An app that’ll tell you when your aunt’s due to drop in… Period Tracker
Boys, you might want to skip this one. But then again, maybe you’ll learn something… So this is the deal: for five years I took a med that stopped my periods. I know, lucky me! But then I went off of it and my aunt wasted no time in coming back to town. I was wondering if there would be any long-term effects of my little vacation, so I figured I’d find an app to track things while my body got back on track.
Period Tracker lets you catalog everything, from the munchies to the grouchies. You can use it for any purpose, from figuring out when you’re fertile to simply monitoring your physical and emotional responses to your hormones throughout the month.
For example, if your boyfriend accuses you of being a completely different person during PMS and you don’t believe a word of it, maybe when you find yourself entering “mean” for mood, and craving sweets at the three-lollipop level, you’ll believe him. But then of course you could point out to him that during the same period you’re also feeling “flirty” and “in love” every one of those days (wink wink), and explain that he’ll just have to take the bad with the good, that’s life, can’t live with us, can’t live without us.
It’s a cute app. A little middle school sex ed booklet looking, but hey. I like pink and green and flower power. On the page it opens to, it tells you right away how many days till your next period, or what day of your period you’re on.
The calendar view gives you important info at a glance. The flower is fertility, the green dots, ovulation. If you have some reason to, you can add an “intimate” symbol (heart) to a given day (through the Notes tab).
Tap the plus sign at the upper right of the screen, or the white space under the calendar to add details. There’s a long list of symptoms. I’m one of those women who get really sore breasts before my period. (I’ve heard drinking tea makes that worse, but I’m not giving it up, and anyway, the boobs get bigger too, so, the good with the bad, like I said.) The symbol for breast pain (a fork!) cracked me up (and made me wince). You can also add your own symptoms (like “Need a drink”) and choose images for them, though there’s no martini glass…
There are three pages of moods to choose from (swipe right to scroll through them). (My husband glanced at it and said, “There are too many moods,” to which I responded, “Are you kidding!?”). And you can add more…
There’s a Notes tab for free-form comments. I wrote “chocolate” on so many PMS days that I’m just going to make it a symptom. Or would it be a mood…?
You can customize things like your cycle length and period duration, or your weight and temperature, and show or hide other features, depending on your needs. You can password protect the app so somebody can’t just open it and see your history. The icon on your phone is discreetly labeled “P Tracker.”
All of these features and more are available with the free (“Lite”) version. There’s a deluxe version with many more features. Click the links below to compare.
Devices: iOS, Android
Cost: Lite: Free, Deluxe: $1.99
Period Tracker Lite on the App Store
Period Tracker Deluxe on the App Store
Period Tracker Lite on Google Play
Period Tracker Deluxe on Google Play
