As Americans continue to support holistic healing, plant-based eating and natural remedies, it seems like more healthy options are emerging almost every day. Therefore, whenever you are looking to simplify your life, it is no surprise when someone tells you that there is, “an app for that,” even when it concerns the female cycle.
If you are a woman, as much as you think you might know your body, when it comes to ovulating there can be unpredictable biological behavior. This can be tricky and risky if you don’t want to use hormonal birth control and rely on the rhythm method instead. The rhythm method is when a woman is basically aware she is fertile and abstains from sexual intercourse to avoid pregnancy. It can also be used to increase sexual relations in order to conceive.
Now there are devices and apps known as fertility tracking tech or fertility awareness methods (FAM) that just may be able to track your cycle a lot better than your instincts, using the moon, or calendar calculating .
More Advantages for Women
Years of birth control or constant fertility pharmaceuticals can be taxing on the female system. Some might say that it is best to go back to simpler times when tribal women could “listen” to their bodies much more efficiently than any modern gadget invented today. However, times are not as simple anymore. Many women are working at demanding careers; raising children in an age of more stress around every corner than ever before imagined; or just trying to navigate a rapidly changing world of gender equalities. Either way, women are so bombarded with these and other stresses that it is easy for their bodies to become ‘off cycle’ more-so than ‘on cycle’. This can be particularly challenging when young couples are trying to conceive as many will tell you that it can take much longer than expected for natural conception.
Scientific research is offering tools and apps to help women hone in on the clues their body is telling them which they may be missing as life and stress get in the way.
Forbes reported on UK journalist Nichi Hodgson who effectively commented on Natural Cycles, a scientific fertility tracking tech company,
“The popularity of Natural Cycles showed that women are ready for something that disrupts neither our hormones, our moods, nor our pleasure. If algorithms can now predict Alzheimer’s disease before medics, and if the prospect of biohacking our brains to optimize mental performance is no longer merely the stuff of science fiction, then there is surely a role for tech products in preventing pregnancy and affording us control over our reproductive future.”
Using Fertility Tracking
There are many choices out there when it comes to tracking your fertility. Everyday Health reported several years ago that,
“Researchers estimate that more than 200 million women globally used fertility awareness apps in 2016 — and the use of these apps is increasing.”
It is important that any FAM app you use include charting:
These two records are essential to determining fertility. An app that only offers ‘fertility prediction’ without these two functions is no better than the pen and paper rhythm method guessing.
Best FAM Apps
There are many FAM apps on the market and FamSafe has compiled the best rated ones for full spectrum period and ovulation tracking. These apps have been determined based on useful content, excellent reviews, and consistent reliability. Some include the aforementioned recommended additions of basal body temperature and cervical fluid clues.
Some of these apps can include a fertility tracking device like a watch. These tools can offer real time info when it comes to sleep patterns, stress levels, skin temperature, and resting pulse rate.
At the beginning of 2019, Holistic health coach Natalie Archer commented to MyDomaine that she used the hormone-free method and was able to conceive after trying for over a year and a half, stating,
“I have seen a huge rise in women choosing this method of birth control lately, and I think that it is going to continue to grow in popularity this coming year,”
Science Weighs In
Observational reports have shown high marks for digital fertility tracking, however only small studies have been done so far but you will probably be seeing more. One study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) by researchers from the Department of Reproductive Endocrinology, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland concluded,
“Our contributions highlight the impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning’s integration into health care. By monitoring numerous physiological parameters simultaneously, wearable technology uniquely improves upon retrospective methods for fertility awareness and enables the first real-time predictive model of ovulation.”
Fertility tracking tech for birth control and conception may sound like science fiction or, at most,
another unneeded digital consumption, yet more women are reporting success. If you don’t want to be tethered to synthetic drugs with potential side effects or just guessing when you are fertile, this technology may help.