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Contraceptive App Natural Cycles Blamed For String of Unwanted Pregnancies (standard.co.uk)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A contraceptive mobile phone app used by tens of thousands of British women has come under fire after reportedly sparking a string of unwanted pregnancies. Swedish birth control app Natural Cycles, which costs $55, tracks body temperature to accurately predict when in the month a woman is more likely to fall pregnant. The period monitor was hailed as a non-mood altering alternative to the pill and, if used perfectly, was found to be 99 per cent effective by researchers. But the app has come under fire after the Sodersjukhuset hospital in Stockholm lodged a complaint with the Swedish Medical Products Agency, the country's government body responsible for regulation of medical devices. It claimed staff at the hospital had recorded 37 women who had fallen pregnant in the last quarter of 2017 after using the app. One midwife said the hospital had a duty to report all side effects.

5 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. 99% effective? by Wulf2k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, you'd expect that if at least 3700 women used it. ...Ignoring every other aspect of why it's stupid to count on this if you didn't want to get pregnant, anyway.

    1. Re:99% effective? by The+Snowman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You realize that this is actually a valid technique that has been used for many years, right?

      Valid technique, yes. Science does back up the fact that this is a valid technique. However...

      It does work if done properly because the female body does give signs when fertile.

      ...its efficacy is terrible. Yes, the female body does give signs when fertile, or more accurately, when preparing to ovulate. The problem is that said signs are like pissing in the ocean compared to the hundreds of other signs the body gives off on a regular basis. This makes it nearly impossible to use this technique. Even more so if the woman has any health problems. Thyroid slightly out of whack? Oh well, enjoy the next nine months. Sick? Too bad.

      The problem is that it should be done with a lot of coaching from someone who knows what they are doing, which tends to be a failure of most apps.

      The problem is that this technique works in theory, but fails miserably in practice even with "coaching," whatever that means. I am not inviting a coach into my bedroom to tell me when it is safe to fuck my wife and not get her pregnant.

      --
      24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
  2. Unfortunate side effect by Major_Disorder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    is that this results in stupid people having babies.
    Idocracy was not supposed to be a documentary.

    --
    First law of people: People are generally stupid.
  3. Re:Swedes try product because of marketing by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, let's be consistent about it. So what's your stance on childcare, school lunch, medical examinations for children and other aids for the mom?

    Until you're born we'll fight for your life but after you ARE actually alive, you're on your own.

    Face it, you're not pro life. You're anti-fucking. You want the woman to suffer from having "sinned", and you can't really say it that way because everyone would instantly consider it what it is: A bullshit reason. So it's the "sanctity of life". Bullshit. Life isn't sacred. Twice so if you believe in the invisible sky daddy who kills people according to his own advertising brochure left and right with impunity because he didn't like the cut of their jib or some other bullshit reason.

    Sanctity of life, my ass...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:Swedes try product because of marketing by Cederic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The apple does not fall far from the tree.

    You're from the same fucking tree.

    wear a damn condom. Contraceptives exist and they work

    The irony. From multiple sources:

    If you use condoms perfectly every single time you have sex, they're 98% effective at preventing pregnancy.

    So, less effective than this app. Of course, they're also not used perfectly. Frankly the only time you can guarantee avoiding pregnancy while using a condom is if you're having gay sex with another man.

    My whore sister

    If your sister has sex for money, didn't use contraceptives and only has three children then she's actually doing pretty well.