A fertility app has received an official approval as the world's first software-based birth control method. The Natural Cycles app has been confirmed by a German health council and it will soon be endorsed for use in countries in the European Union.
According to Newsweek, Natural Cycles was first launched in 2014 and is available in 161 countries. Over 150,000 have signed up for the app so far. It has been described as a "non-hormonal, non-invasive forms of contraception."
Natural Cycles keeps track of a woman's body temperature and menstrual cycles to determine the days when she can have unprotected sex. This will then be indicated by a blinking green light display on the smartphone.
In 2015, a study on Natural Cycles published in The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care was undertaken to determine its efficiency. Some 4,000 women from the ages of 20-35 using the app were tracked.
Of these numbers, 143 unplanned pregnancies resulted but only 10 of these were conceptions during the "green days." It's for this reason that the German health council believes Natural Cycles can be a reliable, non-invasive and natural birth control method.
Some experts, however, are not completely sold on the app's efficiency. "Women who wish to use fertility awareness-based contraception are advised to receive guidance from a qualified teacher to learn how to effectively monitor the different indicators," reproductive health care expert Diana Mansour said.
The app will require some manual input and daily routines, such as taking the woman's temperature every morning via a thermometer. These temperature readings will be logged into the app, which will calculate the woman's algorithm.
Sometimes, however, an accurate algorithm can be affected if a woman is hungover, feeling sick or lacking in sleep, according to The Debrief. The whole process can be complicated for some women that they might not be able to properly use Natural Cycles.
