Yes, really.
If you’re sometimes forgetful with your pill or get irritated by condoms, you might be interested in a different, more high-tech way to avoid pregnancy.
For the first time ever, the EU has approved an app to be certified as a type of contraception.
Natural Cycles works by monitoring a woman’s daily temperature and where she is in her menstrual cycle to determine how ‘at-risk’ of pregnancy she is at any given time, reports NPR.
A red light means you should use protection, while a green one means you’re less likely to get pregnant.
Women have been keeping track of their cycles for hundreds of years, and there are a lot of similar apps out there, but thanks to clinical trials, this is the first one that the EU has put its weight behind.
One clinical trial involving 4,000 women showed it to be far more accurate than tracking your cycle without the app – 7 out of 100 women using the app fell pregnant, compared to 24 out of 100 using a calendar.
It’s worth noting that when used correctly, both condoms and the pill have a 99 per cent effectiveness rate, according to Thinkcontraception.ie.
Natural Cycles was created by a Swedish physicist who had spent a number of years on hormonal birth control and wanted a more natural method.
Elena Berglund was part of the team that won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2013 for discovering the Higs Boson particle. After that achievement, she switched her focus to a contraceptive app and Natural Cycles was born.
The app now has over 300,000 users – you can check it out here.
