Elina Berglund Scherwitzl1, Olof Lundberg1, Helena Kopp Kallner2,3, Simon P Rowland1, Jan Holte4,5, James Trussell6, Kristina Gemzell Danielsson3, Raoul Scherwitzl1. 1. a NaturalCycles Nordic AB , Stockholm , Sweden. 2. b Department of Clinical Sciences at Danderyd Hospital , Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden. 3. c Department of Women's and Children's Health , Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital , Stockholm , Sweden. 4. d Carl von Linné Clinic , Uppsala , Sweden. 5. e Centre for Reproductive Biology in Uppsala , Uppsala , Sweden. 6. f Office of Population Research , Princeton University , Princeton , NJ , USA.
Abstract
Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the effect of previously used contraceptive methods on women's short- and long-term fecundity. Use of hormonal contraception (HC) was compared with the use of a contraceptive mobile application (app). Methods: This real-life prospective observational study comprised 2874 women who were attempting to become pregnant using the Natural Cycles mobile app to monitor their fertility. The women registered to use the app between August 2014 and June 2016 with the intention of planning a pregnancy and had previously either used the same app to prevent pregnancy or had recently discontinued HC use. We calculated the average time to pregnancy (TTP) for all women who became pregnant during the study and performed Kaplan-Meier life-table analysis to examine the cumulative probabilities of pregnancy for all women in the study. Results: The average TTP was 2.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.1, 2.4) and 3.7 (95% CI 3.4, 3.9) cycles for women who had previously used Natural Cycles and HC, respectively. The time to reach 30% pregnancy probability for women previously on HC was 1.6 (95% CI 1.5, 1.8) times longer than for women previously using Natural Cycles. There was no significant difference in the 13 cycle cumulated pregnancy probability between the two groups. Conclusion: The results show that fertility awareness-based methods of contraception increase short-term pregnancy rates relative to HC, but have no effect on long-term pregnancy rates.
Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the effect of previously used contraceptive methods on women's short- and long-term fecundity. Use of hormonal contraception (HC) was compared with the use of a contraceptive mobile application (app). Methods: This real-life prospective observational study comprised 2874 women who were attempting to become pregnant using the Natural Cycles mobile app to monitor their fertility. The women registered to use the app between August 2014 and June 2016 with the intention of planning a pregnancy and had previously either used the same app to prevent pregnancy or had recently discontinued HC use. We calculated the average time to pregnancy (TTP) for all women who became pregnant during the study and performed Kaplan-Meier life-table analysis to examine the cumulative probabilities of pregnancy for all women in the study. Results: The average TTP was 2.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.1, 2.4) and 3.7 (95% CI 3.4, 3.9) cycles for women who had previously used Natural Cycles and HC, respectively. The time to reach 30% pregnancy probability for women previously on HC was 1.6 (95% CI 1.5, 1.8) times longer than for women previously using Natural Cycles. There was no significant difference in the 13 cycle cumulated pregnancy probability between the two groups. Conclusion: The results show that fertility awareness-based methods of contraception increase short-term pregnancy rates relative to HC, but have no effect on long-term pregnancy rates.
Entities:
Keywords:
Conception rate; contraceptive; mobile application; subfertility; time to pregnancy
Authors: Carlotta Favaro; Jack T Pearson; Simon P Rowland; Anne Marie Jukic; Magda Chelstowska; Elina Berglund Scherwitzl; Raoul Scherwitzl; Kristina Gemzell Danielsson; Joyce Harper Journal: J Womens Health (Larchmt) Date: 2021-09-08 Impact factor: 2.681