Fertility Apps – The Good, the Bad, and the Egg-ly
Fertility apps. For women who are trying to conceive or thinking about taking that next step on the path to motherhood, an easy way to get started is to download one of the countless fertility apps that promise to track your cycle and let you know your ‘fertile window’. But just how accurate are they?
How Accurate are Fertility Apps?
Fertility apps can be great. For countless women who have a million things going on, it can be hard to remember Day 1 of your cycle. This is where the apps can be beneficial. They can keep track for you – your menstrual cycle length, your start date, your symptoms, etc. Where they are lacking is in actual data. If you have 28-day cycles, on average, you will ovulate on Day 14 of your cycle. If you have 21-day cycles, on average, you ovulate on Day 7. If you are not in the ‘average’, then you could be missing your true fertile window and having sex at entirely inopportune times based on your own specific ovulation.
How to Use Fertility Apps
The best way to use the fertility apps is in conjunction with ovulation predictor kits. Ovulation predictor kits measure your luteinizing hormone (LH), which is elevated at the time of ovulation. If you notice that the fertility app is telling you a specific fertile window, and you’re getting positive ovulation predictor kits at the same time, that’s great! If your app is telling you your fertile window and your ovulation kits are positive 3 days sooner, then you’re going to want to rely more heavily on the ovulation predictor kits to let you know when the best time in the month to try to conceive.
For the majority of women using these apps, we recommend that you keep using them to track your cycles, but take everything that the app says with a grain of salt. Appreciate it as more of an educational tool that helps you get a better understanding of your body and your cycle. Understand that if you’re not getting pregnant with the tracking of your cycles and your ovulation by app alone, that there is nothing wrong with you. Talk with your doctor and see if there are better ways to optimize your chances to conceive. Speak to a specialist to get true-to-you data about your body and your fertility.