Health

How accurate are period and cycle predictions?

A prediction is arithmetic on your own history — the app averages your recent cycle lengths and projects forward. That is all it can do without physiological measurement. So accuracy depends entirely on regularity: consistent cycles predict well, variable ones do not, and no app can change that. Cycle length shifts naturally with stress, illness, travel, sleep and exercise. General information, not medical advice.

This is not a contraceptive method

Calendar-based prediction is not contraception, and treating it as one is a well-documented route to an unintended pregnancy. Fertility awareness methods that do work require daily physiological measurement and proper instruction — they are not what a calendar app does.

For contraception, talk to a healthcare professional about methods that have actual effectiveness data behind them.

Where the data goes, which is worth asking

Cycle data is among the most sensitive information on a phone. Data held on your device is exposed only if the device is. Data synced to a company's servers is subject to that company's policy, its security, and whatever legal requests it receives.

Read what an app says it collects, and check whether it uses third-party analytics or advertising SDKs — those are separate recipients from the app maker itself. On-device storage removes the question entirely.

What is worth recording beyond dates

Symptoms and their timing. Patterns across several months are hard to notice and easy to record, and that history turns "it has been a few months" into a specific account in a medical appointment.

Changes worth raising with a clinician include cycles becoming markedly irregular, unusually heavy bleeding, or severe pain. An app can show you the pattern; interpreting it is a medical question.

Regl+ : Period & Cycle

Our iOS app for exactly this. Runs on your device — no account, no tracking.

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