5 Birth Control Apps You Can Use to Track Your Cycle

Birth control apps, also called cycle tracking apps, menstrual cycle tracking apps, family planning apps, and fertility apps, are made for women who want to keep track of their cycles and fertility.

Birth control apps are, as you might guess, apps that you can put on your smartphone or other smart device. But each app is different in what it does.

Read on to learn more about the different kinds of birth control apps and the best ones you can download.

A quick look at the best birth control apps

• Best overall: Natural Cycles
• Most user-friendly: Ovia Fertility & Cycle Tracking
• Best for period tracking: Clue
• Best for refilling birth control: Nurx
• Best for overall sexual health: Hers

Different types of birth control apps explained

There are a lot of wonderful birth control apps out there. So, if you want something, there’s probably an app that can give it to you.

Some apps for birth control store and look at information like:

• cycle length
• heart rate
• basal body temperature
• cervical fluid consistency
• cervical position
• PMS symptoms

So what? To help you figure out when you are most likely to get pregnant (or not!).

Some people use these birth control apps as a natural, non-hormonal way to avoid getting pregnant when they don’t want to, while others use them to make it more likely that they will get pregnant.

Other apps for birth control are much easier to use.

For example, one subclass of birth control apps is made to remind you to take your oral contraceptive, while another is made to help you request prescription refills.

What do birth control apps do?

help you understand your period cycle and keep track of your period symptoms
help you learn more about your fertile time
help you figure out how to plan a family and remind you to take your birth control
make it easier to fill prescriptions

How effective are birth control apps?

It depends on the app and what you want it to do.

So, if you’re asking this, you might be wondering if a birth control app can help lower your chance of getting pregnant.

Yes, there is, but there is a catch.

Using birth control apps as a natural way to stop pregnancy is called family awareness method (FAM).

In general, FAM is a way to keep track of your period so you can avoid sexual activity without a condom when you are ovulating, which is the time of the month when you are most likely to get pregnant.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that FAM is only about 76 percent effective at lowering the risk of an unintended pregnancy when used normally. As a comparison, external condoms work about 82% of the time, while the birth control pill works about 91% of the time.

Why don’t birth control apps and other ways to track your fertility work better at preventing unintended pregnancies? A mix of user error and differences in how often women have their periods.

As a general rule, this method will work best for people whose periods come at the same time every month. It probably won’t work for people whose periods come at different times every month.

If you don’t want to get pregnant, you should use both an app and another method of birth control, like an external or internal condom.

How do birth control apps work?

First, you’ll need to put the app on your device by downloading it.

Most apps are available for both Android and iPhone, so go to the app store where you usually shop.

Many apps cost money, but some are free. The apps that cost money will ask you for your credit card information and will charge you every month that you keep them on your device.

The next step is to use it! How that looks will depend on the app.

Some examples of classic birth control apps that can help you reduce the chance of having an unintended child are:

• taking and tracking your basal temperature Keeping a record of your period symptoms every morning
• checking your cervical fluid and keeping a record of it

Apps for birth control that make it easier to get your birth control prescription filled will need very different things. For instance, they could try to:

• enter your insurance information
• fill out a medical chart and tell people where you live

Best birth control app for every kind of user

Want to know which app for birth control is right for you? Here, we make it easy.

How we chose the best birth control apps

We looked at user feedback, cost, ease of use, purpose, and more to figure out which birth control apps were good and which ones weren’t.

Then, we put them into groups so you can download the one that works best for you.

Best overall: Natural Cycles

• Price: $89/year
• For: People who don’t want to get pregnant and people who are trying to do so

In 2018, Natural Cycles was the first birth control app in the U.S. to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration. This was done through a process called “De Novo” (FDA).

Clearance is different from approval in that medical devices usually get clearance if they:

• are thought to pose a low or moderate risk to consumers
• can show “substantial equivalence” to similar devices already on the market (in this case, other birth control apps)

The thermometer that comes with a yearly subscription to this app is used by users to track their basal body temperature every morning. (People who pay a monthly fee can buy the thermometer on its own.)

Users can also add information about their cycle and symptoms to Natural Cycles. The app then uses the information to figure out which days a person is most fertile and which days they are least fertile. So, it tells them what they need to know to avoid sex or go for it.

The biggest problem is that it takes a few months of tracking to get accurate readings. So, until then, you might want to look into other ways to prevent pregnancy.

The other problem, which is true of any app that uses basal body temperature, is that sickness and fever can change the results, which isn’t always great during a pandemic!

Most user-friendly: Ovia Fertility & Cycle Tracking

• Price: Free
• For: Anyone who wants to keep track of their period or see if they are pregnant

You don’t want your period to catch you off guard again, do you? Looking for help getting pregnant? Trying to avoid getting pregnant? Take a look at Ovia Fertility.

Many other birth control apps have the same features that Ovia Fertility does.

It lets you keep track of your basal body temperature, cervical fluid, cervical position, and medications. Also, it:

• gives you daily tips on your period and fertility
• helps you figure out when your next period will start and how long it will last.

But there are two things that set Ovia apart from other options.

First, it helps you figure out what’s going on with a mix of colour coordination and easy-to-understand graphics.

Second, it gives you access to more than 2,000 articles written by experts on birth control and fertility. It also has a Q&A section where you can ask questions anonymously.

Best for period tracking: Clue

• Price: Free
• For:Whoever wants to find out more about their body

Clue is a platform that lets you keep track of your period, your symptoms during your period, and your signs of fertility.

How? By letting you keep track of your skin, cramps, hair, energy, and sleep, you can find out more about yourself.

If you track your cycle often, you’ll be able to see patterns, like how many days before your period your back starts to hurt and when your skin starts to show signs that your period is coming.

Obviously, this app is not the best one out there for people who want to avoid getting pregnant.

Best for refilling birth control: Nurx

• Price: The app itself is free, but all new customers have to pay $15 for a one-time medical consultation. If you have insurance, the birth control itself will probably be free, but if you don’t have insurance, birth control brands start at $15 per month.
• For: Those who use Nurx to stop pregnancy

Do you know about Nurx? It is one of the most popular birth control delivery services. It gives people who can get pregnant access to birth control pills and other contraceptives like the ring, shot, and patch.

To get a prescription from Nurx, you have to go through the following steps:

• answering a few health-related questions
• meeting with a medical professional who will give you medical advice
• $15 to pay for the consultation
• agreeing to a course of treatment
• Getting insurance set up

After doing ALL of that, you can download the Nurx app and use it to set up appointments and refills. No more wasting time waiting in line at the drive-thru!

Best for overall sexual health: Hers

• Price: Plans start at $12 per month
• For: Anyone who likes the idea of health care in one place

Hers is another online birth control provider that makes it easier than ever to get a prescription and get your birth control.

Here’s how it works:

• Fill out an online intake form.
• Talk to a licenced health professional for free about your health.
• Work with them to figure out the best way for you to avoid having children.
• Hers will send you your birth control right to your door and send you a new package 6 days before you run out.

Alternatives to birth control apps

If you decide that an app for birth control isn’t the best way for you to avoid getting pregnant, don’t worry: There are many more ways to stop an unplanned pregnancy, such as:

• outercourse
• abstinence
• condoms
• diaphragms
• intrauterine devices (IUDs)
• oral birth control pills
• birth control arm implant
• birth control shot
• birth control patch
• vaginal rings
• cervical caps
• vasectomy
• tubal ligation

If you don’t want to use technology to keep track of your period, you can try a printable tracker from Etsy.

Frequently asked questions about birth control apps

Can you use birth control apps and other birth control methods?

Yes!
Given how often it fails, most doctors don’t recommend using FAM as your only method of birth control if you want to avoid getting pregnant.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that with normal use, the failure rate can be anywhere from 2 percent to 23.

Even though the apps above are great ways to learn more about your cycle and keep track of it, they are not always accurate.

Still, what you choose will depend on what you think is best for you, what you want from the app, and how much risk you and your partner(s) are willing to take.

Some people choose to use an alternative method of birth control, like an internal or external condom, only when they are having sex during their most fertile time, while others choose to use an alternative method of birth control the whole month.

Again, if you want to avoid getting pregnant, it’s usually best to use your favourite app with another method of BC.

Do birth control apps protect against STIs?

No. The only thing these apps do is try to tell you when you will be most and least likely to get pregnant.

You can then use that information to decide if it makes sense for you to have sex without also using another form of birth control.

But the only things that stop the spread of STIs or lower your risk of getting one are:

• abstinence or using a condom or other barrier method to protect yourself during sex.

When you’re with someone whose STI status you don’t know or who has a STI, using barriers like condoms, dental dams, and finger condoms can greatly reduce the risk of transmission, but they aren’t foolproof.

Where can I learn more about menstruation and fertility?

There are many things to use, such as:

• Calee Shea, A sexual health educator and the creator of Get Cliterate, a podcast that helps women
• learn about their periods
• “In the Flo” or “WomanCode” by Alisa Vitti
• Clue website

The bottom line

If you have your period, a birth control app on your phone can be a great tool.

Depending on how you use the app and which app you use, you can use it to learn more about your body, get to know your cycle better, or lower your chance of getting pregnant by accident.