Is there an app for making babies?

July 8, 2012 2:51 PM

I want to have as little sex as possible and maximize my chances of getting pregnant. What is the best iPhone app to help me?

I want to track menstruation dates in this app and I want it to tell me the best days to have sex in order to get pregnant. For now, I'm not interested in tracking basal body temperature or vaginal secretion colors/textures, but I wouldn't be opposed to doing it in the future if we can't get pregnant, so if it can also incorporate that data - great.

Main two things I want to get out of it (or be able to derive from a calendar or something):

1) It tells me when my period is coming (when I was on the pill I always knew when it was coming ... now I don't)

2) It tells me when to have sex to make a baby

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (17 answers total)

Fertility Friend's Menstrual Calendar.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:53 PM on July 8, 2012 [4 favorites]

Unfortunately there is no app that can reliably tell you when you are ovulating. They can predict when the average person might be ovulating; but that's not reliable in reality. Just because the average woman ovulates around Day 15, doesn't mean you will. Averages aren't useful for specific planning.

If you want to know exactly when to have sex in order to conceive, you need to know exactly when you've ovulated. Luckily, ovulation detector strips are cheap and easy to use. You pee on one and know whether it's a sex day or not. Order a hundred or so and use one every day. I got mine from http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com and I was very glad I did, since it turned out my ovulation was nowhere near Day 15; and some months I didn't at all.
posted by fingersandtoes at 3:00 PM on July 8, 2012 [7 favorites]

I would also suggest using ovulation test strips on the days the app thinks you are probably fertile, to see if you are actually ovulating.

typos ARG
posted by insectosaurus at 3:02 PM on July 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

I use iPeriod Ultimate to track my cycles and it's absolutely great.

I've never used in an attempt to determine when I'm ovulating, however. If I were you I'd use it in conjunction with ovulation test strips as others have recommended.
posted by postpostpostscript at 3:25 PM on July 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

Nthing ovulation strips. I can confirm they were extremely successful for us!
posted by smoke at 3:43 PM on July 8, 2012

Fertility Friend is probably what you want, since you can track as little or as much information as you like. They have an app, which you can also link to the website, which I find really convenient.

Learning about your cervical fluid/mucus patterns is super easy and worth doing. For several years I avoided pregnancy by learning the CF I had when I was fertile and not having procreative sex during that time, and then got pregnant the first month trying by, uh, doing the reverse. This is a good tutorial with pictures. Once you know what you're looking for it's almost impossible not to notice. You can track this on the Fertility Friend app too.
posted by apricot at 3:46 PM on July 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

I was successful with ovulation strips and Fertility Friend.
posted by DrGirlfriend at 3:46 PM on July 8, 2012

Yep, get the test strips and a few sleeves of those small dixie cups. I recommend the cups because the cheapie strips are really tiny and it's VERY easy to over saturate them.

If you can find a used ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor do it. They are awesomely accurate at predicting the O (in my experience anyway).
posted by PorcineWithMe at 4:19 PM on July 8, 2012

(You can also use a shot glass, that's what I did.)
posted by rabbitrabbit at 4:27 PM on July 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

I used OvuView on my Android phone, but it took a couple months to get my cycles calibrated. You have to track temperatures and cervical mucus, but by the time I input enough data for the app to do its thing, I could figure my cycle out via cervical mucus already. Also, I always knew when my period was coming based on temperature changes. I got pregnant on my first try (after 6 months of charting and using condoms), even though my cycles were really irregular.

I know you don't want to take temps or check mucous, but it really is the most accurate (and cheapest!). Read Taking Charge of Your Fertility.
posted by Maarika at 4:42 PM on July 8, 2012

Be warned, if you decide to combine your app with ovulation strips, that they just don't work for a small percentage of women, meaning you may get a negative result on the strip even when you are ovulating. Or so I was told by a fertility specialist.
posted by bq at 6:43 PM on July 8, 2012

I like the app in the first comment. It's worked twice for me!

By the way, you don't really have to "track" your cervical mucous. I hated taking my temperature and it never worked anyway, but checking your mucous is as easy as peeking at your tp after you wipe. You don't need to find a pattern, so you don't have to chart it or anything. Just keep an eye out for the couple of days a month when your body is telling you, yes, it has to be tonight, yes, even if you're really tired.
posted by that's how you get ants at 7:23 PM on July 8, 2012

Android or iOS? On my Droid, I use "My Days Period & Ovulation." You enter in the start and end days of your period and after 2 months it calculates for the future, and calculates when you're ovulating. It shows everything on a color-coded calendar. It was accurate when I was using it without BC. Just remember that your cycle may need to settle out and might be irregular for a few months -- this will throw off any calculations.
posted by DoubleLune at 8:14 PM on July 8, 2012

There are all kinds of ways to track all kinds of girl stuff here. I don't have one of those highfallutin' fancy phones so I have no idea if they have a mobile device app or not, but their website is easy to use. (I use the menstrual calendar and have been so relieved to finally figure out my cycles.)

Good luck!
posted by mcbeth at 6:34 AM on July 9, 2012

I think that not wanting to have a lot of sex and not wanting to track your fertility signs are mutually exclusive desires if you're trying to make a baby. Ovulation (and therefore your fertile window) could come earlier or later in the cycle for you, and unless you can really feel when you ovulate every month, you'll have no way of knowing when it is unless you track the signs. If you just have sex on day 14 or whatever, you're basically taking a shot in the dark.

Pretty much, the good options are to track your temp and CF or at least use ovulation test strips for a couple months so you can predict when your fertile window will be and time your sex accordingly, or to essentially carpet bomb the whole middle two weeks of your cycle by having tons of sex.
posted by zadermatermorts at 7:37 AM on July 9, 2012 [3 favorites]

I should add that having sex on day 14 is what an app like what you are asking for would tell you to do, in absence of any data other than dates of menstruation. It's just an average...could be right, but probably not.
posted by zadermatermorts at 7:41 AM on July 9, 2012

What zadermatermorts said. You either have to pay close attention to what your body is telling you, or you need to have sex frequently between periods. Just tracking your menstrual cycle will not tell you anything about when you ovulate. Personally I found checking cervical mucus and cervical position was so effective I didn't need to do more than that (it worked the first month, hooray!) though I did stick my fingers in my vagina more often that month than I ever have before or since, so you know... some people might be more comfortable with charting basal body temp.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:54 AM on July 9, 2012