I’m from the generation that knows a world with and without the internet. Before Google and WebMD, there was the library and biology class. If you had told a younger me that I would one day use technology – specifically an app – to get pregnant, I would have laughed my arse off.
When I decided at the ripe old of age of 38 to try and conceive, I knew the basics of getting pregnant: have sex, sperm fertilizes egg, nine months later, boom – out pops a baby.
But I was not as knowledgeable about the fertility window. That’s the time in a woman’s menstrual cycle when she is most fertile and has the highest chance of conceiving, just before ovulation, when an egg is released from the ovary.
See, I had been on birth control pills since the age of 17. My period was like a perfectly timed clock. I soon realized once I decided to go off the pill, my cycle would change and so would my fertility window.
On a whim, I looked in the app store on my phone and found the EPT ovulation predictor app. (FYI – looks like the app is not available anymore.) It was pretty simple. I tracked the first day of my period each month. From that info, each month the app gave me a better picture of my cycle length and predicted when I would most likely be ovulating.
While on the pill, my cycle was 28 days. After three months of being off the pill and tracking in the app, my cycle eventually lengthened to 32 days. Another three months of tracking later, after ensuring sex during my predicted ovulation time, that same app was my first inkling that I might be pregnant. I hadn’t tracked my period when I was supposed to because I hadn’t gotten it. Turns out, my eggo was preggo.
That was five years ago. Today, there are numerous ovulation and fertility prediction apps available. You can also buy kits and devices that predict ovulation in the drugstore. However, an app was a very inexpensive way to get started in the baby-making process.
When you try to get pregnant – whether it’s with an app, a kit, a doctor or by rolling the dice – technology can provide valuable information that could help with your conception journey. I wish you good luck and good health!