Tracking periods using iCal?

July 31, 2007 8:06 PM

Suggestions for tracking menstrual cycles using iCal?

There are many good suggestions in this thread for on-line thing-a-ma-jigs, but I'd like something that works with iCal to help me predict my astoundingly irregular periods. Suggestions?

posted by The corpse in the library to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Do you not want to just do this manually, by adding events to your calendar by hand? If your calendar app supports VJournal then that works, but usually I just use events and ignore the time components. Depending on how much difficulty you have noticing your ovulation, you shouldn't need too many events... I usually only use four every month (predicted ovulation, actual ovulation, predicted period start, actual period start). You might also want to add an event each day for notes (basal body temperature, fertile mucus, etc.) but after a while you won't need those.
posted by anaelith at 9:15 PM on July 31, 2007

I don't know much about iCal, but I do use Google Calendars and just create a separate calendar called "Cycle." I'm guessing you can do something similar with iCal. I use it to track the day I get my period and how many days it was from the last time so I can see any trends. So if for instance I get my period today, I check the calendar and see that it was 26 days from my last period. I create an all day event for today called "P 26" then count approximately 26 days forward and create an event that day called "P?" to try and guesstimate my next period. When my period actually arrives, I'll edit my guesstimate date to the correct date, add the number of days after it and count out again. After a few months, it's easy to look back and see if there are any trends and I've gotten much better at estimating when my next one is coming.
posted by platinum at 9:19 PM on July 31, 2007

I think the poster is looking for something that does this FOR her - or else she wouldn't need an app for iCal, right? This is why I love mycycle.com - it works really well and it sends em emails 3 days before the predicted start of the cycle, which is awesome, but not on my desktop calendar, no.
posted by tristeza at 9:53 PM on July 31, 2007

This has always confused me--what does it do for you? Most calendars can send e-mail... And you still have to add data by hand for an irregular cycle, right?
posted by anaelith at 10:34 PM on July 31, 2007

Response by poster: Exactly, tristeza. I used to have an application for my Palm that averaged out how many days each cycle had been, and predicted when the next one would start (end? whatever). I don't use the Palm anymore, so I want something that works with what I do use.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:14 AM on August 1, 2007

anaelith - you plug in, say 6 months worth of data about your periods - past six months start dates and how long each period was. then mycycle will compute out the predicted schedule of your periods for the next X amount of time, along with predicted ovulation dates.

each time you get your period, you either do nothing because mycycle was right on the money about the date, or just go in and enter the correct date, then it recomputes everything again for you. i find it is spookily good for predicting my periods, which range from 27-33 days. you can also go peek at when you're expected to ovultae whenever you want.
posted by tristeza at 7:59 AM on August 1, 2007