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This New Feature From Fitbit Will Make Tracking Your Period So Easy & I Need It Now

by Collette Reitz

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a priority for many people. Looking for ways to stay active can be tough at times, but thankfully, there are products out there that help keep you on track. Now, your favorite step-counting gadget is about to become even more useful. Fitbit's new "female health tracking" will help you keep track of your periods and menstrual cycle as whole — and make that tricky "period math" a thing of the past.

According to The Verge, Fitbit announced the female health tracking feature back in March when the company released the Fitbit Versa. In the announcement of the new female health tracking feature, Fitbit shared that a February 2018 study conducted by the company revealed that 70 percent of women are unable to correctly identify the average length of a cycle. With this new bit of information, Fitbit announced the new feature that helps you track your period in-app by logging data about your menstrual cycle.

Beginning in May 2018, U.S. Fitbit users 13 years and older who identify as female in their Fitbit profile will get a notification that female health tracking is available for them. When you log in your personal menstrual cycle information with this new feature, you can receive push notifications ahead of your predicted period start date as well as your estimated fertility window.

The new female-health-tracking feature basically brings all of your reproductive health information together in one place, so you don't have to worry about scrambling to find a pen to mark down your period on your wall calendar before you forget.

Even more beneficial than being totally on the ball when it comes to knowing when your period will start (goodbye blood-stained panties!) is that you might also better understand how your body is affected by your menstrual cycle. The information you mark down in the female health tracker also includes premenstrual symptoms like cramping, headaches, breast tenderness, and acne, so you can look at your personal health data over time and notice any trends that might help you better understand what's normal for your body and what might need medical attention.

Additionally, when your period starts, you can log information pertaining to specifics like flow intensity. According to Fitbit, consistently logging the details of your menstrual cycle allows the "female-health-tracking algorithm" to get "smarter" in terms of providing accurate information. Making it a habit to accurately track your period and symptoms in the app could pay off in the long run, because Fitbit also shared that as the female-health-tracker database grows, the company will be able to share even more insights about the data to its users.

For example, the future of the female health tracker might include information about how your cycle affects things like your activity levels, sleep, nutrition, and weight, and conversely, how those factors might affect your menstrual cycle.

Other helpful tools that come with the female health tracker include new Fitbit Community Groups focused on topics such as periods, birth control, and pregnancy. To keep users even more informed, you can access doctor-created content about the menstrual cycle while using the new feature. Your female health tracking data will also be available right there on your Fitbit Today dashboard if you use the Fitbit Versa or Ionic.

Speaking of the Versa, Fitbit launched this affordable smartwatch in March, and it is priced at just under $200. You can take advantage of all the on-device perks of the female health tracker when using the Versa or the Ionic. Other Fitbit users can access the information in the Fitbit app. No matter which device you use to log your data with Fitbit's female health tracking, you're sure to benefit from all the feature has to offer.