Why you can’t trust an app to predict your period (and which app is the best to use)
When I ask if someone tracks their cycle, they’ll usually say, ‘Oh yeah, I use X app to know when I’ll get my period’. And while apps are better than nothing, they’re not usually accurate, can’t tell you what’s happening in your body and I know I’m not the only one who would freak out when my period would come later than the app suggested. Plus, knowing when you'r period is coming is invaluable, especially if you’re planning a hot date or a holiday.
So, which app is best?
If only the answer to that question were so easy! Let’s break things down a little.
Your menstrual cycle is governed by hormones. At the start of your cycle you have your period, after which, oestrogen, FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) and LH (Lutenising Hormone) start to rise in your body. They peak at ovulation (when an egg is released) and, after that, progesterone rises and you’ll either get pregnant or have your next period. If you’ve got a regular cycle and bleed on roughly the same cycle day each time, you might be mistaken for thinking that your cycle is always the same with no variation for change. But things can, and often do, change by quite a bit.
If you’ve ever had a ‘late’ period and wondered why, the answer is not that your period was late. Rather, your ovulation was.
Our bodies are sophisticated, way beyond our comprehension. There’s a whole other level of intelligence that we don’t really think about. Like the fact that, sometimes, your body will decide that procreation (the whole point of your cycle) isn’t important at a point in time. This usually happens when we’re stressed or if the body is getting bashed about. Things like flying, sickness, certain medications, exam stress, moving home, bereavement, financial worry, pressure to conceive and so much more can actually delay or even stop your ovulation. If your body is under duress, your inner intelligence will wait until things are less rocky for your ovulation to happen. Smart, right?
Why most apps are wrong
Which brings us back to those smart apps. Most of them use the Rhythm Method, which is based on the (very false) theory that every menstrual cycle lasts 28 days, with ovulation happening at day 14. (If you have a 30 day cycle, it might predict that you ovulate on day 15, a 22 day cycle, ovulating on day 11 and so on). It works by looking at your past cycles to predict future ones, which just isn’t possible. While a lot of women do have a 28 day cycle, it’s not the truth for everyone and, even if the cycle is 28 days, ovulation might still be happening earlier or later than day 14 because, body intelligence. So if your ovulation can happen at any time instead of on a regular date, what to do?
You absolutely CAN predict ovulation, and therefore your period. For most people, ovulation occurs around the same time each cycle and when you know the signs, you can become watchful for it. Signs of approaching ovulation include increasing cervical fluid and cervical position, and you can confirm ovulation has happened by taking daily temperature readings (your progesterone increases your temperature consistently after you’ve ovulated, making it easy to track). I highly recommend Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Wechsler (affiliate link) to find out more, or head to Fertility Charting or Fertility Awareness Project on Instagram (Nat will also be giving a FREE training on how to know when you’re ovulating in my Facebook Group on April 19th). Knowing when you’re approaching ovulation or have ovulated (and there is a difference!) will help you to unlock your period prediction, because…
Here’s the plot twist
Although your ovulation can be delayed by stress, trauma etc, the amount of time it takes to get your period after ovulation is pretty defined. After ovulation, the follicle (egg shell) becomes a gland (the Corpus Luteum) that releases progesterone. There’s only a finite time span that the Corpus Luteum can survive - usually around 11-16 days. Which means that, unless your egg was fertilised and you’re pregnant, you’ll get your period within 11-16 days after ovulation. And this can get even more defined because each woman will have her own defined time that rarely fluctuates in her lifetime (and if it does, it’ll only do it by 2-3 days). So, let’s just put that into perspective:
Here’s an example
You’re using an app that predicts your period and you normally have a 28 day cycle. It predicts you’ll get your period on day 28 (because it assumes ovulation is on day 14. Except, you’ve got a job interview that coincides with your day 14, and you’ve been stressing out about it. You’ve been putting together a presentation and worked on it in the evenings, usually with a cup of coffee by your side and maybe even skipping dinner. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, on the morning of your interview, your ceiling starts dripping with water from a leak in the flat upstairs. You do great at the interview, but you’re stressed out and overtired, and it takes you a couple of days to recover. You go about your life with the interview stress forgotten and a plumber’s sorted the leak. You feel great! But your period is late and now you’re freaking out that the one time you didn’t use a condom has resulted in pregnancy.
Except, you’re not pregnant. All that stress with your interview, the late nights, the caffeine and skipped meals, plus the leak, told your body that things were just too stressful to even think about pro-creating, so it waited until things calmed down. You ovulated on day 17 instead, and your period arrived 3 days later than your app said. Now imagine knowing this while it was happening. Much less internal stress and worry, right??
If you’re going to use an app to predict your period, it MUST be one that tracks your ovulation.
Simply putting in the date of your last period is not enough, because you cannot predict your future ovulation based on the past. So with all that techy info under your belt, we can finally get to the apps. These apps will predict your period based on your actual ovulation day, thereby giving you better accuracy:
1. FLO
Flo is beautifully designed with a heap of resources to help you learn about your cycle. It uses the symptothermal method of charting which means you’ll need to be taking your temperature at the minimum (and all good apps will have this). You can also input your cervical fluid as a second measure of approaching ovulation. What I love about Flo, is that it also has lifestyle tracking in there too, because as you now know, this can massively affect your cycle. You can track moods and feelings, sports and exercise, symptoms like bloating, nausea, back pain and cramps. It’ll automatically calculate when you’ve ovulated if you’re not inputting your own confirmation. Each month you’ll get a report and as the app gets to know you, it’ll give you a round of up of how your cycle looks, which symptoms you commonly log on certain days and prompt you to consider if that headache you’ve logged is due to your current cycle phase. You can use it to track your cycle or achieve pregnancy, and it looks pretty too. Add in a wealth of articles, experience videos, food plans and more, it’s a great, well-rounded app.
The downside? You can’t add in your own lifestyle tracking options and it’s pricey at 49,99€ per year (you can pay per month or half a year instead). It does have a 14 day free trial period so you can see what you’ll be getting and I do believe there’s a free version (albeit with much less features).
2. Kindara
I’ve been using Kindara for longer than I’ve been using Flo - about 2 years now and for me, it has the clearest graph (Flo’s can be hard to read). What I love about Kindara is the design - it’s very easy to use and it feels intuitive. You can customise it to track whatever you want (which you can’t with Flo) and you can also use emoji’s as your tracker signs which I just love. It’ll also have you inputting your daily temperature and it has the additional ovulation sign option of cervical position. You can also choose to track symptoms like back pain, headaches, mood swings and acne. It has a knowledge base of blogs and articles by the Kindara team and best of all? It’s free! Well, there is a paid option which unlocks certain features but in general, it’s free.
The downside? You can’t track vaginal sensation (also important for predicting ovulation) in the free version but you can just make that as one of your customisable trackers if you want.
3. Read Your Body
Full disclosure, I’ve not yet got stuck into this app as I’m waiting for my Tempdrop to finally be allowed into the country (thanks, Brexit!). From what others have told me, this is a great app and its predicted to overtake Kindara. The app was created as a collaboration between some pretty high up there people in the Fertility world and it has a wealth of a knowledge base too. The downside for me so far, is that it’s completely customisable so you’ll need some time to set it up as you want. You can also import Kindara date via a csv file.
Even though I recommend these apps, it goes without saying that they will only work based on the information you provide. An app isn’t in your body (at least, not yet!) so the more you can learnt the signs of ovulation, the more accuracy you’ll have.
So, there you go - why you can’t solely rely on apps to predict your period AND recommendations of which are the best to go for!
If you’re curious about applying menstrual cycle awareness to your life, you can schedule a free 30min call with me or check out my coaching space.