The Best Apps to Track Your Cycle
There’s an app for that! You’ve all heard that saying and, in this case, it really isn’t far off the mark! It’s 2020, and in this day and age there is no short supply of period tech to help you digitally track your monthly flow. No longer do we need to pull out a pen and mark a P each month when we think Aunt Flo will be arriving. Overall, I take this as a good thing. As we all know, awareness is key and knowledge is power. Boosting our awareness of our cycle allows us to know when our period is coming and what symptoms we can expect. Being in tune with our body offers us some sort of freedom – you won’t be caught out, and you are more empowered to navigate your cycle.
On the flip side, the main downside I see of tracking apps is that you don’t want to talk yourself into PMS symptoms a week out from your period. Our brains are incredibly powerful, and the last thing you want to do is check your app, see your period is on the way, and convince yourself that 7 days of hunger and mood swings lie ahead!
If you want to give cycle tracking apps a go, check out the following 5. Whether you’re just after a simple alert to tell you that your period is on its way, or whether you’re wanting to gain increased awareness of your fertility, here are some apps worth looking at!
1. FLO
Flo aims to help women take control of their health and empower open discussions around periods, but it provides the user so much more than that. Flo uses artificial intelligence to predict your period, then incorporates medical knowledge based on your data inputs to generate individualised insights. It allows you to track your period and ovulation, log over 70 symptoms, has a chat function where you can ask all your weird and intimate questions completely anonymously, and has modes for pregnancy and post-pregnancy function.
2. CLUE
Clue is my other favourite cycle tracking app. It’s highly innovative, and they collaborate with scientists and tech teams to make sure the technology is on point. Why is this important? Well, it allows you to get accurate cycle predictions, whether it be for ovulation, PMS or that crimson flow! Clue was also rated one of the top period trackers by The Obstetrics & Gynecology Journal. It gives you cycle predictions and reminders, allows you to track things such as the heaviness of your flow and the products you use, and can also be used to track your fertility each day.
3. PERIOD TRACKER – MY CALENDAR
You’ll have to forgive My Calendar for the lack of creativity with its name, but this faux pas is easily forgiven once downloaded. This app is super easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. In fact, it’s the most frequently downloaded on the google app store, and scores awesome reviews to match. Something I love about My Calendar is that it includes programming to track irregular periods (which, by the way, is 30% of the female population!). This app tracks all kinds of lifestyle data - your period, weight, any cyclical weight gain and menstrual symptoms, which can be categorised physically (like head, body and cervix), as well as emotionally. On top of this, it’s suitable for anyone, whether you’re new to the world of periods or premenopausal.
4. GLOW
Glow is a family of 4 apps that allows you to track your cycle all the way through from period to parenting. They have the Eve app (specifically for tracking your period), Glow (the fertility charting app), Glow Nurture (which follows your prenatal health), and Glow Baby (which helps track the health of your little one). If you’re looking into apps to help track your fertility (instead of just your monthly cycle), Glow is a great one to look at. It lets you track over 40 different health signals, including body basal temperature and sexual activity, as well as your monthly period and symptoms. It crunches the data you provide and lets you know just how fertile you are on any given day.
5. OVIA
Ovia is another awesome app for fertility tracking. It’s really great at helping you track your body basal temperature, cervical position, and cervical mucus, to give quite an accurate picture of your fertility. Similarly to the Glow app, Ovia takes stock of all your data inputs to give you a daily fertility score, which tells you how likely you are to conceive on that day. Of course, it goes without saying that this should not be used as a substitution to birth control. Something else great about Ovia is that you can track your nutrition, export all the data to excel, and gain access to a whole library full of relevant articles and tips.
Periods have been a bit of a theme on my blog lately. The reason for this is simple: I want to be part of the period revolution. That revolutionary period in time where women stand up and demand that periods be talked about. Where we demand to have innovative, effective sanitary products. And where we fight to get rid of that dirty stigma around period conversation. Our attitudes to periods actually change our perception of how we experience our periods, so shifting this paradigm is crucial. It’s time to embrace our cycle!
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