Are Period Apps Accurate For Ovulation

What’s The Most Accurate Fertility App

The bottom line is that a lot of these apps do similar functions. But when you’re trying to get pregnant, more information is good. Dr. Nathaniel G. DeNicola, chair of Telehealth for the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, says there’s clinically proven evidence that tracking your cycle improves your chances of getting pregnant. But he warns against putting too much stock in app companies’ claims that they’ll get you pregnant so much faster than another app . There’s not a lot of data collected on accuracy that’s not done by the apps themselves.

“I wouldn’t want a patient to see an app company promise them some stellar result that hasn’t yet really been proven,” DeNicola said. “Tracking basal body temperature, tracking cervical mucus thickness, those kinds of things can make the fertility tracking and timing of ovulation more accurate. The app connected to a vaginal thermometer, I can’t really say we have a demonstrated benefit there.”

But again, more information when trying to get pregnant is usually good. So pick the app with the interface that best suits your style and get tracking!

Why Use A Fertility Tracking App

If youre trying to get pregnant, a fertility tracking app can provide you with the necessary information to determine your most fertile days.

Not only that, but tracking data such as unexpected bleeding or spotting, irregular bleeding, or unusual mucus patterns can help you note what to ask your doctor. Additionally, if youre not trying to get pregnant, a fertility tracking app can help you track when to expect your next period, making life easier and more convenient to plan.

Input Of Menstrual Cycle Data

The individual profiles for the five different women were built using thousands of cycles from a database of women using the Clearblue Connected Home Ovulation Test.9 Profiles were built to provide cycle lengths and ovulation dates for seven consecutive menstrual cycles, and these were transformed into dates to enable data entry into the apps . The cycle length segments for each profile are shown in Table 3.

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How Do You Know If An App Is Reliable

To find a tracking app that you can count on:

• Ask your OB-GYN for recommendations. They may know which apps are most reputable and which apps have worked for their patients.
• Do your research. Find out whoâs behind the app and what their credentials are. âDo they have a PhD? Is it an OB-GYN? Ideally, they specialize in reproductive health,â says Sophia Yen, MD, a clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medical School.
• Check how many types of data it collects. The more, the better. If an app only looks at dates of your last periods, it wonât be as reliable as an app that also collects body temperature and amount of cervical mucus.
• Look for an app thatâs easy to use. If itâs easy to enter your info every month, youâre more likely to use it correctly and consistently.

Which Fertility App Is Most Accurate

On our list above, Mira may provide the most comprehensive data due to using urine samples. It tracks urine LH and progesterone levels, which may provide evidence of ovulation.

Apps that track BBT are also useful for indicating ovulation. Ovusense uses a smart device to sync BBT data with the app.

A person should thoroughly research and speak to a healthcare professional before purchasing an app.

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The Best Way To Determine Ovulation

If a woman or couple is trying to optimize fertility, using an ovulation predictor kit is the best method, says Dr. Chan.

According to the World Health Organization, home-based use of ovulation predictor kits may improve fertility management when attempting to become pregnant. In some studies, evidence shows that ovulation predictor kits may increase pregnancy rates by about 40%.

Trying To Conceive There’s An App For That In Fact The Fertility App Space Has Never Been Well More Fertile Check Out These 10 Fertility Period And Ovulation Trackers That Could Help You Get Pregnant

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We have an app for everything now, including baby-making. If you’re TTCthat’s “trying to conceive” for the newbiesand eager to get pregnant as efficiently as possible , these apps can help you with pretty much everything you need to conceive quickly, except for, ahem, doing the deed itself. That’s on you.

So tap that App Store icon … get ready, get set, conceive!

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Most Accurate Ovulation Calculator: Ovia Health

With one of the most advanced algorithms available in an ovulation tracker app, its no wonder Ovia Health has been named the most accurate ovulation calculator.

Ovia is so precise in its results that it has even been named a trusted ovulation app for women with irregular periods.

What we love:

• Goes beyond collecting of dates and generic data
• System gives precedence to the symptoms
• Uses them to accurately calculate the most likely ovulation date

Ovia has helped over 13 million families conceive, and best of all, its FREE!

How Accurate Are Ovulation Apps

Unfortunately, this is a loaded question.

Many healthcare providers and scientists believe using an ovulation tracker app cannot provide the most accurate information about when a woman will ovulate.

In fact, some studies have shown that most of these apps only offer a 21% accuracy rating.

But dont be deterred this does not mean using ovulation apps is a bad idea! Especially because most of the are free, theyre often a great first step in tracking your cycle and learning when you expect both your period and ovulation.

The primary concern over the validity of results obtained with a tracker is that the results are merely an estimate.

Using these estimates from ovulation apps, hopeful parents can utilize other methods to help narrow down their ovulation dates, such as ovulation predictor kits, basal body temperature thermometers, or fertility monitors.

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Best For Birth Control: Natural Cycles

Natural Cycles

• Need a subscription

• A bit expensive

Sick of worrying about the side effects of hormonal birth control and stressing about the effectiveness of barrier methods like condoms? The Natural Cycles app is a real win-win, serving as an all-natural form of birth control that puts you right in the drivers seat of your fertility: You’ll have all the info you need to know when youre fertile and when youre not.

Heres the deal: When you use this app, you basically use the fertility awareness method of birth control, which requires you to get familiar with your bodys signs of fertility, like daily temperature and cervical mucus. . You input your temperature and any other key fertility signs, and the app works its magic to tell you if today is a “green” day or “red” day .

Since Natural Cycles works as birth control and includes a basal body temperature, its not free. It is, however, cheaper than a lot of OTC and prescription forms of birth control at roughly $90 per year or about $10 per month .

How Does Flo Prediction Algorithm Work

For generations, the most common and convenient method to track ones cycle was the conventional calendar. Women simply marked the dates of their periods and calculated their fertile window, assuming theyll ovulate around day 14. This method is fairly accurateprovided that your cycle is regular.

Unfortunately, at least 30% of women have unpredictable menstrual cycles. Thats why all the traditional calendar-based cycle prediction algorithms, including those used in the majority of period tracking apps nowadays, might be 5 or 6 days off the correct date in their predictions if you happen to have an irregular cycle.

Flo is a bit different in this regard. We use artificial intelligence, an advanced neural network to analyze everything you and your body can tell us about. As a result, your period and ovulation predictions in Flo may become up to 54.2% more accurate. Where does the number come from? Lets dive into some science.

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How Do Fertility Apps Work

The majority of fertility apps calculate fertile windows using menstrual cycle data. Some apps come with devices for measuring body temperature or analyzing urine samples.

For example, some fertility apps track basal body temperature , which rises after ovulation, using input data or direct temperature reading from linked smart devices.

Other apps come with devices to take and analyze urine samples to measure luteinizing hormone or progesterone levels.

An LH rise can indicate active ovulation.

Progesterone rises after ovulation, which also increases BBT. Any method measuring progesterone BBT can confirm that ovulation happened, but may not identify peak fertile window as it occurs, unlike methods that track LH levels.

These two hormones rise in level when ovulation occurs, indicating a fertile window. A progesterone rise triggers ovulation,

People with polycystic ovary syndrome or irregular menstrual cycles may not experience typical fluctuation in

According to a 2021 study, fertility apps are unregulated. Further research is necessary to confirm their accuracy for planning or avoiding conception.

• noninvasive
• PCOS friendly

How it works: This app works alongside a fertility tracking kit that users must purchase. The kit includes devices such as the fertility analyzer and fertility wands.

The use of hormone tracking makes this app accurate as

How it works: The OvuFirst sensor is a temperature sensor worn on the arm or wrist as a person sleeps.

Best For Temperature Tracking: Natural Cycles

Available on: Apple Store and Google Play

Price: $65.46 annually or $9.15 monthly. Free thermometer included.

Features:

• measures temperature and menstrual cycle data daily
• daily status to indicate if a person is fertile or not
• app tailoring using daily updates
• tracks hormonal changes and PMS symptoms
• availability to switch between Birth Control, Plan Pregnancy, and Follow Pregnancy apps, depending on the users needs
• community hub provided

How it works: A user takes their temperature every morning with the thermometer provided. The user is then given a fertile or not fertile status for the day. Data the user provides, such as PMS symptoms, mood changes, and menstrual cycle dates, helps the app tailor information to the user.

The app provides this information via graphs and easy-to-read temperature results.

• lunar calendar
• direct messaging and invite-only group access within the community

How it works: Kindara uses easy-to-read charts to provide information on a users menstrual cycle. Users can show these charts to their healthcare professional to discuss their fertility more easily.

Kindara also provides a community of users with whom a person can compare charts and interact.

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Getting Pregnant With The Best Ovulation Apps Of 2022

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We spend our whole early lives making sure we avoid getting pregnant, and often times, were blindsided by how hard it can actually be. When youre ready to start a family, understanding how your body works and when youre ovulating are crucial to the process. Ovulation apps can help you do just that!

Rather than leaving things to chance, why not consider using one of the high-tech ovulation apps available to help you pinpoint when you should be getting busy?

While ovulation normally occurs any time within a specified timeframe, , most of us dont have perfect cycles. Thats why its helpful to have an app to help us determine our ovulation days.

How Accurate Is Flo App From A Scientific Standpoint

To get the real Flo app accuracy numbers, we conducted a large-scale research of user data. For the purposes of this research, we assumed that a womans cycle is irregular if:

• She has logged at least three previous cycles in Flo.
• The difference between the shortest and the longest cycles she logged is at least 7 days.

The total number of cycles we selected for the research was 971110. Approximately in half of those cycles users have logged at least one extra event a physical symptom or a mood change.

Of those cycles, 189963 had at least one general or individual weak fertility predictor i.e., a sign that points at a certain cycle stage, most often ovulation or PMS.

Below is a great example: a user experiences acne and breast tenderness 3 to 10 days before the beginning of each cycle.

We used the Mean Absolute Error metric to measure the accuracy of our research. The results indicate that if a cycle has at least one weak predictor logged, the MAE of prediction accuracy was 1.59 days, while without any extra indicators it reached 2.82.

Thus, we can state that tracking symptoms regularly helps our users improve irregular cycle predictions by a whopping 43.6%. In absolute values, it shrinks the prediction window from 5.6 days to just 3.18.

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Final Verdict: Is Flo App Accurate

We should admit that apps are already smarter than us. Flo, for instance, uses machine learning: it takes your data and learns from it, reliably predicting ovulation and menstruation. The more you use the app, the higher Flo prediction accuracy becomes.

Flo also has other advantages over traditional calendar methods and standard apps. You can track your overall feeling, symptoms, sex drive, menstruation flow and the app will give you personalized health insights depending on the state of your body. If youre looking for maximum precision in catching your fertile window, we still encourage you to measure BBT and use ovulation tests. With that said, Flo is a great virtual assistant and a real money-saver in this regard.

As our research has shown, thanks to using AI-based algorithms Flo is quite accurate in its predictions as far as period tracking apps are considered. Its efficiency is backed by numbers. So, thank you for choosing us! And if you havent tried Flo yet, get on board!

and enjoy accurate cycle predictions, plus relevant information and educational content from health experts.

Why Is Tracking Lh So Important

About 24-48 hours before ovulation, the brain triggers a LH surge to prompt the ovary to release an egg and get it ready for fertilization. If youre able to catch that LH surge with a product like an ovulation predictor kit , otherwise known as an ovulation test, you can predict when youll ovulate with higher accuracy.

How this relates to apps: After the identification of an LH surge, apps typically predict ovulation the next day , Dr. Briggs explains. The identification of the surge also informs the days in the cycle that were part of the fertile window meaning theres a chance to get pregnant during that time. If you have sex with a partner with sperm or try insemination during that fertile window, the likelihood of conception is highest.

There are also apps on the market that are positioned as health companions and ask for details about your emotions, bowel movements, symptoms, and more. While collecting these data points is a great way to check in with your body and track how youre feeling from cycle to cycle, knowing when you last pooped or what time of the month you feel the most anxious wont necessarily make it easier to predict your cycle the next time around. If that’s your goal, its important to assess whether or not health companion apps provide the tools for you to do that beyond recording symptoms and feelings. That said, you can always do that in a separate note or Google doc so you have more info when discussing your cycle with your doctor.

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How Accurate Is A Period Tracker App

To be clear, no app can ever “get you pregnant,” nor are they foolproof. But they can certainly help you learn more about your body and get used to cues that may be telling you information about your cycle and the best time to try to conceive, says Arielle Spiegel, founder and CEO of CoFertility. Spiegel adds that when couples start out on their conception journey, many don’t realize that there are actually only a few days within each cycle when a pregnancy could occur. Period tracker apps get you into the habit of tracking your cycle so you may be able to pinpoint when ovulation is imminent,” she says.

Ultimately, the proper use of an app can help you to track your menstrual cycles and symptoms of ovulation and PMS, allowing you to sync intercourse with your most fertile time of the month. The period tracker apps use the fact that women start to have an LH surge prior to ovulation and so the days leading to the actual day of ovulation is the most fertile time, explains Miami reproductive endocrinologist Juan P. Alvarez. The American Pregnancy Association states that sperm can live in a womans body for a maximum of five days. Thus, knowing your full fertile window can increase your chances of conceiving. These facts are shown on a calendar in the app and it tells couples when they should be having timed intercourse, he says.

Selection Of The Apps

From January 2020 to May 2020, the Apple store and Google Play store were searched using menstrual, menstruation or period combined with either one or two additional terms from tracker, cycle, calendar, predictor or calculator.

The 10 top reoccurring apps, with the most popular in descending order selected in the app stores, were decided following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Inclusion: those marketed and used by individuals for tracking their menstrual cycle apps with the ability to track cycles and input retrospective data giving predictions of the next menses, apps available in both the Apple and Google Play store, apps accessible in English and the ability to be used without an Internet connection. Exclusion: those that did not allow for the tracking of previous and present menstrual cycles or did not predict future menstrual cycles, apps whose sole purpose was for fertility, trying to conceive or pregnancy, apps not present in both Apple and Google Play stores, those not in English or after download those determined to be dysfunctional or faulty.

The chosen 10 period tracker apps were downloaded onto five devices on June 2020 . Each of the five devices was used solely for menstrual cycle data for one of the five women.

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