A mobile app that bills itself as “digital birth control” has received marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but it’s still under investigation in Sweden and the United Kingdom for resulting in dozens of unwanted pregnancies.
The app, Natural Cycles, costs about $80 per year and comes with an oral basal thermometer. The Stockholm-based company claims the app is 93 percent effective under typical use, and 99 percent effective if users follow directions perfectly. Essentially, Natural Cycles uses an algorithm that predicts when a woman is most likely to be fertile based on daily body-temperature readings and menstrual cycle information.
This is the first time the FDA has allowed a birth control app to market itself as a contraceptive.
“Consumers are increasingly using digital health technologies to inform their everyday health decisions, and this new app can provide an effective method of contraception if it’s used carefully and correctly,” Terri Cornelison, assistant director for the health of women in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement on Friday. “But women should know that no form of contraception works perfectly, so an unplanned pregnancy could still result from correct usage of this device.”
Source: Vice News
