Cycle beads

Cycle beads are a natural, effective, chemical-free way to plan or prevent a family. Cycle beads are simply a string of colored beads. Each bead represents a day of a woman's menstrual cycle. The beads are color-coded based on the likelihood that she is fertile on that day.

How Cycle Beads Work

There is a single red bed that represents the first day of a woman's period. Beads eight through nineteen are light. The rest are dark brown, with 32 beads in all. There is a black tube right before the red bed with an arrow pointing toward it. Starting with the red one, a woman moves a rubber ring from bead to bead on each day of her cycle. Dark brown or red beads indicate days of low fertility. The white beads are days of high fertility. The woman knows to avoid or engage in intercourse on those days, depending upon whether or not she wants to get pregnant.

Cycle beads are based on a method of family planning called "Standard Days Method", developed at the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University. Research done at the Institute found that when used correctly, the Standard Days Method can prevent pregnancy in 95% of cases. However, this method is not effective for women whose cycle is less than 26 or more than 32 days long. ¹

References

• 1. Research Proven Effectiveness, CycleBeads,

photo by Varg Klo