One of the most useful functions at the health level and that people know the least about the Apple Watch is its ability to control the menstrual cycle of women. The Apple watch has its own section dedicated to monitoring this important aspect of the female body and it is high time that, if you are interested, you bring it up to date and encourage you to use it to benefit from its advantages.
Tracking the menstrual cycle on the Apple watch
Not everyone knows that through Apple Watch it is possible to have a quite reliable and practical control of the menstrual cycle . This process, so vital in the female body and often so neglected by medicine, technology and even politics -although that is debate for another topic that concerns us now-, represents an important physical change for women that not only has to do with the usual period or spotting days.
Changes occur throughout the month, recorded as phases (up to six exist: follicular, luteal, etc.), which make up the so-called menstrual cycle. Keeping track of it is usually quite useful to anticipate certain moments (the arrival of menstruation or planning to become pregnant), not to mention that it can be very useful to record abnormalities that then show to a doctor in consultation. Still, you should always be clear: the recorded data should never be used to diagnose a health problem or as a method of contraception.
To make all this much more comfortable, Apple has the so-called Cycle Control app , available on watchOS 6 (until the first Apple Watch supports this version) and which is part of the popular Health app on iOS.
We are going to focus today on how it works on the smart watch and how you can therefore use it to keep an exhaustive control of your period.
How to keep track of the cycle on the watch
To manage the menstrual cycle, the app on the phone must first be configured to indicate how your last menstruation was (which will help to carry out the first calculations ). As you record your values month by month, the app will become “smarter”, being more accurate in its predictions about when you will have your period or what are your fertile days.
Set up Cycle Control on Apple Watch
As we have already indicated (and is usually common), the first step will have to be taken in the mobile application of your iPhone. For this, these are the steps to follow:
- Open the Health app on your phone and tap on the “Explore” tab.
- Go into Cycle Tracking.
- Tap Start, and then follow the on-screen steps to set up your profile and record your last menstruation data.
Once these parameters are established, you can register your data as the weeks go by, both in that Health section and on your watch.
Register your data on Apple Watch
Now you can go to your watch to check your records or make new ones.
- Go to the application menu (by clicking on the crown) and look for the Cycle Control app (it has the symbol of a circle with red dots that fade to form purple lines -or the other way around, depending on which way you look at it-).
- A string of ovals will appear, the one indicated corresponding to today.
- Both by sliding down with your finger and using the Crown you can scroll down and register:
- Period: it is used to indicate the beginning of menstruation (with flow) or the end of it (without flow) and the level of bleeding.
- Symptoms: lets you select from a good list of symptoms that are usually associated with the cycle such as headache, colic, low back pain, mood changes, tiredness, etc. You can choose as many as you want.
- Sexual activity : to record sexual practice (especially useful in planning a pregnancy) with or without protection.
- Spotting: In case you have breakthrough bleeding (outside the menstruation period), you can register it here.
- If you continue swiping, you will see two more data of interest: when the app calculates that the period will come and when the date of the last one was.
Obviously you can move through the different days (ovals) to record what you want, in case you forget one day to include important data or suddenly you remember how much your head hurt yesterday. When there is information in an oval (either because you have entered it or because the app generates it), these are the colors that you can see and what they mean:
- Light blue oval: indicates the expected fertile days (there are six) -these are not shown until you register your last period.
- Oval with red stripes in a circle: indicate when the period is expected to arrive
- Solid Red Circle Oval – Recorded Period Days
- Oval with purple dots: they indicate the days in which you have registered information
In the end, as you see, the application acts as a digital diary for control , with the advantage that everything is perfectly integrated and filed in Health and you can receive notifications to know when the period is due to arrive or when you are in your fertile days. Use it and you will see how useful it can be for you to better manage your cycle and get to know yourself better.
