Posted on April 27th, 2017

Women Only! Tracking cycles and PMS symptoms. So many different apps available. I get asked a lot if there are any apps that I recommend in terms of this. The only apps that I have tried are ‘My Calendar’ which is a free app and ‘My Flo’ ($2.59 I think to buy) created by Alisa Vitti who is a functional nutritionist and women’s health expert who specialises is balancing hormones.

Period Tracker, My Calendar (FREE)

This is the app that I have been using for over 2 years now, I personally really like this one and have suggested this app to a lot of my friends and clients as it’s free and easy to use.

Some of the benefits of this app are:

• Great for tracking cycles and recording symptoms so you can see patterns each month.
• Allows you to select from heaps of different symptoms so they can be recorded plus gives you the option to write your own notes in.
• Gives you the option to record intercourse dates which may be useful if you’re trying for a baby.
• Highlights your most fertile dates each month based on your cycle duration, also great if you’re trying to conceive.
• Provides you with a report so you can look back several months and see how long your cycles were.

What I don’t like about it:

• Does not explain the different phases you go through during your cycle (i.e. follicular, ovulation, luteal and menstrual).
• Doesn’t provide tips or solutions to help you manage your change in hormones or symptoms you may experience.

My FLO App

I bought this app when it came out recently around the start of the year as Alisa is a great functional nutritionist who has a lot of knowledge to share and teach. I personally don’t love the app as a whole right know as it is still very new but I’m keen to see the new changes that come through with further development.

Some of the benefits of this app are:

• I like that it feels more personalised from the moment you open it. Alisa is really passionate about balancing and working with female hormones and has spent many years focusing specifically on this.
• Alisa provides information on hormones and what they are doing through each phase of your cycle to help you learn and understand your body.
• Tips are provided based on brain function/focus tips, exercise, food and love suggestions that are specific to each phase (follicular, ovulation, luteal and menstrual).
• Alisa provides suggestions on what you can do based on your symptoms you experience on that particular day, plus the option of 4 week programs you can purchase to focus on specific symptoms such as clear skin, bloating, mood swings, energy/sleep, hormone re-sets, fertility etc to get you back on track.
• There is an option to sync your partner to the app so he knows how to best support you in terms of dates, food and even sex.
• Highlights your most fertile dates each month based on your cycle duration, which is great if trying to conceive.

What I don’t like about it:

• As it is still new it doesn’t provide a lot of options for symptoms that you may be experiencing and only lets you select few.
• It’s a little fiddly adding in cycle dates (start and finish), it doesn’t just automatically reset each month based on previous history and instead if your cycle is out by a day you have to re-add it.

Summarising

It really depends on what you are looking for in the app. If you want information about each phase and what your hormones are doing during the month the ‘My FLO’ app is great, however if you just want an app to record symptoms and track the length of your cycles then ‘My Calendar’ is great and it’s free.

By all means if you have tried other apps that you feel are great, please let me know 🙂