The Fertile Window Has Moved!

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cyclebeads.com/blog

Shhh...CycleBeads Android App Coming Soon!

CycleBeads App Icon

We've been a bit quiet lately in part because we've been hard at work getting the CycleBeads Android app ready for launch! You can get it in the Android Market now: CycleBeads Android App

The official launch is coming soon!  


The CycleBeads Android app, like iCycleBeads the iPhone version, is based on the Standard Days Method, a scientifically based natural family planning option that helps women plan or prevent pregnancy. It is easy to use and scientifically proven to be more than 95% effective. The app features alerts which will let a woman know if she is on a fertile or non-fertile day, when she is likely to get her next period, and if she has had a cycle that is outside the range for using this family planning method.

CycleBeads App Color Key

CycleBeads View on Android App

CycleBeads is Not the Rhythm Method - Part II

Well we've said it before, but CycleBeads and the Standard Days Method of family planning are not the rhythm method! There is a lot of information in the earlier CycleBeads is Not the Rhythm Method post, but sometimes a picture is worth a 1000 words...

Why Do We Need to Invest in Girls?

Investing in girls has a profound effect on societies. Educating girls and helping them delay marriage and pregnancy until they are ready, results in fewer and healthier babies, a higher quality of life for themselves and their families, and significantly impacts future generations. A program called The Girl Effect is promoting this information through powerful and inspiring messages like those in the video below. 

The solution may not be as easy as the video makes it seem, but it is a fact that young women and girls can be agents of change in their communities wherever they live - whether it's a remote village in the mountains of Peru or the concrete jungle of New York City.

Some of the interesting facts that this program highlights:

• When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.  (United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 1990.)

• An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20%. An extra year of secondary school by 15 to 25%.  (George Psacharopoulos and Harry Anthony Patrinos, “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update,” Policy Research Working Paper 2881[Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002].) 

• Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers. (George T. Bicego and J. Ties Boerma, “Maternal Education and Child Survival: A Comparative Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries,” Social Science and Medicine 36 (9) [May 1993]: 1207–27.)

• When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90% of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40% for a man. (Chris Fortson, “Women’s Rights Vital for Developing World,” Yale News Daily 2003.)

Educating young girls and helping them delay marriage and families until they are ready, is critical if we want them to change themselves, their families, their communities, and their nations. To find out more about how to support this cause visit The Girl Effect website where you can find information on how to donate, more facts, and guides for how individuals and international reproductive health programs can support this initiative.

Making Family Planning Available to Everyone, Everywhere

iCycleBeads:  Family Planning iPhone Application Now Available in Spanish

March 24, 2011 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Cycle Technologies, announced today that iCycleBeads™, the first iPhone application that enables a woman to plan or prevent pregnancy easily and effectively, entirely through information provided by her iPhone device, is now available in Spanish.

“There are more than 35 million people in the U.S. and 400 million people worldwide for whom Spanish is the primary language,” said Leslie Heyer, President of Cycle Technologies. “It makes sense for this valuable family planning tool to be accessible to Spanish speakers. We plan to make iCycleBeads available in additional languages and through other smart phone devices in the near future so that eventually this birth control option can be used by anyone with a smart phone, anywhere.”

The Spanish language version of iCycleBeads will be presented at the Symposium for mHealth Strategy in Latin America in Lima, Peru March 25-26.

iCycleBeads is based on the Standard Days Method®, a family planning method that:

·         Was developed through extensive analysis of reproductive physiology data, tested in large-scale clinical trials, and proven more than 95% effective at preventing pregnancy.

·         Is the fastest growing natural family planning option available having been used by +2.5 million women worldwide in more than 50 countries using the visual tool CycleBeads®.

·         Was developed by the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University.

To use iCycleBeads a woman enters into the “app” the starting date of her most recent period.  At the touch of a button, the app shows her where she is in her cycle and whether she is on a day when pregnancy is likely or not. The information is provided on a virtual representation of CycleBeads or a calendar. The user will also receive customizable alerts for the first and last days of her “fertile window” (the days when she is able to get pregnant), when she can expect to get her next period, and to remind her to enter her cycle data.

“iCycleBeads allows a woman to both plan and prevent pregnancy easily and effectively without in-depth tracking of complicated data, a counselor to review information, or requiring additional tools to help her use it,” said Ms. Heyer.  “This is modern, natural birth control that is both easy to use and highly effective.”

iCycleBeads is designed for the majority of women who have cycles between 26 and 32 days long.  It helps a woman track her cycle and clearly identify her fertile window as days 8 through 19 of her cycle.  These 12 days take into account the life span of the ovum, the viable life of sperm, as well as the variation in the actual timing of ovulation from one cycle to the next.

iCycleBeads is protected by patent. It is now available at the iPhone Apple store and is compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. A portion of all proceeds are donated to expanding family planning options around the world.

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Additional information available at: www.CycleBeads.com & www.CycleTechnologies.com. See the iCycleBeads app in the iTunes store. See video demonstrations and additional pictures of iCycleBeads.  Follow CycleBeads on: Facebook & Twitter

Why We Need Planned Parenthood & Title X Programs in the U.S.

The U.S. Congress's attempts to cut the deficit by reducing the already minimal funding to Planned Parenthood and Title X programs has us all concerned. Would you save money on your house by not fixing a major leak in your roof?  It might save you a few dollars today, but would cost you a lot of money in the very near future.

The U.S. Senate is likely to act today on a decision by the House last month to bar Planned Parenthood and Title X health centers from receiving any federal funding. That would deeply cut into the health services provided by these programs including birth control, cancer screenings, HIV and STD testing and counseling, pregnancy diagnosis and counseling, and more. These programs are the only federally funded health programs that work with low income individuals and families in the U.S. It should be noted that while these programs do provide abortions, federal funds are not used for this procedure.


Here are some facts that might give our leaders some pause: 

Title X & Planned Parenthood Programs Save Money
For every public dollar invested in family planning, $3.74 is saved in Medicaid-related costs. That’s savings to both federal and state governments. Where did this figure come from? Read the report from the Guttmacher Institute here: Contraceptive Needs and Services: National and State Data, 2008.

Title X & Planned Parenthood Programs Offer Many Critical Health Services 
In 2009 alone, Title X providers performed 2.2 million Pap tests, 2.3 million breast exams, and over 6 million tests for sexually transmitted infections, including nearly a million HIV tests. Planned Parenthood health centers offer on an annual basis nearly 1 million lifesaving screenings for cervical cancer, 830,000 breast exams, contraception to nearly 2.5 million patients, 4 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, and education programs for nearly 1.2 million individuals, among other important preventive services. Want more details? See the report provided by Planned Parenthood here: Protect Women's Health Protect Planned Parenthood

A Majority of Americans Do Not Support Proposals to Cut Costs to Health Care
The Center for American Progress highlighted a January 2011 CBS/New York Times survey which found that Americans oppose cuts for health care and education as a means of reducing the deficit by a margin of 67% to 27%. 

Little Impact on the Deficit
We will leave it to others to debate exactly what should be cut, but when your deficit is $14 trillion, and you main focus is the $317 million that was spent on these programs in 2010, it seems like a drop in the bucket. Let's see:

$14,000,000,000,000 - $300,000,000 = 

$13,999,700,000 Deficit Remaining*

* This does not take into account the costs associated with the increase in care that would be required to deal with the undiagnosed medical needs, unhealthy pregnancies, and unplanned pregnancies that would result from these programs being cut.

Investing in common sense, proven, effective prevention and primary health care is smart policy, politics, and the right thing to do. Cutting these programs not only hurts low income individuals and families, but it hurts society and the economy. Furthermore, it wouldn't even begin to address the issue of reducing the national debt.

Back to the metaphor about repairing the leaky roof on your house - the interest in cutting these programs makes you think that some people shouldn't be homeowners.

Why is Social Media Important to Us?

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and  Blogs is important to CycleBeads because it allows for a worldwide connection. Our community spans the globe, from California to the Congo and from Indiana to India. Being in touch directly with our community helps us innovate, address concerns, and respond to questions. 

With the transparency and flexibility of social media, we can share what we represent, provide the latest updates on CycleBeads, and up to the minute contraception and fertility news. Not to mention, we get to hear from you! 

So, if you aren't already following CycleBeads on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, check us out. You might consider following The Fertile Window Blog too!