App as effective at preventing pregnancy as birth control pills: study

20 February 2017 - 14:31 By Claire Cohen
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If taken correctly the contraceptive pill is more than 99% effective.
If taken correctly the contraceptive pill is more than 99% effective.
Image: iStock

Some women are testing something different from the regular contraceptive pill: an app.

Created by Elina Berglund, 32, a physicist, and her husband Raoul Scherwitzl, a postdoctoral researcher, Natural Cycles was launched in 2013 and now has 150,000 users around the world.

Last year research by the Karolinska Institute, one of Sweden's most renowned medical institutes, found the app is as effective as the contraceptive pill at preventing pregnancy, without any of the side-effects.

It has been granted medical approval from certification body Tuv Sud, to be used as a contraceptive in the EU.

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It's the first time such technology has been classified as effective in preventing pregnancy and is a breakthrough that could spell the end for hormonal and intrusive birth control measures.

There's no question that the pill liberated women. If taken correctly it is more than 99% effective. But there are also well-documented physical side-effects.

Natural Cycles works by calculating where you are in your cycle through the temperature readings you input. It then tells you whether or not you could get pregnant on that day.

Natural Cycles is easy to use: you take your temperature each morning and log it in the app. The science is simple: post-ovulation, progesterone warms our bodies by up to 0.45°C. The app's calendar labels fertile days red (when you should abstain or use a condom) and the rest green, when you're "safe".

When you want to get pregnant, the data accumulated during the time spent on using the app for contraception can be used to pinpoint your most fertile days. - The Daily Telegraph

This article was published in The Times.

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