Cycle app on the pill: is tracking still worth it when you use contraception?

Short answer: yes, a cycle app is worth it when you use the pill, a hormonal IUD or another hormonal method. Not to predict ovulation, because there usually is none. But to track your complaints, mood, bleeding and skin, and to know what happens if you ever stop.

What the pill does to what you track

On the combined pill, the bleeding in the break week is not a real period but a withdrawal bleed. There is no ovulation, so the classic "follicular" and "luteal" phases do not exist. An app that still draws a fertile window draws something that is not there.

What tracking does give you

• Patterns in complaints. Headache, tender breasts, mood, bloating: many women have these on the pill too, often on fixed days of the strip.
• Breakthrough bleeding. Spotting halfway through the strip is normal with some pills, but if it returns every month your doctor wants to know. A list of dates helps more than "now and then".
• The pill moment. A reminder at the same time is, for the minipill, the difference between reliable and not.
• Skin and libido. Does your skin change after switching pills? A journal with scores is useful for your GP.

And if you stop

The first months after stopping are often irregular: the first real ovulation can take weeks to months. Whoever tracked before stopping knows what "normal" was for her and sees sooner whether it returns.

How to set up PERIOD. on the pill

Set in your profile that you use hormonal contraception. The app stops drawing fertile days and uses your strip week as the rhythm. Logging complaints, bleeding and mood keeps working. All of that is free. If you want a doctor report with your bleeding and complaints per day for your appointment, that is in PERIOD. plus.

PERIOD. is not a medical device. For questions about your contraception, talk to your GP.