Washington, DC -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/24/2014 -- In a recent article celebrating World Contraception Day, USAID highlighted CycleBeads® digital tools as a promising innovation in contraception. The article focuses on family planning options with which USAID has been involved, including a range of birth control options from barrier methods to hormonal contraceptives.
As described in the article, “Five Promising Innovations in Contraception”, CycleBeads digital tools are a step forward in birth control. CycleBeads Online and the CycleBeads smartphone apps enable women to plan or prevent pregnancy entirely through mobile technology.
“We estimate that over 4.5 million unplanned pregnancies have been prevented using the physical CycleBeads tool. But with the worldwide increase in internet access and the growing use of smartphones, the CycleBeads digital tools have the potential to have an even greater impact,” says Leslie Heyer, President of Cycle Technologies.
According to the company, CycleBeads digital tools are already used by approximately 50,000 women. 85% of women currently using the CycleBeads smartphone apps and online service are from the U.S. However, these technologies are also being tested in the developing world with plans to make them more widely available there.
According to Ellen Starbird, USAID’s Director of Population & Reproductive Health, "USAID has worked for nearly half a century to expand access to voluntary family planning information and services across the globe…As we work to meet the needs of the 222 million women who want to avoid pregnancy, but aren’t using modern contraception, it is vital for us to invest in new methods that expand women’s options."
To read more about the article and find a link to it, visit: http://tinyurl.com/innovativecontraception.
About Cycle Technologies
Cycle Technologies is a socially minded consumer products company that creates Brilliantly Simple™ solutions to help solve complex global problems. Since 2002 the company has worked with researchers, healthcare partners, and investors to seek leading edge ideas that fit its mission. Under the Solutions for Unmet Need in Family Planning Program (SUN-FP), the company has worked with the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University to create tools that help meet the needs of women in a range of contexts. These simple fertility awareness-based tools include CycleBeads®, CycleBeads® Online, CycleBeads® smartphone apps and the recently launched 2Day Method™ iPhone app. To date more than 3.5 million women in 60+ countries have used these technologies to plan or prevent pregnancy resulting in an estimated 4.5 million unplanned pregnancies prevented and 750,000 pregnancies successfully planned.
For more information, please visit http://www.cyclebeads.com/.