About 84% of couples who have regular unprotected sex conceive within a year, but those who don’t are diagnosed as infertile. And a quarter of them, are given a diagnosis of unexplained infertility – doctors simply cannot find a reason for it. It seems surprising that a process that appears so simple and natural should remain so mysterious in such a large proportion of cases. But new technologies, in the forms of apps and wearable sensors, are now helping couples to better understand the intricate physiological processes that influence their fertility, and so boost their chances of pregnancy. By gathering data from large numbers of women around the clock, these apps are also providing researchers with masses of information from which to look for broader clues and patterns about lifestyle and health factors that affect fertility more broadly, which could help other couples too – not just those using the apps.
Apps such as Ovuline’s Ovia or Glow, another popular alternative, help refine this process by allowing women to input such daily information as temperature readings, when their periods occur, what their emotions and moods are, and to track sexual activity and even sexual positions. Wallace, chief executive and founder of Ovuline, a company that has produced one such app, called Ovia Fertility says the apps teach users how to take control over their fertility. “For example, many people don’t know when ovulation happens or that a couple can only conceive during six days of a cycle until they start using [it].”
Apps such as Kindara and OvuView promote their use as a means of natural contraception as well as a way to help pregnancies happen.
One user, who wishes to remains anonymous, says: “I think these apps are really good for people who can’t have sex regularly for whatever reason, or who don’t really understand their cycle due to not understanding the science or not having regular periods. But if you are capable of having sex two to three times a week, then they’re not much use except for peace of mind. Where the technology becomes arguably more interesting is that these apps are increasingly becoming compatible with others such as food diaries and activity trackers, allowing data to be used to look for other possible factors in conception.
DuoFertility is a gagdet launched in 2009 by Cambridge Temperature Concepts, a Cambridge University spin-off. Women who are looking to conceive wear a sensor on their skin under the arm.It monitors very small changes in their body temperature and can more accurately detect the small increase in temperature associated with ovulation.
Rather than having to manually take a reading at the same time every morning, the sensor constantly takes them: about 20,000 times a day. It then wirelessly transmits the information back to a small receiver, which can be plugged into a computer for analysis.
By picking up small changes in body temperature, the device provides a much more accurate picture of when the woman is ovulating. “Simply having this information on precisely when to try is shown to make a dramatic impact on a couple’s chances,” says Claire Hooper, DuoFertility’s chief executive.
The most popular DuoFertility package costs £495, which includes the sensor itself, the wireless monitor to which the data is transferred, and the one-to-one support over the phone and by email.
In 2012 DuoFertility was approved as a medical device by the US authorities, and peer-reviewed research conducted by the company has found significant increases in pregnancy rates of people using the device.
Click below to watch the demonstration video.
The DuoFertility Demonstration Video.
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