Menstrual health tracking assistant

For all women who have been troubled by menstrual problems, reliable menstrual health tracking is the most cost-effective way of daily health management. It does not require extra money or time. The information recorded in half a minute every day can not only help you avoid the social death scene of "staining white pants during menstrual raids", but also provide the doctor with the most accurate basis for judgment when you really want to see a gynecologist. It is better than racking your brains to recall "I seemed to have come in the middle of last month?" ”10 times more useful.

A while ago, I accompanied my cousin to the gynecology department. She had not taken it seriously because of irregular menstruation for more than half a year. Every time, she either forgot the last time she came or remembered the approximate time. The doctor asked her for a long time and couldn't find any useful information. He could only prescribe a bunch of tests for her to do first. It cost a small amount of 3,000 yuan. In the end, there was no problem. It was endocrine disorders caused by staying up late. Before leaving, the doctor specifically told her to go back and use a simple tracking tool, even a memo, and bring records with her next time to save time and money.

In fact, many people on the Internet now accuse menstrual tracking APPs of being an IQ tax. The "tracking" itself really shouldn't be blamed for this. The blame lies with many tools that add messy functions. I've been in trouble before. I downloaded a popular menstrual period app two years ago. I kept track of it for two months. As soon as I opened it, it told me "You're 3 days late this month. It's most likely premature ovarian failure. Buy our uterine cold conditioning cream." I was so scared that I registered overnight to do six hormones. In the end, there was no problem. I just stayed up late for a week to catch up on projects during that time.

There are currently two schools of thought in academic circles and user circles on the use of menstrual tracking, and there is no one who is right or wrong: one school is the "minimalist school" dominated by clinicians, who believe that you don't need to use fancy apps at all, just remember the most core data: menstrual period Start and end dates, menstrual flow (light/medium/heavy, or just judge by the frequency of changing sanitary napkins), whether there are dysmenorrhea, non-menstrual bleeding or abnormal discharge, and other fortune calculations, pregnancy preparation recipes, and health tips. Turn off all other information. Don’t let redundant information interfere with you.； The other group is the "practical group" who pays more attention to experience. They think it is good to have some reminder functions. For example, it can remind you to wear sanitary napkins three days in advance, search for nearby pharmacies to buy ibuprofen with one click when you have dysmenorrhea, and even remind you to take short-acting contraceptive pills. As long as you don't believe those random health-care advertisements, there is actually no problem with either method. Just choose the one that suits you.

I currently use the health APP that comes with my mobile phone. It has very few functions, but it is better than clean. I have memorized it for almost 4 years, and the rules I have figured out are more accurate than anyone else: For example, as long as I drink iced coffee a week before coming and stay up for 2 days in a row, I will 100% get the problem. Now I have level 2 dysmenorrhea (the level where I need to take ibuprofen to work normally). Now I quit taking ice a week in advance and try to go to bed before 12 o'clock. In the past six months, the dysmenorrhea has basically not exceeded level 1. I just have some soreness in my waist and abdomen, and I even skipped ibuprofen. Last year, I found that two consecutive cycles were less than 22 days each. I went to the doctor with my records. The doctor took a look at it and said that I should adjust my work and rest schedule first, without any examination. Sure enough, it became normal after half a month, which saved me a lot of trouble.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that everyone has to go out of their way to remember it. If your cycle is always as accurate as an alarm clock and you never experience pain, then it doesn’t matter whether you remember it or not. But if you fall into these categories, I really recommend you pick up this habit: if you are preparing for pregnancy, keep track of your cycles for three months, and the calculated ovulation period will be much more accurate than buying ovulation test strips blindly. ； If you have irregular menstruation for a long time, it will be more useful to take a record of 3 months to the doctor than to say 10 sentences, "I seem to have menstruation only once in a long time." ； If you have long-term dysmenorrhea, remember clearly your diet, daily routine, and exercise before each dysmenorrhea. Otherwise, you will be able to identify your own "dysmenorrhea trigger switch" within two months. Avoiding pitfalls is better than anything else.

Oh, by the way, there is one thing I must mention. Don’t use the ovulation period calculated by the tracking tool as a basis for contraception! I have seen too many girls fall into this trap. The algorithm is based on the average value calculated from your previous cycles. However, your ovulation time may be moved forward or delayed due to colds, mood swings, or even a new job. It is okay to use it as a reference for pregnancy preparation, but it is definitely not good to use it for contraception. Don’t be confused about this.

To put it bluntly, this thing is just a small ledger of your body. Whether it is useful or not depends on how you use it. Don’t take the APP’s algorithm as a decree, and don’t take your own body signals completely seriously. After all, our bodies never lie. Those little anomalies that you are too lazy to remember may cause you trouble one day if you accumulate too much. Spending 30 seconds to record two transactions every day is not a loss no matter what.