Natural Cycles co-founder reveals the fascinating science behind the effectiveness of the popular birth control and pregnancy planning app.
Capable of generating vast amounts of data on women’s menstrual cycles, it’s believed that birth control and pregnancy planning apps have enormous potential to uncover new scientific discoveries. This is provided that data can be validated against traditional clinical studies undertaken in controlled settings. Now, and thanks to co-founder and former CERN physicist Elina Berglund, discover the data behind the first and only FDA cleared and CE-marked Class II birth control app, Natural Cycles.
“Our mission is to pioneer women’s health with research and passion,” explains Berglund, co-founder of Natural Cycles and a former member of the research team at CERN, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Natural Cycles is out to pioneer women’s health, she says, with the science behind its birth control effectiveness.
“Often I’m asked, ‘What does research look like at Natural Cycles?'” reveals Berglund. According to the company’s co-founder, the Natural Cycles app is 93 percent effective with typical use and 98 percent effective with perfect use based on peer-reviewed clinical studies. “Our birth control effectiveness comes from an initial analysis of over 15,000 women,” she explains. The Natural Cycles study, Berglund goes on to reveal, looked at all possible reasons why women become pregnant when using Natural Cycles, including having unprotected sex on so-called ‘red’ days and a condom breaking.
A subsequent study, meanwhile, undertaken by Natural Cycles in collaboration with University College London, looked at over 600,000 menstrual cycles of more than 120,000 women. The comprehensive analysis of menstrual cycle parameters would provide Natural Cycles with important insight into the physiology of menstrual cycles among the general population. “Our analysis revealed important information on menstrual cycle characteristics in a real-world population of women,” Berglund explains, “finding, for example, that menstrual cycles are considerably varied, with only around one in eight women having cycles that last 28 days.”
“Did you know,” Berglund continues, “that, at Natural Cycles, we have a dedicated team committed solely to research?”
Natural Cycles, she says, regularly contributes scientific involvement toward the historically overlooked area of fertility and women’s health. Recently published studies carried out by Natural Cycles’ dedicated research team include ‘Perfect-use and typical-use Pearl Index of a contraceptive mobile app,’ ‘Fertility awareness-based mobile application for contraception,’ ‘Short- and long-term effect of contraceptive methods on fecundity,’ and the aforementioned ‘Real-world menstrual cycle characteristics of more than 600,000 menstrual cycles.’
“We’re also proud to work with leading medical advisors who bring their extensive knowledge and backgrounds in female health to Natural Cycles,” reveals Berglund.
In 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Natural Cycles as a medical device for use as a digital method of birth control. In Europe, meanwhile, Natural Cycles is the first CE-marked Class II medical device approved for use as a method of birth control. “We’re also fully quality regulated,” adds Berglund, wrapping up, “and are ISO13485 certified, working to the highest levels of quality and safety with a quality management system at our core.”
To learn more about Natural Cycles, or to download the Natural Cycles app, head to https://www.naturalcycles.com/.
