Cycle Technologies

Cycle Technologies Shares 12 Years of Insights on the Importance of Tracking Your Menstrual Cycle

 

Washington, DC -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/11/2014 -- Cycle Technologies issued a statement outlining the reasons why women should track their menstrual cycles. According to Ann Mullen, the company’s Director of Client Services & Health Education, “Since 2002 we have helped women track their cycles and use this information to plan or prevent pregnancy. While our focus has been on helping women to achieve their reproductive goals, we’ve also realized that there are a number of other benefits that come from tracking your menstrual cycle.”

According to Cycle Technologies, these reasons include:
- Reducing stress.
- Identifying health issues.
- Managing fertility.

Reducing stress.

Regular cycles are a good sign of a healthy body. While the average length of a regular cycle is 28 days long, it is normal to have cycles anywhere from 21 – 35 days long. The length that a woman’s period lasts can also vary. The average length is 4 days, but anywhere from 3-7 days is considered normal.

“Keeping track of your cycles can be eye opening. I thought my cycle was irregular and was often surprised when I go it,” says Julie Barnett a health worker who started tracking her cycles two years ago using Cycle Technologies’ free CycleBeads app on her Android phone. “Using a fertility calendar alleviates some of the mystery helping me know what to expect and when. It takes a lot of the stress out of the whole process.”
Identifying health issues.

Cycle Technologies also encourages women to track their cycles so they can more easily recognize if something is amiss. According to the company:

- Extremely long cycles (more than 35 days long) may indicate health or fertility issues. Long or irregular cycles are often related to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a condition in which a woman experiences an imbalance of hormones.

- Extremely short cycles (shorter than 21 days long) can be associated with lifestyle behaviors such as smoking.

- Women who experience a lot of variation in their cycle lengths (more than 10 days) or who experience extremely long or short cycles, may have more trouble getting pregnant and maintaining pregnancies.

Managing fertility.

Tracking her periods can also help a woman identify her potentially fertile days according to Cycle Technologies. This information can then be used to effectively prevent pregnancy or to get pregnant more quickly.

- The Standard Days Method™ of family planning, the method on which Cycle Technologies’ CycleBeads products are based, is +95% effective at preventing pregnancy and has also been found to help women achieve pregnancy more quickly. To use this method, a woman tracks the start date of her period each cycle and the CycleBeads tools help her know that her cycles are in the appropriate range for using this method and when she is on a fertile day.

- According to the most recent CDC report, 18% of U.S. women have used a “calendar-based” family planning method and the more educated a woman is, the more likely she is to use one.

- The Standard Days Method is the only “calendar-based” method that has been proven in efficacy studies.

“As women track their cycles, they become much more aware of the changes that occur during their cycles, and more aware of how it relates to their own fertility. This can be educational and empowering. It seems like a small thing, but just having this basic information is extremely useful,” says Mullen.

About Cycle Technologies
Cycle Technologies is a socially minded consumer products company that creates Brilliantly Simple™ tools to help solve complex global problems. Since 2002 the company has worked with researchers, healthcare partners, and investors to seek leading edge ideas that fit its mission. Under the Solutions for Unmet Need in Family Planning Program (SUN-FP), the company has created tools that help meet the needs of women in a range of contexts. These tools include CycleBeads®, CycleBeads® Online and CycleBeads smartphone apps – tools based on the only scientifically proven calendar-based natural family planning method. To date more than 3.5 million women in 60+ countries have used CycleBeads to plan or prevent pregnancy resulting in an estimated 4.5 million unplanned pregnancies prevented and 750,000 pregnancies successfully planned. The company has recently launched the 2Day iPhone app, the only “simplified” symptoms-based fertility awareness solution.

For more information, please visit http://www.cyclebeads.com/