How reliable is Ladycomp/Babycomp in comparison with other methods of avoiding a pregnancy?
A. The reliability of a method of contraception is expressed in the medical profession by the Pearl Index. The Pearl Index indicates how many unwanted pregnancies occur in 100 user years. A contraceptive pill with a Pearl Index of 1 means that if 100 women use this pill for contraception for one year, one woman will nevertheless get pregnant during this time. The Pearl Index of a specific method of contraception is determined by means of large-scale surveys. The scope of such surveys requires the observation of approx. 20,000 cycles.The development of Ladycomp/Babycomp was able to benefit from the fact that thousands of women had already been using the temperature method for years and had therefore been compiling their charts and data. It was possible to save this information on magnetic disks together with data concerning exceptionally difficult cycles from text books and the archives of research institutes. If Ladycomp/Babycomp shows “green”, the likelihood of a pregnancy is less tha
