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CycleBeads Featured in Gates Foundation Blog

CycleBeads® and the Standard Days Method® on which it is based are included as a contraceptive option that can help address worldwide family planning needs in a special series on Impatient Optimists, a blog created by The Gates Foundation. 

CycleBeads Top 10 Myths About This Natural Family Planning Method: Myth #4 - It's Only for Certain Types of People

CycleBeads Myth: This is just for Catholics or other religious people

Using iCycleBeads Online to Prevent & Achieve Pregnancy - One Woman Shares Her Story

We were thrilled to see a review of the iCycleBeads Online service on the Monster Mummies blog by a woman named Michelle. As Michelle says, she and her husband are planning to get pregnant soon and so she has transitioned off of hormonal contraception to make sure her cycles are ...

Why Do Women Choose CycleBeads for Contraception? Survey Results Are In!

Recently we asked women to tell us if they were using CycleBeads to plan or prevent a pregnancy.  The survey results showed that approximately 3/4 of women use CycleBeads to prevent pregnancy while about 1/4 use CycleBeads to plan a pregnancy.  We then asked those women who are using ...

Why Did You Choose CycleBeads as Your Birth Control Method?

To avoid side effects?  To save money?  For some other reason?  Everyone is different!   We recently polled CycleBeads users about whether they use CycleBeads to plan or prevent pregnancy. Most users (approximately 75%) said they chose CycleBeads to prevent pregnancy. ...

Thank you Melinda Gates!

In a recent TEDTalk, Melinda Gates eloquently outlined why contraception should not be considered a "controversial" topic and the importance of giving people everywhere access to a full range of family planning options.  Thank you Ms. Gates, for your willingness to lend ...

Side Effects, The Pill, and CycleBeads

Studies show that while the pill is the most commonly used contraceptive method in many countries*, a significant percentage of women discontinue its use, primarily due to side effects and health concerns. Women who discontinue using a contraceptive method put themselves at risk of an unintended ...

Health Educator Guli Fager – Giving College Students the Sexual Health Information They Need & Want

When Guli Fager started her job as a sexual health educator for university students in Texas, she was shocked to learn how little they knew.  While most students had basic knowledge about contraception, they had minimal understanding of reproductive processes and sexual health issues.  ...

Can I use this family planning method if I have recently used emergency contraception?

Yes. You can use the Standard Days Method if you have recently used emergency contraception and your cycles are usually between 26 and 32 days long. However, you should wait until you start your next period before using it.

Birth Control and Beyond – The Many Uses of CycleBeads

“It’s birth control, but with a lot of other uses.” - health provider CycleBeads is an effective birth control option and while preventing pregnancy is the primary use of this family planning tool, health providers have shared a number of other interesting ways it can be used to educate, ...

Research

CycleBeads® and iCycleBeads apps are based on a natural family planning method called the Standard Days Method®. This method was developed by the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University to fulfill the need for an effective, easy to use, natural birth control ...

International Partners

We are working to make CycleBeads available to women and couples around the world. Currently CycleBeads are available in more than 50 countries through NGO's, Ministries of Health, healthcare providers, and retailers. The list below includes many of our international partners. If you ...

Let’s Talk About Sex – College Students & Sexual Health

Believe it or not, college students are often hesitant to talk about their sex lives, but health educators need them to do exactly that in order to provide students with the best health services. We spoke with Katie Garcia, health educator at Vanderbilt University, to find out how she gets ...

Can Your Birth Control Increase Your Risk of Contracting HIV?

A recent study featured in the New York Times found that injectable contraceptives such as Depo-Provera,  double the risk that women will become infected with HIV. Furthermore, if a woman is HIV positive, use of injectable contraceptives appear to double the risk that she will transmit the ...

Say "Yes" to Access for Contraception

In a recent article on the Huffington Post, “Just Say ‘Yes’ to Access for Women’s Reproductive Health, Contraception”, Dr. Glenn Braunstein makes several good points about why increasing access to preventative services for women, including contraception, is important. Furthermore ...

Why is Social Media Important to Us?

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and  Blogs is important to CycleBeads because it allows for a worldwide connection. Our community spans the globe, from California to the Congo and from Indiana to India. Being in touch directly with our c

Unplanned Pregnancies & the Effectiveness of Birth Control Methods

An interesting discussion in the Economist under the title “Crazy, sexy, stupid” looks at abortion, adoption, and birth control use. It explores some of the issues that explain why the abortion rate in the U.S. is 3x higher than the abortion rates in many other countries. However it does not ...

“Birth Control Over Baldness”?

In a recent New York Times Op-Ed piece, "Birth Control Over Baldness" Nicholas Kristof points out that research on contraception is "pitifully underfunded” and argues that family planning is treated less seriously than baldness. He further points out that new contraceptives will ...

How Dangerous are Birth Control Pills?

A story on NPR today focuses on the dangers associated with newer versions of the birth control pill. In the report, the interviewers talk to women who have taken Yaz, a birth control pill that came on the market in 2006. Touted as being “beyond birth control” Yaz quickly became America’s No. 1 ...

One Size Fits All in Birth Control?

No. One size does not fit all when it comes to birth control. Research shows that the more contraceptive options available, the greater prevalence of birth control use in general and the lower the rate of unplanned pregnancies.

Birth Control Effectiveness: How Risky is Your Birth Control?

Many people are surprised to find out that their chosen method of birth control is not quite as effective as they may think. They’ll ask, “If the Pill is 99.9% effective, how come I got pregnant?” When talking about birth control effectiveness, there are two rates to consider: Perfect Use and ...