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Fertility Awareness Technology

Goals, life events, and transitions: examining fertility apps for holistic health tracking

Costa Figueiredo M, Huynh T, Takei A, Epstein DA, Chen Y

JAMIA Open, 4(1), ooab013, 2021
DOI 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab013 PMID 33718804 PMC PMC7940095

RRM Academy Synopsis

Fertility apps focus on conception and give limited life-stage support

A study of 31 popular fertility apps found that the apps mainly support trying to conceive, and reviews describe limited help as life stages change. Researchers analyzed app store pages, app features and 3433 user reviews. Reviewers often wanted personalized tracking that lasts across goals and life events.

Study at a glance, content analysis: Fertility apps mainly support trying to conceive
Study at a glance, content analysis of 31 free, English-language fertility apps: Fertility apps mainly support trying to conceive. Source: Costa Figueiredo M et al., 2021, PMID 33718804.

Key Findings

  • Of the 31 apps, 18 have an onboarding process. Only 14 of those ask about goals, and all 14 offer trying to conceive as a goal.
  • All 31 app store pages mention period tracking, yet only 8 apps offer it as a goal. Just two apps cover all four goals in onboarding.
  • Apps offered 62 unique types of indicators to track. Each app offered between 2 and 34, with a mean of 13.93 and a median of 14.
  • All app visualizations analyzed were pre-defined and not customizable. Only five apps had visualizations that relate symptoms and mood to cycle days, ovulation and fertile days.
  • Only 5 of the 31 apps give some support after a miscarriage, and only 10 ask the user's age during onboarding.

Interpretation

This content analysis examined 31 free, English-language fertility apps. Researchers reviewed each app's store page, tested the apps directly, and coded 3433 user reviews that mentioned fertility-related terms. The authors note that reviews reflect the experiences of people who chose to share them. The findings support further research into apps that track users across changing life goals and life stages.

RRM Context

Cycle charting is a core principle of restorative reproductive medicine. A chart gives a clinician a record of a woman's own cycle. Temperature and cervical mucus were among the 17 indicators offered by 10 or more of these apps. The authors call for views that compare one cycle with another.

Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.

Abstract

Objective

Fertility is becoming increasingly supported by consumer health technologies, especially mobile apps that support self-tracking activities. However, it is not clear whether the apps support the variety of goals and life events of those who menstruate, especially during transitions between them.

Methods

Thirty-one of the most popular fertility apps were evaluated, analyzing data from three sources: the content of app store pages, app features, and user reviews.

Findings

Results suggest that fertility apps are designed to support specific life goals of people who menstruate, offering several data collection features and limited feedback options. However, users often desire holistic tracking that encompasses a variety of goals, life events, and the transitions among them.

Discussion

These findings suggest fertility patients can benefit more from holistic self-tracking and provide insights for future design of consumer health technologies that better support holistic fertility tracking.

Conclusion

Fertility apps have the potential to support varied experiences of people who menstruate. But to achieve that, apps need to expand their support by offering ways for more users to perform holistic, personalized, and personally meaningful tracking, so they can derive long-term benefit from the data they collect.

Topics

Related research

Fertility Awareness › Technology › Cycle Tracking Apps
Mayara Costa Figueiredo, Thu Huynh, Anna Takei, Daniel A Epstein, Yunan Chen
M Figueiredo, T Huynh, A Takei, Dan Epstein, Danny Epstein, D Epstein, Y Chen
PMID 33718804 33718804 DOI 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab013 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab013 Costa Figueiredo et al. 2021, Costa Figueiredo 2021

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This site is an educational resource and does not provide medical advice. Inclusion of a study does not imply endorsement of its findings. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment.

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