Denver, Colo., May 30, 2019 / 06:30 pm (CNA).- The maker of a popular fertility awareness app says it is built on peer-reviewed research and a scientific approach to women’s health, after a recent report criticized the app’s developers and funders as “anti-abortion, anti-gay Catholic campaigners.”
A May 30 report in the Guardian said the FEMM app “sows doubt about birth control” and “features claims from medical advisers who are not licensed to practice in the U.S.”
The app, sold by the FEMM Foundation, markets itself as a period and ovulation tracker with three options for users – to achieve pregnancy, avoid pregnancy, or track their health.
Anna Halpine, CEO of the FEMM foundation, told CNA that “FEMM is a science and evidence based program for women’s health, and our app allows us to provide personalized health care information to women directly.”
“We think that this knowledge is basic women’s health literacy, and we think every women has the right to know how her body works, in order to make an informed choice about how she wants to manage her fertility,” Halpine added.
The app primarily serves as a tracker for various markers of fertility and health for women, with options to track periods, cervical mucus, medications, hormone levels, basal body temperature, and a host of physical and emotional symptoms.
The app has been downloaded more than 400,000 times in the past 4 years, according to the Guardian. It has 4.8 out of 5 stars in more than 1,000 reviews in the Apple store. The FEMM Foundation also offers classes on ovulation and fertility charting, as well as “medical management” training in “protocols for the management of ovarian dysfunction, menopause and infertility.”
The Guardian’s report said that FEMM appears to be biased against hormonal birth control.
“The FEMM app’s literature sows doubt about the safety and efficacy of hormonal birth control, asserting that it may be deleterious to a woman’s health and that a safer, ‘natural’ way for women to avoid pregnancy is to learn their cycles,” The Guardian reported.
Halpine told CNA that FEMM aims to help women understand their own bodies.
“FEMM sees reproductive endocrinology (hormones) as the unifying element in women’s health. Our approach is to empower women to understand their hormones and fluctuations, and to use our, or other charting systems, to monitor their own personal hormone patterns. The critical element is their pattern; based on the observations that they make of changing biomarkers in their body (temperature, or cervical fluid or dryness) women can ‘see’ their own changes of estrogen and progesterone cycle to cycle.”
“Ovulation is the sign that these hormones, plus many others, are at the right level at the right time. This is why we say that ovulation is a sign of health,” Halpine said.
Dr. Nathaniel DeNicola, an OB-GYN with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, told The Guardian that: “The birth control pill is one of the greatest health achievements of the 20th century” and is “standard” in women’s health care.
The Guardian did not, however, mention risks of artificial contraception identified by scientific research.
According to a study posted on the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, “hormonal contraceptives and hormone replacement therapies are classified as carcinogenic to humans (group 1) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.”
According to the National Cancer Institute, the use of oral contraceptives is associated with increased risk for breast cancer, endometrial cancer and cervical cancer, while it is also associated with a decreased risk for cervical cancer.
The Guardian also reported an outdated claim on the efficacy of fertility-awareness based methods (FBAMs) of birth control, also called Natural Family Planning methods, which FEMM facilitates. The Guardian reported that the efficacy rate of FBAMs is about 75%.
In fact there are a variety of FBAMs available, each with varying levels of efficacy, depending on the method and the real-life use. For example, the Marquette Method, an FBAM, has been reported to be 89% effective with typical use, compared with an 87% efficacy rate for real-life use of condoms as a birth control method.
The Guardian reported that implants and IUDs are among the most effective of birth control methods. However, IUDs can also cause some of the most severe side effects, including migration of the device and the perforation of organs.
The Guardian’s report noted that a financial supporter of the FEMM app is the Chiaroscuro Foundation, a non-profit whose chairman is Sean Fieler, a wealthy philanthropist and businessman who lives in Princeton, New Jersey, and who has previously backed pro-life politicians and causes in the past.
The mission of the Chiaroscuro Foundation is “to renew in our culture a deep awareness of the composite unity of our shared human nature.” According to The Guardian, the foundation donated between $350,000 and $1 million to FEMM each year between 2015-2017, or the majority of its operating budget.
Halpine told The Guardian that FEMM does not comment on abortion, or advocate on political issues.
“FEMM has never commented on the abortion issue. And doesn’t work in that area. FEMM is an organization committed to expanding information research and knowledge about women’s reproductive health around the world,” Halpine told The Guardian.
The Guardian noted that some of FEMM’s medical advisors are based in Chile, and are not licensed to practice in the United States.
“The Reproductive Health Research Institute (RHRI) provides FEMM’s medical assertions, research and training. The two physicians leading RHRI are listed on its website as Pilar Vigil and Patricio Contreras. Vigil is listed as the medical director of RHRI, which has two addresses, one in New York City and another in Santiago, Chile,” the Guardian reported.
“Vigil is listed as an OB-GYN and Contreras as a ‘medical doctor’, but neither is licensed to practice medicine in the United States,” The Guardian noted.
Halpine explained that “FEMM works with medical researchers and providers around the world. Our growing network of health educators and providers in the United States and other countries serves our users worldwide. Our global network is inclusive, and FEMM benefits from the diversity of experience and ideas that our health educators and providers bring to us around the world.“
On its website, FEMM provides health center locators and doctor referrals, and lists licensed health centers and doctors located in the United States.
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I can’t say I’m sorry to see him suffering.
This is interesting juxtaposed with the news that Louisiana priest Lawrence Hecker died in prison after pleading guilty to equally heinous crime. We can only pray that both Hecker and McCarrick repented of their crimes, confessed their sins, and received absolution while they were still capable of doing so. In McCarrick’s case, however, there has been no sign of remorse or repentance, nor any sign that the clerical culture that allowed him to flourish is showing any signs of changing, even in the face of billions of dollars in court settlements, most of which were negotiated out of court. We may never know just how bad this still is. It’s long past time that the sealed settlements and other cover-ups came to an end– and that is going to take some courage on the part of victims and other witnesses willing to testify in open court, unfortunately. For now, it looks as though McCarrick gets a pass right to the final cover-up when they throw dirt on his grave.
“…a sexual assault case against disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick will remain paused until the laicized clergyman dies.” What the hell is THAT supposed to mean? We now have trials for dead people? We know that the dead are able to vote but can they now be tried in a court of law as well? The world has gone mad.
No, it means that they will be able to extract more funds from dioceses after his death.
They do plea deals for this all the time. If only parishioners knew how much of their hard-earned money went toward the settlements…
If you want to see the other side of the story, look into the abominable case of Fr. Gordon McRae. He is a heroic priest who has endured 30 years of unjust imprisonment for a crime never committed. His work is saving souls behind bars and behind the bars of sin the world over.
For every three heinous acts of abuse, there is one false accusation that can destroy a priest or prelate. This in no way excuses anyone guilty of abuse.
May God have mercy on us!
Great point, Deacon. But the trial will clearly not be one in the traditional sense but rather, it is to be hoped, an effort at fact-finding that will show McCarrick to be what he actually was in some detail.
In one sense it will not matter one whit whether he is present or not. While alive he apparently was not in fact what he officially professed to be. At such a trial–if indeed it does take place–all attempts at dissembling, sleight-of-hand, and cover-up, etc.–will have been stripped away as if they had never existed. He will be seen for what he was as much as we are able to see such things in this life.
Finally, Francy refers to the “otherwise good people” who provided cover for McCarrick. I for one would question the qualifier “otherwise.” Is not providing such cover for and enabling such a man the very sort of thing that genuinely “good people” do not do?
The king of Post-Conciliarism is protected through to the end.
How many clergy – bishops, archbishops, cardinals, pope? heard rumors of McCarrick’s
criminal, sacrilegious behavior and said nothing as he rose up and up in the ranks of the Church? Over and over, the silence of otherwise good people – priests, nuns, upper clergy –
permits evil and injustice to afflict innocent people. As far as I know, there is no patron saint for whistle blowers. We sure need one.
“I do not believe that I did the things that they accused me of,” the former cardinal said.
That doesn’t exactly sound like a firm denial.
Will his protégés ever confess to being part of the cover up? Would they consider recusing themselves from their position/consideration as cardinals or other positions of honor and favor? Doubtful. Humility is rare. Too many love their positions of honor.