After 15 years on the contraceptive pill Francesca* decided that she wanted to know how her body felt without additional hormones. She started using a fertility tracking app – which tracks menstrual cycles or symptoms of ovulation to help estimate a woman’s fertile window – after learning about them on social media.
“I had been taking hormones since my teens, and had no real conception of my menstrual cycle in my adult life,” said the Londoner, now in her early 30s. She had been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) at 18 and told to continue taking the pill to help with symptoms. “Remarkably, pretty much all of my hormonal imbalance symptoms started to subside after stopping taking the pill,” she said.
At first, she found using the app positive. She said she followed the instructions closely and took additional ovulation tests as an added precaution: “I felt more in control than ever before of my cycle and my body.”
But then, after eight months, she became pregnant and went through a “traumatic” termination. She started using the app again thinking the unwanted pregnancy had been a result of human error – but she became pregnant again five months later. “Whenever I now see [these apps] advertised online or on social media I feel compelled to warn people against their claims,” she said. “I’d advise extreme caution to anybody using them as a sole method of contraception.”
Francesca was among the people who contacted the Guardian to share their experience of using fertility apps, after a report suggested that women in England and Wales are increasingly ditching the pill in favour of fertility-tracking apps – raising the risk of a rise in unplanned pregnancies.
She was not the only person to describe having an unwanted pregnancy while using a fertility tracker, but other women got in touch who had successfully used the apps to avoid pregnancy or to conceive, with some describing them as “life-saving” and “freeing”.
A common refrain throughout the responses of people who shared their experiences was a sense that – despite the launch of a new women’s health strategy in July 2022 – women are often still poorly treated by the healthcare system. “The experience of many women in the UK is that GPs are often not properly trained in female reproductive health,” said Francesca. “[These apps] speak to these concerns and lack of care.”
Other readers described their experience as “wholly positive”. Sarah*, a 38-year-old reader from Yorkshire, had successfully used an app for 18 months as contraception and for a similar amount of time to help her and her partner conceive. Having struggled with deep depression during the pill-free weeks of her cycle, she has not suffered in the same way since.
“Coming off the pill has felt amazing,” she said. “I was put on it at 15 years old for problems with my cycle, and looking back I feel frustrated that a decision was made just to suppress my cycle, rather than trying to understand what was going on. Rolling with my own cycle now feels great – with a fertility app and my own knowledge I understand what my body is up to each month and I no longer feel like I’m working against my body.”
The last 15 months have been tough for her and her partner. They have experienced two early miscarriages and had to have a termination for medical reasons. But she feels like the app has helped. “The NHS recommends unprotected sex every two to three days and that feels like a lot of pressure when we’ve been trying for 18 months,” she said. “I also feel a bit more control during recovery from our losses as I can see how my data are recovering in the app.”
Olivia, a 30-year-old reader from Leeds, was told she had to lose weight when she was diagnosed with PCOS so she could start using the pill. But having heard friends talk about negative side-effects, she wanted to explore other methods of contraception. Her doctor was dismissive and appeared to be reading from prepared material about contraception when they spoke during a telephone consultation, she said. She decided to take a different route.
“I’ve tracked my periods now for more than a decade, it really helped when I got diagnosed with PCOS, because I had that history,” she said. “It has helped me track, predict, and follow my body’s signals – and now I’m pregnant with our first child.”
After three children and decades of using condoms and the copper coil to prevent pregnancies, Hannah*, a 50-year-old from Aberystwyth, said she found her fertility-tracking app “freeing”.
“I’ve never taken the pill or used any contraceptives involving hormones because it has always felt unnatural to me,” she said. “The app allows us to confidently have sex at certain times of the month and not worry about making a mistake.”
* Names have been changed
