Identification and prediction of the fertile window using NaturalCycles

Objectives The aim of the study was to evaluate the ability of a novel web and mobile application to identify a woman's ovulation day and fertile window, in order to use it as a method of natural birth control.Methods A retrospective study was performed on 1501 cycles of 317 women aged 18 to 39 years. Women entered their basal body temperatures, ovulation test results and date of menstruation into the application.Results The mean delay from the first positive ovulation test to the temperature-based estimation of the ovulation day was 1.9 days; the length of the luteal phase varied on average by 1.25 days per user. Only 0.05% of non-fertile days were falsely attributed and found within the fertile window.Conclusions The method is effective at identifying a user's ovulation day and fertile window and can therefore be used as a natural method of birth control.