Fertility Awareness
With the natural methods, we have clients eager to use them, but our big barriers are sitting at the higher medical levels - Mihira Karra
image by: Kindara
HWN Suggests
True Story: I Use The Fertility Awareness Method
A year and a half ago, I tossed out hormonal birth control in favor of … no birth control at all.
Well, that’s not really accurate. I do practice a method of birth control, one that’s commonly relegated to the realm of hippies and the uber-religious. And although I am neither super crunchy nor super Christian, this method — the Fertility Awareness Method — is what is working for me. It’s easy, accurate, and helping me avoid pregnancy without any of the side effects of hormonal methods.
I’d used hormonal birth control, all sorts of different pills including Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, Yaz and Alesse, for almost nine years. I’d been using the NuvaRing for about a year, but the insurance…
Resources
Kindara
Our mission is to offer women the tools, knowledge, and support to understand how their fertility works, take ownership of their reproductive health, and meet their fertility goals.
Tempdrop
A Tool For All Women To Finally Track Their Cycle. Wake up whenever you want and effortlessly track your cycle. By learning your temperature patterns, Tempdrop allows you to chart your true cycle and make better life choices.
Lady-Comp
Lady-Comp® natural birth control and family planning fertility monitor has been validated by many clinical trials and over 28 years of use in Germany and Switzerland, which makes Lady-Comp a world leader in terms of precision, reliability and accuracy.
Clue
Helping people all around the world benefit from insights into female health.
CycleBeads
CycleBeads® is a scientifically proven way to plan or prevent pregnancy by simply tracking the start dates of your period. It's over 95% effective as shown in efficacy trials and used by millions of women around the world.
Daysy
Daysy lets you make the choice! Daysy is a fertility monitor that uses the fertility awareness method (FAM) by learning & tracking your menstrual cycle. With daysy, you can plan or prevent pregnancy just as you choose. Daysy will show you if you are fertile or not with an accuracy of 99.3%. It is all natural, free of side effects and no charting is necessary.
Dot
Dot is the easiest way to accurately prevent pregnancy, plan pregnancy, and predict future periods.
Opionato
Empowering women and couples everywhere to understand their fertility in order to become pregnant when and how they want.
An app to prevent pregnancy? Don’t count on it
Fertility awareness methods and apps can help women better understand their bodies, are relatively cost-effective, and have no side-effects. Yet at the same time, the apps rely on dedicated daily monitoring and data entry, and strictly abstaining from unprotected sex for several days each month. They also leave significant room for user error. Most importantly, their effectiveness remains to be properly proven with research evidence.
Period-tracking apps are not for women
The golden age of menstrual surveillance is great for men, marketers, and medical companies.
The Best Gear and Apps to Help You Have—or Not Have—a Baby
If you're about to embark on the mind-bending, energy-sapping journey called parenthood—or if you want to ensure that you don't—these might help you out.
Why Fertility Awareness Is My Birth Control of Choice
Watching my cycle like a hawk to prevent pregnancy has been effective for me — and, no, it’s not the rhythm method.
Why You Should Not Trust Fertility Apps—Yet
The fertility awareness methods they use are real science, but the apps haven’t shown they can deliver the same standard of care.
Everything You Need To Know About The Fertility Awareness Method
If you’re considering getting off the pill, IUD, or any other form of hormonal birth control, make sure you do your research first. The internet is a great place for this, and of course always consult your doctor!
The Wearable That Could Free Women From the Pill
But what, apart from springing for an IUD or settling for the sub-par experience of condom sex, can be done to avoid them? In this age of wearable technology, can we perhaps come up with something... better?
‘Fitbit for your period’: the rise of fertility tracking
Investors are pouring money into apps that allow women to track their fertility. Can tech companies use data to change the world of women’s reproductive health?
A Revolutionary Study Puts App-Only Birth Control To The Test
According to researchers, the study will be the first ever to test the efficacy of app-only birth control during its ongoing use, which could mean the role of reproductive tech in women's health is about to grow.
Be Cautious Of Birth Control Apps, Experts Say
Birth control apps are essentially a tech-age form of natural family planning.
Fertility app Natural Cycles becomes world's first certified contraception software
Our product is ideally suited for women in a relationship as well as women who feel bad from their currently used contraceptive. In order for it to work effectively, it is important to use protection on red days.”
Fertility awareness method: an update
So, about 6 months ago, in December, I decided to take the leap to quit taking birth control and use the fertility awareness method for my birth control method. Of course every time I told someone they got those wide eyes and asked if we were trying to get pregnant, to which I had to insist that it was quite the opposite.
Fertility awareness: Birth control and beyond!
Understanding your body's natural cycles can be useful for getting pregnant—and for avoiding pregnancy.
How Effective is Fertility Awareness?
Study finds surprising data on the efficacy of a contraceptive app. How does it stack up against sympto-thermal approaches?
Natural Birth Control: The Fertility Awareness Method, Explained
In looking for something effective and natural, I came across the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM). At first, I was totally overwhelmed and couldn’t make sense of it. Everything was completely new information to me. I had no idea–not even the slightest clue–how my body really worked. Not only did I learn that there was, in fact, a scientifically accurate way to prevent pregnancy, I also learned more about hormonal birth control–and with the information I learned, I knew it was not right for me.
Return of the Rhythm Method
Tired of condoms and the Pill, many women are turning to new apps that help them practice one of the oldest forms of contraception.
Study shows Natural Cycles is comparable to the contraceptive pill
Natural Cycles, the only app to be approved as a contraceptive, has proved 99 per cent effective in the largest study investigating it to date. The startup had previously conducted a study of 4,000 women, which showed similar accuracy rates. It has now proven the efficacy of the app again after testing 22,785 women through a total of 224,563 menstrual cycles across a year, to calculate the app’s Pearl Index – the rate used to measure a contraceptive’s effectiveness. It found that if used perfectly – using protection such as condoms on red days – effectiveness is 99 per cent.
The App That Could Be A 99 Percent Effective Form Of Birth Control
In many ways, family planning based on keeping track of one’s fertility is about as old-school as it gets. By paying attention to fluctuations in body temperature or cervical fluid, women can track when they’re ovulating and time intercourse so as to increase or decrease their odds of getting pregnant. Currently, a slew of fertility tracking apps are working to bring family planning into the smartphone era.
The Birth Control Solution
What if there were a solution to many of the global problems that confront us, from climate change to poverty to civil wars? There is, but it is starved of resources. It’s called family planning, and it has been a victim of America’s religious wars.
The New Old-School Birth Control
Tracking fertility effectively is more complicated than just counting days on the calendar. But it can work.
Why Aren't Fertility Awareness Methods More Popular?
Between its lack of commercial marketability, and the media regularly conflating it with the Rhythm Method, FAM rarely gets the attention it deserves. Thankfully, that's changing.
Why Women are Ditching the Pill for the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM)
FAM is NOT the rhythm method previous generations used. The rhythm method predicts when a woman will ovulate and is therefore ineffective, but FAM is based on daily observation of a woman’s two fertility signs:Cervical Fluid (CF) and Basal Body Temperature (BBT).
True Story: I Use The Fertility Awareness Method
A year and a half ago, I tossed out hormonal birth control in favor of … no birth control at all. Well, that’s not really accurate. I do practice a method of birth control, one that’s commonly relegated to the realm of hippies and the uber-religious.
Bedsider
Fertility awareness-based methods—or natural family planning—are all about tracking your menstrual cycle to determine the days that you can get pregnant. The tricky part is actually knowing when those days are. To do that, you’ll need to pay very close attention to your body and its patterns. Here we list all the different ways you can monitor your day-to-day fertility.
BirthControl.com
Fertility Awareness Methods are also referred to as FAM birth control or “natural family planning”. They consist of keeping track of ovulation (the release of an egg) and timing sexual activity so it coincides with times of the month which are less conducive to pregnancy. In this way, a woman can abstain from sex or use extra protection during times in which she is most fertile.
Introducing Stitches!
Your Path to Meaningful Connections in the World of Health and Medicine
Connect, Collaborate, and Engage!
Coming Soon - Stitches, the innovative chat app from the creators of HWN. Join meaningful conversations on health and medical topics. Share text, images, and videos seamlessly. Connect directly within HWN's topic pages and articles.