By: Anna Keller
When you’re trying to have a baby – whether it’s your first or third – the whole process can be an overwhelming one. You likely have a friend who got pregnant right when she decided it was time and, on the other end of the spectrum, you probably know someone who ended up going the IVF route. Maybe you find yourself somewhere in the middle at the moment: not yet pregnant (even though you’d like to be), but not ready for more extreme intervention just yet, either.
Enter fertility apps, a helpful way to gain insight into what your body is doing. Some are basic (tracking your period and ovulation) and others have more advanced elements. You also might be using one of these apps to avoid pregnancy, and they would work well for that, too!
Below are a handful of our favorite fertility tracker apps.
1. GLOW
Why We Love It:
• It’s free, but allows you to voluntarily contribute to a fund that goes to help women with fertility treatments. They also offer Glow Premium for an additional cost.
• There’s a robust community element where you can search for conversations around a variety of topics like getting pregnant, of course, but also things like religion and politics, beauty and style, and food and lifestyle.
• It takes into account the symptoms you’re feeling and gives you insights tied to those. (Example: Do you often have an upset stomach when you’re on your period? That can be a sign of endometriosis, so it could be worth a chat with your doctor.)
2. OVIA
Why We Love It:
• It’s free, or you can pick up a $0.99 upgraded version which allows you to do things like export your data to Excel.
• It has a corresponding pregnancy app, so once you conceive you can jump over to that version and track there.
• The app collects huge amounts of data to help inform the recommendations it’s making for you.
• Their claim is that this app helps reduce the average time it takes a couple to get pregnant from four to six months down to two.
3. CONCEIVABLE
Why We Love It:
• This is a pricey app at $199, but you get a lot of bang for your buck. The app is designed to look for things impacting your fertility and helps you address those roadblocks.
• It creates a personalized proprietary Fertility Score by assessing fertility factors that include biometric data, cycle metrics, basal body temperatures, and lifestyle habits to predict the likelihood of natural conception.
• The app has a very holistic approach, even going as far as delivering personalized supplements to your door to help address issue the app detects that might be getting in the way of your fertility.
4. FLO
Why We Love It:
• It’s free.
• It uses artificial intelligence to get super accurate about its cycle predictions. The more data you enter, the more accurate your output information will be!
• You can also track your basal body temperature and cervical mucus and input those variables into the app for even stronger results.
• Once you get pregnant, it switches over to a pregnancy app!
5. DOT
Why We Love It:
• It’s free.
• This app is a great one to just be aware of your cycle in general so you can plan accordingly. It allows you to input your information to see which days you’re most likely to get pregnant as well as predictions on when your period will be for the next six months.
• It uses a family planning and birth control method known as Dynamic Optimal Timing to help users anticipate their risk of pregnancy on a day-to-day basis.
photo credit: rawpixels.com