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Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

readytogroove.com

51–60 of 73 posts

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#51
> Upgrade your account to practice natural and effective birth control, get pregnant easily, or take control of your reproductive health.

"Get pregnant easily" is not something you should be advertising. There are tons of reasons why someone can have trouble getting pregnant that are completely external to your app. Just a heads up.

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#52

Albeit a great app, this method is less reliable than having proper birth control at hand. I see mentions of "But it's 1.8% failure rate!" - thing about Cumulative Probability is, that is a pretty high number of failure after about 10 years. After 10 years you have a Cumulative Probability: P(X = 1) of about 15% of getting pregnant. If you don't want to be a dad/mom - use a condom. Or go double dutch.

Fortunately, probabilities for birth control methods aren't presented in this way. Generally, when an organization like Planned Parenthood says that the symptothermal method is 99.6% effective, what they really mean is: "Of 100 couples who use the symptothermal method correctly for one year, 0.4 (fewer than one) will have a pregnancy." (Source: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control... ) So afte…

> So after about 100 years of using this method, you've got a .4% chance of becoming pregnant. Seems like decent odds to me.

No, after one year you've got a 0.4% chance of being pregnant. Assuming this stays steady over 100 years, you'd have a 33% chance of being pregnant (1 - (0.996 ^ 100))

Their maths for a 1.8% failure rate over 10 years is right, it's about 15%.

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#53
post #51

> Upgrade your account to practice natural and effective birth control, get pregnant easily, or take control of your reproductive health. "Get pregnant easily" is not something you should be advertising. There are tons of reasons why someone can have trouble getting pregnant that are completely external to your app. Just a heads up.

Yes, very true. Perhaps the wording should be revisited. Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#54

For everyone wondering about this method, it's called the sympto-thermal method and is not the same as the rhythm method. Planned Parenthood lists it as 99.6% effective with perfect use. See the "What is the Sympto-thermal Method" section in the link below: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control...

The 99.6% effectiveness statistic comes from the planned parenthood website and I'm assuming they quoted it from this study since they do not cite their source http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/5/1310.short

99.6% is the method-effectiveness (i.e. the efficacy if used properly) or 0.4 unintended pregnancies per 100 "women years" (13 cycles)

Other interesting results from the study: - the method-effectiveness rate found for this method is comparable to oral contraceptive - 9.2% stopped using the method due to dissatisfaction - Couples that had intercourse during the fertile period had an increased pregnancy rate of 7.5% - This study was done in European countries and the pregnancy rate was lower than similar studies performed in developing countries

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#55
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common misconception that the method our app relies on is the same as the rhythm method, which it is NOT. The rhythm method predicts fertility based on cycle length, which is a really BAD idea. The sympto-thermal method pinpoints the fertile window using scientifically-backed signs of fertility. Planned Parenthood lists an effectiveness of 99.6% (see the "What is the Sympto-thermal Method" section: http://www.…

I apologize for conflating the rhythm method and the sympto-thermal method. It's still a bad idea for most people. All from the same Planned Parenthood site: Twenty-four out of every 100 couples who use fertility awareness-based methods each year will have a pregnancy if they don't always use the method correctly or consistently. whereas: Vasectomy is the most effective birth control for men. It is nearly 100 percent…

The 24% failure rate cited by Planned Parenthood includes ALL couples who claimed to be using fertility awareness, from those who had taken classes and were using a modern method, to those who were just guessing. IIRC, over 80% of the couples were not properly trained in a modern method of fertility awareness. Not surprisingly, they had very high pregnancy rates. Someone did the math (can't find the article) and figured untrained users had about a 28% pregnancy rate while trained users had a 7% pregnancy rate. (80 * .28 + 20 * .07) = 23.8 The 7% pregnancy rate is comparable to the real-world use of the Pill.

As for your system analogy, if your automated system was a significant resource hog or ran the risk of corruption of data or crashing the system, would you use it? You focus on efficacy without factoring in side effects.

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#56
post #40
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't find secular versions of NFP because the hormonal birth control and sterilization industry created what they felt was the perfect no muss, no fuss solution, and couldn't imagine why anyone but the "religious crazies" could possibly want an alternative to it. You can thank the religious people for continuing to develop the science over the decades when the world went absolutely bananas for the pill.

So if I'm understanding you right, industry as a whole chose a method which though it has benefits also has drawbacks – so much so that they ignored research? And it was religious people who continued fundamental research? Very interesting! And not what I've seen in other cases. I'm happy to have my stereotypes challenged.

In Humanae Vitae, after the Pope reaffirmed the ban on contraception, he urged scientists to continue researching and improving natural methods. Some Catholic scientists and Catholic universities (Creighton, Marquette, Georgetown, etc.) took him up on it. This is not to belittle non-Catholic contributions, but that's a big reason why so much of the research is from Catholic sources.

(FWIW, the Catholic Church does not consider FABMs to be contraception, but "well-timed abstinence". Some of the Catholic sources can be really confusing if you're not aware of this terminology.)

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#57

Albeit a great app, this method is less reliable than having proper birth control at hand. I see mentions of "But it's 1.8% failure rate!" - thing about Cumulative Probability is, that is a pretty high number of failure after about 10 years. After 10 years you have a Cumulative Probability: P(X = 1) of about 15% of getting pregnant. If you don't want to be a dad/mom - use a condom. Or go double dutch.

Definitely use both. I feel like this app is supposed to replace the pill rather than all methods of birth control. Which I am completely behind since I would forget to take the pill every other day. Which is why I'm now pregnant. Not to mention the crazy hormones, weight gain, and general misery the pill brought on. Yeah, I'll be switching to this.

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#58
post #15

Kudos to you, it's alway great so see people talking about natural birth control methods without mentioning God or religion in the same sentence. It's virtually impossible to find good resources about the sympto-thermal method in English without landing on a very Christian-oriented website. But I'm wondering: What's the business model you have? I'm asking, because I'm in the same space. Mostly in Germany, but I also…

Since the developer and I are both here in Austin, I was planning on pitching them with our product price comparison API so that they can receive commissions on any products sold through it.

Despite the ridiculous nature of some of the products in the sexual health niche (ie "Ejaculoid"), there are indeed several vitamins and supplements that promote increased sperm volume and sperm mobility for men. I haven't personally looked into the women's side, however.

It wouldn't be a huge form of monetization, but it's extremely well-targeted and ethical (since we send users to good deals). It could help with a piece of the pie instead of standard advertising.

Re: Show HN: Birth Control As A Service

#59

Albeit a great app, this method is less reliable than having proper birth control at hand. I see mentions of "But it's 1.8% failure rate!" - thing about Cumulative Probability is, that is a pretty high number of failure after about 10 years. After 10 years you have a Cumulative Probability: P(X = 1) of about 15% of getting pregnant. If you don't want to be a dad/mom - use a condom. Or go double dutch.

Definitely use both. I feel like this app is supposed to replace the pill rather than all methods of birth control. Which I am completely behind since I would forget to take the pill every other day. Which is why I'm now pregnant. Not to mention the crazy hormones, weight gain, and general misery the pill brought on. Yeah, I'll be switching to this.

Congrats, I guess? :)

Or the NuvaRing. Low hormone, can't forget it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuvaRing

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