The Lady-Comp history
With love for love: Quality made in Germany since 1986.
It all starts with Love
Lady-Comp’s history starts over thirty years ago, when Dr. Hubertus Rechberg’s wife suffered from the side effects of the pill. Concerned about his wife's well being, Dr. Rechberg started his quest to find the perfect alternative for her. He looked at all the natural methods available at the time and analyzed them thoroughly, but nothing seemed to reach perfection.
When love meets science
He decided to develop his own method and to create an easy to use device that would combine a fast thermometer with a sophisticated computer. This software, based on all the family planning knowledge rules available, could draw statistics and make reliable forecasts already.
In 1986, Dr. Rechberg founded Valley-Electronics GmbH. Together with a team of gynecologists, software specialists, electrical engineers and designers, Valley-Electronics developed Baby-Comp - the first mini-computer to monitor the female cycle in the world. Baby-Comp used to be black or white with a straight sensor and a larger housing than the models you know today.
High reliability at heart
Dr. Rechberg was concerned about providing women with a highly reliable method that would allow them to feel secure and freed. Valley-Electronics’ focus was perfectly aligned with his, always striving to improve the reliability of its fertility monitors. Dr. Rechberg invests in research and development and always welcomes independent and critical clinical studies.
A first test was conducted in 1988 at the University of Düsseldorf, the leading German center for Fertility research of the time. A thorough study was performed under Prof. Freundl to check if Baby-Comp was as reliable as its developers believed it was.
With a 0.05° variance, the Thermometer proved to be highly exact and clinical methods for contraception safety confirmed that no unplanned pregnancies on green days were happening under the use of Baby-Comp.
The birth of Lady-Comp
Customer opinion and reliability were always the main motivation for improvement. Based on serious studies and women's feedback, a new model was developed and released in 1989. Smaller, more modern and easier to operate, Lady-Comp was born and fitted with an ergonomically curved sensor.
Lady-Comp and Baby-Comp did not only allow simple temperature analysis. They provided users with their daily fertility status and with detailed statistics such as average cycle length, day of ovulation, variances within the cycle and progesterone deficiencies. Each lady was free to consult her personal data on screen or to ask for special print-outs to her own convenience.
A decade of tests and studies
The following years were dedicated to fine tune the Lady-Comp method. The Lady-Comp creators relentlessly worked on making the device more efficient and secure for women. The objective was to have Lady-Comp subjected to as much critical testing as possible, performed by the leading fertility researchers in Europe:
1992 Prof Martinez, Amsterdam, Neatherlands
1992 Prof. Freundl, Barcelona Kongress, Spain
1994 Prof. Wildt, Erlangen, Germany
1997 Prof. Dessole, Saassari, Italy
As safe as it can be
In 1998, the representative pearl index study was conducted by the Frauenklinik Benrath, Düsseldorf under Prof. Freudl. To get the critical mass of at least 10,000 cycles, Lady-Comp and Baby-Comp users from Switzerland, Germany and Mexico - the then leading "Lady-Comp countries" where questioned and all unwanted pregnancies analysed by independent and highly critical researchers.
The result was striking and confirmed the reliability of the method. The pearl index was calculated to be of 0.7, meaning that green days under the Lady-Comp method were nothing less than 99,3% reliable. No other fertility monitor could compare to that level of security.
Conquering the West with care
More and more women from the USA wanted to purchase a Lady-Comp.
Lady-Comp's little brother - pearly
In 2004, a new model was released, based on feedback from customers wishing for a more mobile and transportable device. Pearly allowed more independence and discretion for women on the go. With its small lithium battery, and compact and sturdy body, pearly is still a favorite for many women.
Independent medical analysis
In 2007, all studies and quality processes for Lady-Comp were analysed by an independent medical institution, and the verdict was - Lady-Comp is the uncontested leader in fertility management.
In 2010, the Polish Gynecologicals Society performed its own independent study based on 3,332 cycles from 510 women. The resulting Pearl-Index confirmed the earlier study once again.
A proud crew of dedicated distributors
By 2010 the total number of distributors has reached 30 and is still growing. It was also the year when Lady-Comp was introduced to China. The China distributor makes a tremendous effort in caring for women's needs and helps to make natural family planning knowledge available to all Chinese women.
The new generation of monitors
A new generation of users asked for more features. Always as concerned and passionate with making women's dreams come true, the Lady-Comp team went back to the drawing table and came up with a new model. As all medical devices, it needed to be tested very thoroughly and new studies were conducted to ensure that Lady-Comp was still as safe as possible.
This new model would allow women more freedom, more control and more flexibility - which is what Lady-Comp was always about. Users can now integrate and download their own data, carry their device along easily, enter personal observation, consult statistics on the coloured and fun display and much more. Needless to say, the new Lady-Comp model was a full success.
We are here now
Today, Lady-Comp is available from trained distributors in over 40 countries worldwide. For the market introduction of the new generation, the European distributors met at the head office in Murnau in January 2015 with the desire to work together towards the improvement of their services and approaches.
We are proud to carry on with Dr. Rechberg's work and make it a priority to keep his genuine care for women alive in all of our decisions. Lady-Comp was created with the ladies in mind and at heart and it will carry on for as long as women need to be taken care of.