“Aunt Flo’s” Next Visit? There’s an App for That

Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

To start with, I’m not a big cell phone fan.  In fact, I have a reproduction of a turn of the century candlestick phone…you  know.. the kind where you hold the earpiece to your ear but speak into a mouthpiece mounted on a slender structure?

It works just fine for me.  I dislike talking on the phone that much.  I keep it short and simple.  On a cell phone it’s even shorter.  I’m not one to gab while driving or text while driving or walk around the mall or sit in a restaurant or walk around the grocery store yakking into my cell phone.  If it’s that important, email me.  At least I can use my hands to take down information without having to try to cradle my flat Palm Pixi.

Having said that, today’s smart phones do have their uses.  I keep my Palm Pixi with me because I have a GPS, tip calculator, regular calculator, To Do List, weather thingy, eBook reader, calendar,  and a Hangman game application on it.   And ladies, I also have a neat, handy dandy “other calendar” on it.  This calendar is called “Pink Pad” and it’s an application that tracks a woman’s monthly period.

If you’re a guy and the mere mention of a menstrual cycle gives you the willies, feel free to bag out of this review now.  What follows is simply a “woman thing” and four out of five you would not understand.

Pink Pad from Alt12 Apps is an application that allows you to track your menstrual cycles from their onset.  It allows you to notate the heaviness or lightness of your flow during your cycle, track cramping, mood, amorous feelings and journalize your overall well being during this time.  It features a daily, weekly and monthly view and predicts when your next cycle is most likely to show up, how many days until your next cycle is likely to appear,  what your most fertile days are and what day you are most likely to be ovulating.  For those who use this application and become pregnant, it tracks and journalizes your gestation.

This is a monthly view of the Pink Pad Application. The darkness of the pink dots on the calendar days will notate how heavy your cycle is based your on determination of light, medium or heavy flow. The flowers notate fertile days and flower with the dark center notates the day you are most likely to be ovulating. Any date with a circle notates those days when you have journalized more information.

Home Page View of the Pink Pad Cycle predictor. This will alternately show how many days left in an active cycle, date of estimated next cycle and next fertile days. Screenshots courtesy of House of Palm. com

Many women already know when their cycles will appear due to being on birth control pills.  With all of the bad press surrounding certain birth control medicines and for those women for whom the pill is not option due to religious reasons, medical reasons (the pill actually makes me sick) or wanting to become pregnant, Pink Pad is nice little handy helpful predictor.  It downloads for $4.99 at House of Palm.com.