Yes, Billings has an app for that

In a recent Bloomberg article on the first contraceptive app called ‘Natural Cycles’, the creators of the app were criticised because some of its users achieved unwanted pregnancies.

Raoul Scherwitzl and his wife Elina Berglund put a great deal of work into reminding the app’s clients about the rules for avoiding pregnancy whilst using the software, but the truth remains: user-failure is not the same as method-failure. The Billings Ovulation Method^® has a method-failure rate of less than one per cent in some of the many studies done on this simple, yet highly effective method.

Most of BOMA-TT’s clients prefer face-to-face instructions. Sometimes a client may ask if we have an app. The Billings Method charting can be done through NFP Charting Online’s app (www.nfpcharting.com), which is a link on our website billingstt.com.

The difference with this app and Natural Cycles’ is that it allows for one-on-one direct interaction and guidance with a qualified teacher of the method for instructions.

The NFP Charting Online App is free for the first month and then US$19.99 per year after that (Natural Cycles is US$99 per year). Anytime the app user wants to send their chart to be reviewed, they simply send an email to their teacher via the app.

The teacher would receive the client’s chart and can respond with individualised advice, since the teacher would have gathered the client’s medical history before responding with recommendations.

The major problem with the Natural Cycles app is that it uses an algorithm to tell the woman about her fertility. The Billings Ovulation Method^® uses the woman’s natural indicator of fertility: the cervical mucus.

Billings can be used in times of stress, sickness, if the woman has irregular cycles, if she is breastfeeding, if she is entering menopause. Can an algorithm figure out her fertility during these times? It may attempt to do so, but women are not robots and computing all of the above possible scenarios has been obviously challenging for the Natural Cycles app.

Natural Cycles has “dramatically pared back the number of social media influencers it pays and now limits them to women older than 25 and in stable relationships”. Why did this occur?

The designers say that “It’s not for someone who is 20 years old and single and partying” and that “Users for whom getting pregnant would be a catastrophe are better served by something such as an IUD, because the best contraceptive is one you can forget about.” This is not surprising coming from the Swedish owners, as their country is noted as “one of the world’s most secular”.

This Bloomberg article is disheartening. This get-and-forget advice clearly spells trouble especially for the God-fearing young adult. We at BOMA-TT have been investing a great measure of time teaching about the virtue of chastity and saving sex for marriage with young people in our ‘Is Love Forever?’ seminars.

Sexual promiscuity has historically been promoted since the widespread use of contraceptives began in the 1960s. The Sexual Revolution was really a ‘Contraceptive Revolution’. Since then sexually transmitted infections have increased vastly, infidelity and divorces more than doubled.

Women are seen as objects of pleasure more than ever and some more advanced countries have forced contraceptives on poorer ones to deplete the size of their populations. All of these have impacted on the social behaviour between men and women tremendously to date.

Perhaps the best noted part of the Bloomberg article is “Fewer Natural Cycles users are reporting to the hospital now for abortions” and for that we commend them. In China, the abortion rates dropped significantly since the introduction of the Billings Ovulation Method^® into their healthcare system.

Contact BOMA-TT: 384-1659, email: billingstt@gmail.com, website: www.billingstt.com