Never sure when Aunt Flo is next going to show? There’s nothing worse than being caught short – and you can’t always rely on your memory.
Or thinking about starting a family and need to track your ovulation dates? No one’s got time to be faffing around with urine samples.
Luckily modern technology is here to monitor your monthly cycle so you don’t have to. Not only can tracking apps quickly alert you to a late arrival, they can also do things like remind you to take your birth control or predict what mood you’ll be in on any given day.
So with no further ado, here’s our pick of the best period apps around.
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1. Period Tracker
First things first – this is discreetly called P Tracker once downloaded so no one who snoops through your phone will know what it is. With this app, you log the first day of your period every month, and it calculates the average to predict the start date of your next one. When it’s got a few months of data, it’s able to predict future period, ovulation and fertile dates from your last three periods (which makes it pretty handy for advanced holiday planning). You can also log your symptoms or daily moods, and it’ll pop up a little flower on your homescreen when you’re in your eight-day “most fertile” window.
2. Hormone Horoscope
This one is less about when your next period is coming, and more about how you’re going to be feeling each day. This app tracks your cycle to predict your hormone levels throughout the month, and then sends you a little forecast every day on your mood, energy, sleep, health and more. (It gives you excellent pre-warning of PMS, which actually stops you feeling so irrational). Hormone Horoscope is rather educational – you end up learning a lot about hormones and the huge role they play in your body as a whole, so it’s worth downloading this as a supplementary app if you use another tracker.
3. Clue
Of all the period trackers we’ve seen, this is the least cutesy – so if you find all the hearts and flowers and emoticons a bit sugary, this is the one for you. Self-described as “confident, scientific — and not pink,” Clue lets you track things such as body temperature, heaviness of flow, and discharge in a super easy format. Once it has your cycle down after a few months of solid data, it’ll remind you two days before your period is expected to arrive.
4. Life
If your outlook is ‘less is more’ when it comes to apps, then this should solve a lot of problems. Life can track your periods, symptoms, likely fertile times and all of the usual stuff, but if you upgrade to the premium options, you’ll get a range of other health monitors. You can keep on top of your nutrition, fitness, weight, sleep and medication, meaning this one app could replace about five other you currently have on your phone.
5. Tampon Minder
Forgetting to remove your tampon can seriously damage your health, leaving you at risk of infection or even Toxic Shock Syndrome. If you’re the kind of person who often leaves changing too long, whether due to a busy job, irregular sleeping patterns or just a terrible memory, this app will give you prompt reminders based on how long your period usually lasts.
