Women have gained a useful function with iOS 13 and watchOS 6. Now they can keep track of their cycle and fertility. That is how it works.
This is how you keep track of your menstrual cycle
Various apps have been around for a long time to help you record and predict your period and fertility. Apple has now taken matters into its own hands and built a cycle tracker into the Health app. With this you register everything around your period and fertility. The app then predicts when you will be most fertile and when your monthly period will start.
You can go into as much detail as you want. You can simply indicate when you menstruate, but also add symptoms, the degree of blood loss or even test results to create the most accurate and complete picture possible. You set whether you want to receive notifications when a period or period of increased fertility is approaching. The function therefore also helps people with a desire to have children.
The cycle tracker can be found in both iOS 13 and watchOS 6, and can therefore be used from your iPhone and Apple Watch. You must first configure the function on an iPhone. The tracker works as follows.
Track cycle on your iPhone
On your iPhone, open the Health app and tap ‘Cycle Tracking’. You can then record basic information such as your last period, how many days your period usually lasts and whether your full cycle lasts 28 or, for example, 30 days.
Swipe through the days to add data per day. Tap the bubble of a day to add that you have had blood loss. Wrong day? Tap again to delete it. You can add additional information via the options below the timeline. If you scroll further down, you will also see a clear calendar with colors and an overview of your current and previous cycles.
Red indicates the days on which you recorded your period. The purple dot below indicates the days on which you indicated that you are experiencing a symptom such as a headache or stomach ache. Events such as sexual activity, that you forgot to take the pill or a pregnancy or ovulation test result also have a purple dot.
The light red color provides a prediction of your period that the app makes based on your data. Light blue days show a prediction of your most fertile period. These are intended to help if you have a desire to have children, but not as a birth control plan. The red, light red and blue color are useful in the predictive calendars, so that you can see at a glance when you are about to ovulate or menstruate.
Cycle Tracking on your Apple Watch
The function works practically the same on the Apple Watch, only there is a separate Watch app. Via the Cycle Tracking app you can easily add information from your wrist and get an overview of your next period and fertile period.
Set up notifications
Extra handy is that you can also set notifications. Your period or ovulation will then no longer come as a surprise. You can set separate notifications for periods and fertility. You do this when setting up the app, but you can also do it afterwards. To do this, open the Cycle Track tab in Health and scroll all the way to the bottom. Here, tap on ‘Options’. Here you can set the sliders to green behind ‘Menstruation notification’ and / or ‘Fertility notification’.