent of American adults had at least one chronic condition, according to federal health data. Yet modern medical practice still largely focuses on managing the symptoms of these issues rather than identifying their underlying causes and resolving them.
For Ruberu, that approach just doesn't cut it.
"We have to look at so many aspects, like, what is the pollution like in our environment?" she said. "What are people eating? Is the food that we're eating tainted with chemicals, and with pesticides, and with colors, and all this stuff? Or are people actually eating healthy food that's organic and natural?"
She pointed to stress levels, sleep quality, and unhealthy addictions as other factors that could contribute toward infertility but are seldom addressed by an industry that often prioritizes the most lucrative option: IVF.
What many prospective parents might not know: Ruberu's natural approach to treating infertility is, on average, more effective than IVF—without all the ethical baggage.
While rates vary based on maternal age, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data put IVF's overall success rate at just 37.5 percent. Yet a 2025 study of NaProTechnology's effectiveness, conducted in Spain, found an overall success rate of 62.1 percent.
And that doesn't even begin to touch on the price difference, with IVF costing upwards of $20,000 per cycle—usually out of pocket.
"The use of NaProTechnology and the restorative fertility methods has actually been much more successful at a much cheaper price," Ruberu said, noting that her services are often covered by health insurance. "And everything that you're doing, you're trying to restore the natural health and well-being of the patient."
As for those struggling to conceive and ready to give up hope, Ruberu encouraged: "Your body is created perfectly, and there is nothing it cannot heal. Just because all the medical care that you've received thus far has not shown you any abnormalities that can be addressed, it doesn't mean that there aren't abnormalities that can be addressed."
While she added that God has the final say, she also stressed that He has many ways of forming families.
"There are so many children in need of loving, kind, strong parents," she said. "They are in the foster system, they are in need of adoption, they are the kids down the street in the neighborhood whose parents are not available, and they are your nieces and nephews who need a listening ear."
No matter how it happens, Ruberu said, parenthood is a gift. "And there are so many ways to access that."
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