Why You Shouldn’t Only Use An App To Track Your Cycle

If you’re currently trying to conceive, or just like to be clued in on when your period might arrive this month, you most likely have one or two (or more) menstrual cycle tracking apps on your phone. A lot of these apps are cute, easy to navigate and input information, and make it convenient to track your menstrual cycle in hopes of understanding your body’s processes a little better. Many people who are trying to conceive also tend to rely on the predicted “fertile window” displayed by the app, in hopes of timing ovulation and having intercourse at the right time. However, although cute and convenient, your fertility tracker apps may be missing the mark when it comes to tracking your cycle accurately and predicting fertile days. Have you ever had your period come “early”, or gotten a little bit nervous when it was “late” - according to your tracker app? Fortunately, there are other ways to more accurately understand your menstrual cycle, and signs you can look for that can help you understand each phase.

The Problem with Fertility Tracker Apps

Fertility tracker apps can be a convenient, digital way to save your data and have it on hand at all times. Some apps even offer social community within the apps via forums where you can ask questions and commune with others online who are also trying to conceive or struggling through certain issues. Some apps offer evidence-based articles or advice from womens’ health professionals that may prove valuable in learning about how your body functions. However, fertility tracker apps may not be smart enough to take into consideration every single factor that can impact fertility or affect your menstrual cycle. Most apps work by taking the data that you enter, and running it through an algorithm to “predict” your fertile days and/or the beginning of your next cycle. These algorithms are usually running your data against the “average” 28 day cycle with ovulation occurring on day 14, but unlike the app itself, women are not robots whose cycles run predictably like clockwork every single month. Even when the app runs new data against that of the previous month, it’s still not smart enough to consider all variables and will just keep using limited amounts of data to predict future fertile windows and cycles. As with most things in life, there are ebbs and flows to the menstrual cycle (no pun intended) that can be caused by anything from change in diet, exercise, or stress level. An app cannot capture all data needed to accurately give you insight on your menstrual cycle, and may cause you to miscalculate fertile days or miss ovulation altogether if you are trying to conceive.

Supplemental Tracking Methods To Try

If you just can’t help using a fertility tracking app, there may be a place within the app to add supplemental data that may help you get a more accurate picture of menstrual health. Observing changes in your cervical mucus can be one way to help understand your menstrual cycle and the timing of ovulation. Cervical mucus is mucus that is produced in the cervix and exhibits certain characteristics throughout different phases of your cycle, due to hormonal changes throughout. Getting to know your cervical mucus and what is “normal” for you may even help you determine whether ovulation has occurred, or alert you if something is wrong such as infection or hormonal imbalance. Typically after your period and during the follicular phase, your cervical mucus will begin as dry, then become sticky, creamy, and eventually stretchy like egg-white around ovulation. After ovulation during the luteal phase, your cervical mucus will typically become sticky or dry again leading up to the start of your period. Understanding these changes in mucus and knowing how to perform a self-check can help you gather even more information about the health of your cycle. Observing cervical mucus changes may help you get a better idea of how long your follicular or luteal phase is, and help to pinpoint ovulation.

Another way to know if ovulation has occurred, in addition to cervical mucus tracking, is to take ovulation tests. These tests, like pregnancy tests, are readily available at most grocery stores and online and you use them just like you would a pregnancy test. Ovulation tests work by measuring a specific hormone in your urine (luteinizing hormone) which increases as your ovaries prepare to release an egg. When you receive a positive ovulation test, it’s likely that ovulation will occur sometime within the next 12-36 hours, depending on your timing of the test. It can be tricky to pinpoint ovulation, even with an ovulation test, since the presence of LH (luteinizing hormone) signals that ovulation is near, but doesn’t determine exactly when it will occur. This is why it may be helpful to combine cervical mucus tracking and ovulation tests to better understand what is happening inside your body. Your fertility tracking app of choice may give you a place to enter information about your cervical mucus and ovulation test results, and hopefully take that data into consideration as it calculates and predicts aspects of your cycle.

One final supplemental method you can use in addition to fertility tracking apps for family planning and understanding your cycle, is tracking your basal body temperature, or your temperature at rest. This usually involves a specific thermometer (readily available online or in drugstores), and requires that you take your temperature at the same exact time every morning while you are fully at rest, typically before you get out of bed. Your basal body temperature rises slightly and remains in that higher range after you have already ovulated. So, with this method, you will need to consistently take your temperature for potentially a couple of months, in combination with other fertility tracking methods before you can see a pattern and understand if and when ovulation has occurred. However, your basal body temperature can be affected by the same environmental or lifestyle factors that can affect your menstrual cycle, such as stress, illness, change in work schedule or sleep patterns, and certain medications. This is why tracking basal body temperature is a great supplemental tracking method to use in addition to your fertility tracker app and/or cervical mucus charting and ovulation tests.

What’s The Bottom Line?

Fertility tracker apps by themselves are not smart enough to accurately track every woman’s cycle, taking into consideration all potential factors that could possibly affect it. Supplemental methods for understanding the health of your cycle and tracking ovulation should be considered in addition to tracking apps, especially if you are trying to conceive. Understanding what is normal for you and your body, and understanding your natural rhythms and patterns can help you more easily pinpoint issues should they arise, figure out the best time for intercourse if you’re trying to conceive, and know when to reach out to a doctor or specialist for help if needed.