Not long after the Second Advent of smartphones , fertility apps get to crop up , appealing to women who attempt a more commodious way to increase the betting odds of invention . Most of these apps employ a one - size of it - fit - all approaching that take all women have the same average 28 - solar day menstrual cycle , when actual cycle range widely from 20 to 40 days . Now , researcher at Georgetown University’sInstitute for Reproductive Health(IRH ) are inscribe participant for a fresh , real - time study of a free fertility app calledDot(Dynamic Optimal Timing ) which takes this range into considerateness .
Created by Cycle Technologies , Dot takes into report the salmagundi of menstrual cps and gives a personalized , daily part risk of infection of pregnancy ground on — at first — a queer point data : the first twenty-four hours of menstruation . Over time , the app ascertain about an case-by-case woman ’s menstrual cycle and adapts to it . The app is currently available on the iOS platform and forthcoming for Android in August .
The algorithm the app utilise to make this " peril analysis " was establish on empiric data drawn from two fertility study ( a age group from the North Carolina - base Early Pregnancy Study and a World Health Organization study ) of some 1000 women in six geographically and culturally distinct locations around the creation , including the U.S. In a late study , a squad of statistician from IRH revisited this data and test the DOT algorithm against it . They ground that the app is accurate at augur fertile daylight 96–98 percent of the time . They published theirresultsin theEuropean Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care .
While other fecundity apps live , “ most , quite honestly , have not published or indicated in any way how their algorithm were arise , and they do n’t seem to be exact enough to tolerate woman to swear on them for preventing a pregnancy , ” says Victoria Jennings , director of IRH .
Their especial algorithmic rule “ is going to determine about the char who is using it , learn her cycles and be capable to adapt , ” Jennings tellsmental_floss .
DOT was contrive to be advanced enough to be used as a kinsfolk planning resource in either direction — that is , to avoid or to plan for pregnancy . Jennings says many cleaning woman would care more control over when they become fraught without taking oral prophylactic equipment or using condom ; she mention that another recent IRH study found that women who do n’t want to get significant yet avoid contraceptive method are upset about side issue and are " concerned about their succeeding health and their succeeding rankness , ” Jennings says . She believes these women will take to DOT because it will gift them with a new option .
As for the novel cogitation , IRH isrecruitingup to 1200 volunteers to enter . To enroll , woman merely have to download the app , which will ask round them to take part . The goal is to collect data ( via in - app interrogation ) that research gender issues related to both technology and richness , including " women ’s memory access to phones , their power to use the app , their ability to communicate to their partner about their fertility [ and ] their ability to avoid pregnancy if they want to — or not — have sex on the day they are rich , " Jennings says .
Because the hope is that low - income women around the human race — who may have access to smartphones but few other resources — could benefit from the free app , the study is being fund by a Ulysses S. Grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development as part of theFertility Awareness for Community Transformation(FACT ) Project .
