When I first started teaching, there were no apps. Heck, most people didn’t even have mobile phones back then. Now there are a multitude of apps and devices related to menstrual cycles, and it’s a multi-million dollar industry.
The most basic of these apps are cycle trackers, which, as their name implies, help people keep track of their cycles, in the same way some of us keep track of our daily steps. They’re not used for management of fertility.
More sophisticated apps (and all of the devices) are intended to tell people who menstruate when they are fertile. Some are little more than high tech versions of the Rhythm or Calendar Method, which identify fertile days based on the length of past cycles. Others work on a similar model but with the addition of daily temperatures. And some, modeled on sympto-thermal fertility awareness, use both temperature and cervical mucus observations to identify fertile days.
Depending on what your goals are, an app may be great for you. I love the way cycle trackers can be used by teens and others who are new to menstrual cycle awareness as a way to normalize menstruation, and to begin to develop body literacy and the habit of paying attention to one’s cycle. And if you are practicing sympto-thermal fertility awareness, apps make it easy to keep track of and share your data. Those that allow of input of temperature, cervical mucus, as well as customizable entries, are fantastically useful, especially compared to the paper charts we started out with.
That said, apps are tools. Use the apps and devices if they facilitate your practice of Fertility Awareness, but understand their limitations. They are not a substitute for actually knowing how to practice Fertility Awareness. The apps can’t think, and I have seen them make major errors when interpreting data. The studies supporting their effectiveness for pregnancy prevention are often small and/or not based on actual usage of the device or app, but rather on the theories that informed their design. Apps also raise issues of privacy and data sharing that few users consider. Do you know how the data you input into your app is used, or with whom it is shared or sold to? And do you have any control over that?
There is certainly less risk in relying upon apps and devices for pregnancy achievement (and most can only claim to be effective for this purpose, not for contraception) but whether your goal is to prevent or to achieve pregnancy, you will get the most out of your Fertility Awareness practice if you take the time to learn how Fertility Awareness actually works in theory, how to practice it in reality, and how to interpret your own observations.