Birth control app probed by ad watchdog

A CONTRACEPTIVE app linked to 37 unwanted pregnancies is being investigated by the advertising watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it was probing a paid-for Facebook post by the Natural Cycles app.

The watchdog said the app had described itself as a ‘highly accurate ... contraceptive app that adapts to every woman’s unique menstrual cycle’ and said it was a ‘clinically-tested alternative to birth control methods’.

The ASA has received three complaints about the post, alleging the claims to be misleading and unsubstantiated.

Natural Cycles monitors fertility by taking the user’s temperature each morning with a thermometer linked to the app. It tracks the results to spot ovulation and advises which days are safe to have unprotected sex without the risk of conception.

But in January, a report from Sweden, where the firm is based, said at least 37 women at one hospital had become pregnant while using the app, which led to the country’s medicines agency being alerted. In response, Natural Cycles said cases of unwanted pregnancy were an ‘inevitable reality’ with any form of contraception.

The ASA said it would publish the findings of its investigation ‘in due course’.

Natural Cycles said the probe related to a 2017 advert and that it had accepted the ASA’s ‘draft recommendations’.