Fertility Friend (Mobile iOS App) Review

When we first started the process of having a baby we were advised to record things such as temperature, cervical fluid and OPK tests as well as other things like mood, appetite and other similar things so that we know a good day to then inseminate.

With this, it was all well and good writing it down in a notepad or on the chart we were provided with that came with the Basal Body Temperature (BBT) thermometer, but we weren’t seeing what all the data, once together, really meant. So we needed to find something that stored and then analysed the data.

As we both live by our iPhones whether it is communicating via Facebook or Twitter, or doing our food shop or using latest photography app we thought it would be best to find an app suitable to record our fertility journey. I knew something would be out there as I already used a similar app (P Tracker) to record my periods as I have odd cycles (as mentioned previously), and it’s nice to know in advance (especially when booking holidays!) when the decorators are likely to be in.

In no time, we found an app called Fertility Friend (or FF Mobile as it’s called on the app). Please note that (at the moment) it is only available for iOS devices: iPhone, iPad, etc.

Looking at it, it looks very basic and very much like a ‘Free App’ that hasn’t had much effort put into the appearance. However, once we started using it and entering data we found that what the app lacked in looks it made up for in quality as well as how easy it was to use.

The app has two main features. The calendar and the chart.

The calendar

Exactly what it says on the tin, the calendar marks and predicts up-and-coming ovulation dates, fertile dates as well as your period – all in nice clear colours.

Clicking on each date brings up the ‘Profile’ for that day, which you are to fill in. Details such as temperature and cervical fluid, to how you are feeling and what medication you have taken that day. It looks very scientific.

The chart

A little less technical than the calendar, the chart simply marks your temperature in a graph style as well as shows dates in which you are fertile/on your period underneath it. What I like about the chart feature, though, is the fact that once it has enough data collected it will then show you via a red cross-hair the EXACT date on which you have ovulated. It does this based on the temperature and OPK information recorded (BBT – three consecutive increases shows that ovulation has taken place and the progesterone is in your blood stream as this raises your temperature. This will drop dramatically once you start your period again as progesterone is needed to allow the fertilised egg implant in the uterus. If fertilization doesn’t occur, your body starts the cycle again . Later on once it has identified ovulation, and providing you have had sex or inseminated in the fertile days leading up to ovulation, it will tell you when to take a pregnancy test this is usually two weeks after ovulation.

What we also like about the app is that it links in and uploads to the main Fertility Friend website (which we didn’t know existed until our phones crashed and we lost all our data on the app), a tool I find most reassuring as within three months we had a lot of data stored, which is something I didn’t particularly want to lose. Furthermore, if you then want to download the app onto another device, you simply download the app, log in and it will sync the new device to the current device – very helpful.

The only main issue we have had with the app is that if you update the app by the way of different devices (I, for one, want to update my cervical fluid myself) it has a habit of not saving or overwriting the previous data with blanks. So, if S was to update my temperature on her phone first and then I were to update my phone with my fluid a few hours later, the app has a habit of overwriting the current data with the new data (i.e if I left the temperature blank, it would save blank). It seems to be able to have one main ‘profile’ but it can’t seem to handle the use of it oh several devices. Very annoying. So our advice would be to only use it on one device, and access via this and the website.

So that we don’t finish on a negative, we want to simply say that the app is very good and we would recommend it to anyone trying for a baby. It doesn’t look very pretty, and it can’t generally be used on several devices, but it really is spot on – even more so than my period tracker (it predicted a later period date than my tracker as it took my temperature into account – very clever). It asks you to track things that you never thought to track, which later contributes to the correct date of ovulation.

K & S

Disclosure: We downloaded and purchased the upgraded version of this app with our own money. The free app has all the above qualities, the only difference between the two being that the purchased version has more prediction details and assistance.