Let’s Talk Birth Control
What form of birth control method do you use? Like many of my peers, I was on the Pill for YEARS. Like almost a decade.
I quit the drug in my early twenties when I was transitioning to a greener, cleaner life, and never looked back after discovering an app called Clue that helps me track my menstrual cycles and fertile days. (Scroll to the bottom for a review + screenshots).
I was introduced to this by my friend (and future-cousin-in-law, Samantha!) at the time. Over the years, I've seen other apps pop up in the market, but I've always come back to Clue for its user-friendly platform.
Disclaimer: it's not an FDA-approved form of birth control but I’ve had years of success with it by giving myself "cushion days” around my fertile week. My surprise pregnancy is a story for another post. ☺
Using Clue to learn my cycle is a natural technique and alternative to using any form of drugs or device - it's a method from the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM). I chose this over the Pill because most condoms, diaphragms, and IUDs contain questionable ingredients, and can come with side effects.
Clue helped me learn so much about my body, period, stress levels, and cervical fluids as I documented my observations in the app over time.
As of the time of this post, my period hasn't returned to its normal flow and state. But once it does, I plan on testing a few apps that I recently discovered on the market. One of them, Natural Cycles, is FDA-approved and uses all of the fertility awareness methods, including temperature checks! If you want to dig deeper into other apps on the market, here is great resource from Very Well Family.
Clue App Review
There are five sections in the app:
The Cycle is a heads up to let you know if your period is arriving/ending, as well as if you are potentially fertile today/tomorrow. Ignore the “Day 505” - this was because I paused my app while I was pregnant!
The Calendar gives a visual history of past periods, fertile days, and any other days where you chose to track something such as fluids, moods, cramps, tender breasts, etc.
The Track button allows you to select your bleeding level, type of pain, mood, whether you had unprotected/protected sex, and more.
The Analysis is a summary of your cycle and cycle history (comes in handy when the doctor asks for the first day of your last period). There’s also an option to pause a cycle if you get pregnant.
The Content is now exclusive only to Clue Plus members. There wasn't a Clue Plus during the years I regularly used the app, so I can't speak to the content section, but I am sure it contains useful information and articles! Clue also has a podcast on SoundCloud, called Hormonal.
