The History of Lady-Comp

The story of Lady-Comp begins more than 35 years ago, when the wife of Dr. Hubertus Rechberg had more and more problems with the side effects of the pill. Dr. Rechberg was very concerned about his wife's health and began his search for the perfect alternative. He studied in detail all the natural family planning methods known at that time and analyzed them conscientiously, but none seemed ideal.

Therefore, he decided to develop a method himself and designed a device that combined a thermal sensor with a sophisticated computer. The software, based on all the NFP (Natural Family Planning) rules known at the time, could already generate statistics and display reliable indicators.

In 1986, Dr. Rechberg founded Valley Electronics GmbH. Together with a team of gynecologists, software specialists, electrical engineers, and designers, Valley Electronics created Baby-Comp - the first mini-computer in the world that could analyze the menstrual cycle. Baby-Comp was available in 2 colors: black or white with a straight thermal sensor. Overall, it was much larger than today's models.

 

The first clinical test took place in 1988 at the Frauenklink Benrath of the University of Düsseldorf, where the leading German research team in natural family planning was working at the time. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. G. Freundl, it was tested whether the Baby-Comp was as safe as its developers believed. With a deviation of only 0.05°, the thermal sensor proved to be highly accurate and the clinical safety tests confirmed that.

With new findings from surveys and studies, a new model with thinner, more modern housing was developed. A new name was born with the new model in 1998 - the Lady-Comp. Like the Baby-Comp, which specialized in conception, Lady-Comp was equipped with a removable, ergonomically curved sensor and was now even easier to use.

In the following years, Dr. Rechberg and his team worked on further refining the Lady-Comp method. Above all, the device should offer women efficiency and accuracy for hormone-free family-planning. Therefore, Lady-Comp was extensively tested and subjected to a number of critical studies led by Europe's leading fertility experts:

  • 1992 Prof Martinez, Amsterdam, Holland
  • 1992 Prof. Freundl, Barcelona Congress, Spain
  • 1994 Prof. Wildt, Erlangen, Germany
  • 1997 Prof. Dessole, Sassari, Italy

In 1998, Prof. Freundl led the representative Pearl Index study at the Benrath Women's Clinic in Düsseldorf, Germany, using 10,000 cycles from Lady Comp and Baby Comp users in Switzerland, Germany and Mexico. As part of the study, women were interviewed and all unplanned pregnancies were analyzed by independent and critical researchers.

The latest version of Lady-Comp was launched in February 2021 with a new design and new features. This model combines all the functions and research results of the last 35 years. Thanks to all these years of research, Lady-Comp offers 99.4% accuracy in the indication of green (infertile) days, and we are very proud of that. The story of Lady-Comp is far from over as it is constantly being researched and developed further for future generations.