Exhausted and disoriented, I end up with the storm thrown on the shores of our dystopia to tell you the good news: applications are birth control now.
Monday, the application for tracking the Indication period has announced that it has received authorization from the FDA to launch a digital birth control function that will use statistical modeling watch closely uSERS menstrual cycles to help them better understand their chances of fertility.
Although it declined to list an exact price or launch date for birth control, Clue – which currently boasts about 13 million users – noted that the feature would be considered a “premium” feature.
The app will work as a version of fertility awareness birth control methods, which typically use key values, including period start dates, body temperature, and changes in cervical mucus to predict when ovulation will occur. But unlike other FAMs, Clue will rely on a single value – the start date of the period – to project fertility. Using what is known as Bayesian modeling, the application will synthesize this data to predict a “High risk “ window in a number of days in the user cycle, during which time there is an increased probability of pregnancy (there is also a “low risk” window). On high-risk days, users are advised to either refrain from sex altogether or use alternative contraceptives, such as condoms, to prevent pregnancy.
“It personalizes over time,” said Lynae Brayboy, Clue’s chief physician. said TechCrunch. “So, as the individual enters their cycle on the first day, we can customize the window of high-risk days to low-risk days.”
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When used correctly, Clue claims to be 92% effective in preventing unwanted pregnancy under “typical use” and 97% effective in “perfect use”. This is the second time an app that promotes a statistical modeling method has received FDA approval in U.S. markets: in 2018, the Natural Cycles app became the first, charging nearly $ 100 for a thermometer that users could use to -take his body temperature every morning.
Sometimes interchangeably referred to as “natural family planning” or “rhythm method”, the FAM has developed a bad reputation over time because I’m and I’m paraphrasing here, homeopathic nonsense that makes an educated guess of fertility. In fact, however, the methods have solid efficacy rates when used correctly, but also requires users to remain vigilant, responsible and consistent – adjectives that may not describe the average user for 20 years.
It is also worth mentioning that safter the launch of Natural Cycles in 2018, the application was sued for alleged challenges 37 unwanted pregnancies in Sweden. And Clue, even by his own admission, is not for everyone: only people between the ages of 18 and 45 who have regular periods will be able to use the app, and CEO Audrey Tsang said that ineligible users or those with cycles that become too irregular will be blocked from the application after a while.
But while The FAMs are still far from perfect science, IIt is also true that ma stream-type education in birth control has become so dominated by messages only for abstinence that individuals with period have become almost entirely divorced from the nature of one’s own fertility. While hormonal medications such as the birth control pill and reversible long-acting methods such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) work perfectly for some, many others are forced to tolerate only the methods – and a number of unpleasant side effects that often accompany them – in a world where few alternatives are considered legitimate.
It is the familiar dilemma for anyone who gets a period in this you’re kind of cursed if you do and damn if you don’t. The best advice, as ever, is just trust your gut and do what you feel is right.