London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

There are a growing number of online and app-based fertility awareness methods available, for monitoring menstrual cycles and identifying the ‘fertile window’ (the time in the menstrual cycle when pregnancy is most likely). However, the way people use these methods, and how they feel about them, has received little research attention so far. We’re carrying out this study to explore the views and experiences of people who currently or have previously used the Natural Cycles app in ‘plan a pregnancy’ mode, and whose partners have done so.

We will be asking interview participants how they use Natural Cycles and other methods when trying to conceive, how they feel about these methods, and how they fit in with their everyday lives and plans. We will be interviewing people who use ‘Natural Cycles’ themselves and the partners of those who do so, to understand these issues from each of their perspectives.

We will use the results to improve understanding of how people use technologies when trying to conceive. The results will be relevant to individuals and couples who are trying to conceive or who are thinking about doing so, including those who use Natural Cycles and other fertility awareness methods. They will also be relevant to health professionals, policy makers and app developers (including but not limited to Natural Cycles) in the fields of fertility, preconception and reproductive health. More broadly, the results will be of interest to people concerned with how we use technology in relation to our health and well-being.

We plan to carry out up to 30 in-depth interviews with people who – either themselves or their partners  – have experience of using Natural Cycles in ‘plan a pregnancy’ mode, and who are living in the UK. Interviews will be individual (users and their partners will be interviewed separately) and conversational, via Skype, with one of the researchers, Pippa, Nerissa, Rebecca or Jill. During interviews, the researchers will ask participants about their views and experiences of using Natural Cycles and other fertility awareness methods, and how they fit in with their everyday lives and plans. Interviews are anonymous and confidential. Interviews will only begin once the participant has had a chance to ask any questions about the study and given their consent to take part. Interview participants will receive a £40 voucher as a thank you. They will also be offered information on advice and support services that may be helpful to them (please see links here).

To read more about what your participation would involve, please read the information for participants:

Natural Cycles Users - Participant Information
Partners of Natural Cycles Users - Participant Information

View the consent form we ask interview participants to complete.

This study is being conducted by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the University of Plymouth. The research is led Dr Rebecca French (Associate Professor, LSHTM) in collaboration with Professor Jill Shawe (University of Plymouth). The interviews, analysis, write-up and dissemination are led by Dr Pippa Grenfell (Assistant Professor, LSHTM) with support from Nerissa Tilouche (Research Assistant, LSHTM). The research team have extensive experience in sexual and reproductive health research. You can read more about them here.

This study is funded by Natural Cycles. It is being conducted independently by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the University of Plymouth (please see here for more details).

This study is being conducted by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the University of Plymouth.

The study is led by Dr Rebecca French (LSHTM), working in collaboration with Dr Pippa Grenfell, Nerissa Tilouche (LSHTM) and Professor Jill Shawe (University of Plymouth). The team has extensive experience of sexual and reproductive health research. The study is steered by an independent advisory group that advises on how the research team designs, conducts, analyses and disseminates the results of the study (you can read more about the research team and advisory group here).

This study was proposed and designed by the research team. Natural Cycles are not involved in making any decisions about how the study is conducted, including the decision to publish. They will not know who takes part in the research and they will not have access to the study data or any information shared by participants with the researchers. Natural Cycles will only see study data that are in the public domain (i.e. anonymised data included in any publicly available publications and presentations).

The researchers have no involvement in Natural Cycles and they are not receiving any financial or other incentive to conduct this research other than their usual university salaries. Before developing the Freyja Study proposal, Dr Rebecca French and Professor Jill Shawe received an honorarium from Natural Cycles to participate in an expert workshop aimed at identifying research gaps in relation to fertility awareness methods.

You might see an advert about the study within the Natural Cycles app and website, or on social media, but you can also go directly to the Get Involved section of this website. If you (or your partner, if you have one) are interested in taking part, we ask you to answer a short series of questions to help us work out if you’re eligible to participate in the study, and to make sure we talk to a diverse range of people. We also ask you to provide your contact details. If you’re selected to take part, one of the researchers will get in touch to invite you to a one-to-one Skype interview.

To be eligible to take part in this study, you need to:

• be aged 18 years old or above (and aged 18-44 if you are a Natural Cycles user; there is no upper age limit for partners of Natural Cycles users)
• have ever used Natural Cycles in ‘plan a pregnancy’ mode (yourself or your current partner)
• not have been advised to avoid pregnancy for health reasons (yourself if you are a Natural Cycles user, or your current partner)
• currently live in the UK

Yes. Your partner doesn’t have to participate in the study for you to take part. Similarly, if you don’t want to take part but your partner would like to, that’s fine. Interviews with users and partners will take place separately.

Yes. Your partner doesn’t have to participate in the study for you to take part. Similarly, if you don’t want to take part but your partner would like to, that’s fine. Interviews with users and partners will take place separately.

Yes. To be eligible to participate in this study, you need to: have used Natural Cycles in ‘plan a pregnancy’ mode (currently or in the past), be aged 18-44, not have been advised to avoid pregnancy for health reasons, and currently live in the UK. You do not need to be in a relationship to take part.

Natural Cycles has three modes that users can select from: ‘prevent a pregnancy’, ‘plan a pregnancy’ and ‘follow a pregnancy’.

So far the app has been promoted most widely as a method of contraception, and the company has previously undertaken its own, in-house research on this topic (you can read more about this here). As far as we know, no research has yet looked at users’ and their partners’ experiences of using Natural Cycles in ‘plan a pregnancy’ mode. In the Freyja Study, we are focusing mainly on participants’ views and experiences of using Natural Cycles (and other methods) when trying to conceive. We will also ask participants about any experiences they’ve had using Natural Cycles in other modes, including ‘prevent a pregnancy’.

In the Freyja Study, we’re aiming to find out about the views and experiences of up to 30 people (Natural Cycles users and their partners). ‘Qualitative’ research like this — which explores what people have to say about their experiences, and what they mean to them — usually involves interviewing fewer people in-depth (compared with ‘quantitative’ research which involves asking less in-depth questions to more people). Qualitative research is suitable for topics that haven’t been researched in much detail before, or about which little is known. So far, there hasn’t been much research about the views and experiences of people using app-based fertility awareness methods when trying to conceive, so qualitative methods are appropriate for this study.

In this exploratory research, we’re aiming to find out about the views and experiences of up to 30 people (Natural Cycles users and their partners). Studies like this often focus on one setting to get an in-depth understanding of participants’ views and experiences. This is because views and experiences may be affected by issues that differ between countries (for example, health systems, social norms about fertility and planning pregnancy). There are a large number of people who use Natural Cycles in the UK. This research will also be able to inform future studies in other countries.

We plan to interview Natural Cycles users aged between 18 and 44 years. Studies about fertility often set a younger upper age limit (for example, 35, because fertility declines after this age), but we feel that it is important to hear from a wider range of users, given that we know that women above this age are increasingly conceiving. We have set an upper age limit of 44 because the chances of conceiving without fertility treatment are small after this age. There is no upper age limit for partners of Natural Cycles users.

We plan to interview up to 25 people who have personal experience of using Natural Cycles in ‘plan a pregnancy’ mode (currently or previously). We’re also aiming to interview at least five people whose current partners have this experience. This is because we know from previous research that using fertility awareness methods can have implications both for those using the method and for their partners. So although the Freyja Study focuses mainly on the views and experiences of people who’ve used Natural Cycles themselves, we also want to include the perspectives of their partners.

We will write up the results of this study for ‘Open Access’ publication, in academic journals. We will also publish a summary of the results on this website. All outputs will be publicly and freely accessible, and will be listed and linked to here.