Women can choose from many effective birth-control methods these days, but a new natural mode of family planning uses the simplest of non-invasive devices: color-coded beads.
CycleBeads, used with the Standard Days Method of controlling fertility developed by the Institute of Reproductive Health at Georgetown University, are designed for women who have menstrual cycles 26 to 32 days long. The beads help women identify when during the cycle they are least likely to get pregnant–marked by brown beads–and when they are most likely to get pregnant (days 8 to 19)–marked by the white beads.
Clinical trials involving almost 500 women in Bolivia, Peru and the Philippines found the method is more than 95 percent effective when used correctly.
At first blush, the idea of counting a string of beads indicating fertile and infertile days in a cycle seems better suited to backwater countries than nations with modern health-care systems and a variety of contraceptive pills, patches, injections, implants and intrauterine devices on the market.
Not so, said Victoria Jennings, director of the Institute for Reproductive Health, which has conducted research on fertility awareness-based methods of family planning for 17 years.
“There are a lot of people who want to use methods of family planning that are natural–that don’t involve putting anything into their bodies, don’t involve hormones, but at the same time are effective and easy for them to use,” she said.
CycleBeads
Georgetown University has licensed a company to manufacture and distribute CycleBeads in the U.S. The method is not right for everyone, and www.cyclebeads.com has self-screening questions to guide women. The beads cost $12.50.
