RETROSPECTIVE CLINICAL-TRIAL OF CONTRACEPTIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ELECTRONIC FERTILITY INDICATOR LADYCOMP BABYCOMP/

The Babycomp/Ladycomp (Valley Electronics Ltd., Eschenlohe, Germany) i s an electronic device that combines the temperature method and calend ar method for planning and preventing pregnancy by identifying the fer tile and infertile phases of the menstrual cycle. In a retrospective c linical trial, the system was tested as a contraceptive aid. A total o f 648 women from Germany and Switzerland have participated: 597 women with 10 275 months of use used the device for contraception. Thirty-th ree unplanned pregnancies were identified, giving a total pregnancy ra te of 3.8 use effectiveness according to the Pearl Index. Six method-r elated pregnancies occurred, producing a method Pearl Index of 0.7. Ca lculating the cumulative pregnancy rates by life-table analysis, it wa s found that, after about one year of exposure, the probability of an unintended pregnancy was 5.3% (0.053), after 2 years it was 6.8% (0.06 8) and after about 3 years of exposure it was 8.2% (0.082). The mean l ength of the identified fertile period was 14.3 days with a standard d eviation of 4.6 days in all cycles reported. The acceptance of the dev ice by the woman and her partner was good. In fact, 21 of the 33 women who became pregnant would still recommend the device for further use (63.6%).