App Review: MyFertilityMD

MyFertilityMD is the app I have been waiting for since I began charting ten years ago.

I use the Creighton Model method for Natural Family Planning and it’s been a tremendous help to me and to my husband to know what’s happening with my body and my cycle. I have been sold on the benefits of actually knowing how your body works, rather than just beating it into submission with pharmaceutical and mechanical pregnancy prevention methods. In the immortal words of Auntie Mame, “Knowledge is power!”

I always thought that the charting should be able to be done on a computer, though. The stickers became toys, at one point, for a little girl I know that wanted to have a baby in her drawing. So the paper chart was not reliable or secure for me at all.

Enter the app.

This app is a big one at 50+ MB, but worth every byte of space it takes up. You can use this app with virtually any NFP method out there: Creighton, Billings, or Marquette.

But it is more than that. MyFertilityMD appears to be a new method that takes all of these others into account and synthesizes them into one system. The other twist is that they don’t call it “Natural Family Planning”, but “Organic Family Planning”. From a marketing perspective, I think this is brilliant.

The MyFertilityMD method is very user-friendly and takes no time at all to pick up. The app was designed for couples without access to NFP classes or help, but works well to help chart even if you have an NFP practitioner.

There are pictures, videos, and written instructions for every step of the charting. If you are ever confused, all you have to do is click the video link and Marya Jauregui will tell you exactly what to do. If the video doesn’t answer the question, you have access to a fertility doctor, day or night, via email.

I emailed about something odd that happened in the middle of my cycle and received an email within 12 hours. Dr. Nick Jauregui answered my question in detail and referred me to my OB/GYN for follow up. You can even email your chart to your healthcare provider so they can see what is going on with your cycle in real time. They are serious about helping you keep on top of your health and will work with you every step of the way.

The graphical interface of the actual chart takes the guesswork out of everything. All of the observations are handled through a very simple push button process, ensuring that you won’t skip a step. You can even note ovulation tests, fern tests, temperature observations, and cervical observations, if you are using those. Once you enter your observations the app will tell you whether you are fertile or not. There is even a nightly reminder that you can set to remind you to chart.

There is no note section, so you can’t keep freeform information in your chart, currently. For some people, this is a big problem. Dr. Jauregui assures me that the next version will have that ability. They are also working on a version that can be used from the desktop so that people who don’t have smartphones or iPhones can use this method, too.

I am hoping that they develop a program in Spanish. It would be a tremendous service for the underserved Latino population. I am excited to see where they take this next.

I have to say: I love it. Charting is much easier now and something I am much more likely to keep up with.

Read more of our Tech Talk columns, including other reviews of MyFertilityMD: