When giving advice to women about what birth control method is best for them, the advice giver wants to be 99-100 percent sure that it will work. Natural Cycles, an app that tells you when you’re fertile and should use protection (ostensibly to avoid an unwanted pregnancy), missed the mark this time around. Although Natural Cycles is certified by the EU, with 37 Swedish users having unwanted pregnancies, as Jezebel reported, something definitely went wrong.
A midwife at the Södersjukhuset hospital in Stockholm said “It’s a new method and we see a number of unwanted pregnancies, so we are reporting this to the Medical Products Agency.”
If the Fertility Awareness: Natural Family Planning (NFP) method of birth control is perfect for you, there are a few way more accurate way to do that than using an app. One is to use an ovulation kit. An ovulation kit is super easy to use and will tell you whether or not you need to use protection that day. Because this isn’t recommended as the only source of birth control, use your best judgment when it comes to this method!
Natural Cycles is conducting an internal investigation regarding the 37 pregnancies and released this statement to the public:
“At first sight, the numbers mentioned in the media are not surprising given the popularity of the app and in line with our efficacy rates. As our user base increases, so will the amount of unintended pregnancies coming from Natural Cycles app users, which is an inevitable reality.”
An inevitable reality that’s certified? Maybe the EU should rethink this one.