The question of when is the right time to have children dawns on every couple’s minds, especially when they are not sure about whether they are fertile enough, and traditional methods to check are not reliable to depend upon. Enter the Ava wristband, that is able to deduce the fertile days of women with 89 percent accuracy.
A start-up med-tech firm known as Ava has developed a wrist-band with a built-in sensor that can track the physiological parameters which determine a woman’s sleep cycles, which include the resting heart rate, the temperature of the woman’s skin, the variations in the heart rate, the rate of sleep, breathing, movement, circulation, bio-impedance as well as heat loss from the skin All of this information get synced with the smartphone app and based on the reading, can calculate the sexual hormones estradiol and progesterone. The wrist-band is capable of displaying 5.3 fertile days in a month, which was proven in a study that was held by the manufacturer in Zurich. The device has been slowly making its way to the mainstream, firsts starting in the United States since the Fall of 2016 and then moving on to Switzerland in the beginning of 2017.
The concept was first established in 2014 as part of the Empa research project that was funded by the Commission for Technology and Innovation. The aim of the study was to gauge the hormonal balance of the woman through non-invasive means, that use methods which involve the application of sensors that measure heat, blood circulation, heart rate and so on. After building prototypes of the device, the testing phases began, which resulted in a success rate of 89 percent. There are numerous cases that affect the readings of the device, which cause problems in accurately defining the readings by the wrist-band. Behavioural changes such as the consumption of alcohol, or being exposed to too much sun and other such factors may make the readings less than accurate as those are activities that affect the blood and the temperature of the body.
Meant to be worn at night, the wristband collects more than three million data points of the wearer while they sleep. In the US, the Ava bracelet is also registered as a Class 1 medical device. In a bid to improve the performance and accuracy of the device, a second clinical study is underway and its results are to be expected a little later in the year. Since timing the intercourse during the period of ovulation is critical for the process of conceiving, this band leaves out the guess work and offers a more concrete platform to judge the fertility rate.
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