A clinical trial involving four thousand women has deemed a new fertility app for smartphones to be as effective as the contraceptive pill – without the associated costs and murky side effects.
The Natural Cycles app logs your body temperature (input by you daily) and tracks your period to predict and find your ovulation day as well as your fertile days, creating a menstrual and fertility calendar.
On “green” days, it’s safe to have sex without contraception, while on “red” days, it’s better to avoid unprotected sex if you don’t want to become pregnant.
The Swedish trial of 4,054 Swedish women aged between 20 and 35, published in the European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care, Natural Cycles, monitored how many of the women became pregnant with 12 months of using the app. Results showed that the rate of accidental pregnancy for people using it was similar to the failure rate of the pill.
The app could be a godsend to many women who would rather avoid common birth control side effects such as spotting, nausea, weight gain and decreased libido.
Would you trust an app over your current birth control method? Let us know on Twitter @HerFamilydotie.
