An entrepreneur has claimed that her new app could replace the contraceptive pill, and even warn women when to expect premenstrual tension.
Company owner Ida Tin, 34, said that she wants to change the family planning industry and that there has been no innovation since the invention of the Pill 60 years ago.
The free iPhone app, called Clue, tracks the user’s menstrual cycle and can predict the times they can have sex without the risk of getting pregnant.
According to Daily Mail, it can also be used for women trying for a baby because the app tells them when they are most fertile and when the chances of getting pregnant are at their highest.
‘I want to change the family planning industry, we haven’t had any innovation in this space since the pill came out 60 years ago,’ said Ida Tin, the company’s 34-year-old co-founder.
‘Our ultimate aim is to replace the birth control pill, or at least give an alternative.’
The app allows women to enter details about their mood, pain levels and other factors, and over time, the app learns their cycle and can predict their fertility.
‘This gives women a very accurate idea of when they will, and won’t, get pregnant.
‘We want to take women by the hand from their first period to menopause.
‘Period tracking apps are very popular, but the maths behind a lot of them is flawed, and it’s shocking how low the quality is.
‘What I’ve found is that women want to know what’s going on, they want to know if they are normal.
‘We want to give women the answers to these questions, we wanted to build something scientifically sound that learns from the user.’
Clue can also help a woman avoid getting pregnant.
The app is the first in a series of products from the company, and it is working on a hardware gadget to make the app even more accurate.
However, Tin was keen to play down using the app as a contraceptive aid for the time being and recommended people wait for the hardware version to make it more accurate.
‘Hundreds of women around the world have already tested the app, including designers from Apple, Frog, and IDEO,’ said Mike LaVigne, former creative director at Frog Design in San Francisco, and now head of user experience at Clue, which is based in Berlin.
The app was revealed at the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco.
-Daily Mail