Wow, how is this for technology? New app Natural Cycles contends that it’s just as effective as traditional birth control, with absolutely no pills, contraptions or hormones involved.
This is how it works: You wake up, take your temperature, add the data to the app, and it tells you whether you’re fertile that day or not. It’s basically tracking your fertility cycles throughout the month.
“Each woman has her own individual menstrual cycle pattern,” reads the website. “NaturalCycles makes use of an intelligent algorithm that rapidly learns from previously recorded cycles from the same woman, to provide a tailor-made solution for each individual woman in order to detect and predict ovulation, and thus to identify, her fertile window.”
The company was started by two physicists, Dr. Elina Berglund and Dr. Raoul Scherwitzl, with offices based in Switzerland and Sweden. Right now, they’re offering a one-month free trial. If you decide to sign up, it’s only $68.90 per year, and they even send you the thermometer!
The benefits to moving toward a fertility tracking system are numerous: In addition to this being just a really smart idea, it’s ridiculously affordable as birth control pills can be insanely expensive. It’s also extremely helpful for women who don’t easily tolerate hormones, or couples who are trying to conceive, helping them pinpoint the best days of the month to try. Not to mention the benefits to potentially help women plan families in developing nations who don’t readily have access to pills and condoms.
Leave it to the Swiss and the Swedes. I haven’t been this excited about an app in a long time.
