There has been a lot of fuss around period-tracking apps over the last few years. The idea of being able to prevent getting pregnant without contraception sounded too good to be true.
You log your period data, and the apps supposedly then tell you when it’s safe to have sex at no risk of becoming pregnant (or when you should have sex if you’re trying to conceive).
But according to new research, these apps may not be as reliable as has previously been claimed.
A study from the University of Washington has concluded that menstrual cycle tracking apps often disappoint users with a lack of accuracy and assumptions about sexual identity or partners.
What’s more, women don’t appreciate the “emphasis on pink and flowery form over function and customisation”.
The researchers reached their conclusions in a survey of 687 people combined with data from 2 000 reviews of nine of the most popular period-tracking apps, including Clue, Eve, Glow, Period Tracker and Period Pad.
They found that none of the apps was faultless when it comes to accuracy and thus none is totally reliable.