Can you trust an app?
It depends how you use them. Despite the slick and confident messages, most period trackers are not a reliable way to avoid pregnancy. Many also fail to protect personal data.
The contraception app Natural Cycles has its place but, from what I've seen, it gives women way too many green days at the beginning of their cycles.
Ovulation moves about, and often happens earlier in the cycle as we get older. You need plenty of buffer days to avoid pregnancy as sperm can survive for up to seven days if the conditions are right.
You can work out your first infertile day for yourself using these simple calculations.
A better and much cheaper app is Read Your Body, which works like a paper cycle tracking chart. It helps you record your data so you can interpret it yourself.
Learning to interpret your own data, with support from a Fertility UK practitioner, is the approach recommended by the NHS.
That might sound daunting but it's probably easier than you think, and can be wonderfully liberating. A bit like learning to ride a bike.
Before you start, read Is fertility awareness right for you?
The contraception app Natural Cycles has its place but, from what I've seen, it gives women way too many green days at the beginning of their cycles.
Ovulation moves about, and often happens earlier in the cycle as we get older. You need plenty of buffer days to avoid pregnancy as sperm can survive for up to seven days if the conditions are right.
You can work out your first infertile day for yourself using these simple calculations.
A better and much cheaper app is Read Your Body, which works like a paper cycle tracking chart. It helps you record your data so you can interpret it yourself.
Learning to interpret your own data, with support from a Fertility UK practitioner, is the approach recommended by the NHS.
That might sound daunting but it's probably easier than you think, and can be wonderfully liberating. A bit like learning to ride a bike.
Before you start, read Is fertility awareness right for you?