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More of a suggestion to Fitbit than a question - it'd be really nice to have a tile that helps track menstrual cycles since they're so tied to a woman's body, weight, food cravings, mood etc.
Hi, I love the Fitbit Tracker and all the different data it collects but the one thing that it is missing is a way to track my menstrual cycle. Considering that this healthy body function is found in approximately half of your users and does affect both body weight as well as energy levels, I am surprised you haven’t added the ability to track it. I would love to be able to compare weight gain/loss as well as my sleep pattern to where I am in my cycle so I can spot patterns and irregularities. True, I would have to enter this information manually (like I would my weight if I didn't have Aria) but that is no different than what I do now.
So, are there plans in your pipeline to add this feature in your Tracker?
Hi! I would love it if Fitbit could include a space on the dashboard/app for tracking periods. Having everything tracked (sleep, calories burned, etc) helps me see when my body needs a little more TLC, or when I need a little extra motivation to get moving. But, not being able to keep tabs of my cycle isn't helpful. These are intertwined for women, especially women who have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). I'm seeing a new device that does all the Fitbit does AND let's me track my menstrual cycle. I would love to stay with FB, however, I need that to be integrated like this new product. Thanks!!
Even if they just found a way to work with the period tracker app "Clue" that would work wonders. It tracks your cycles, ovulation,. and you can input information daily so that it can be more accurate. Examples include cravings, sexual activity, cramps, bleeding, etc. It is very good and detailed and if i could see something integrated into the fitbit app it would change a lot. Because your calorie intake/burn rate changes, your body fat and activity will change. It actually deals with a lot of issues that change your day to day routine and fitness. I am also very disappointed to see that its been TWO YEARS, and several updates, and fitbit trackers later...and still no sign of this being worked on. Like many of the users before me have stated, over half your clients are women and would love to see this being taken into account.
Agreed, over 50% of Fitbit Users are female, and your mentrual cycle is a part of your life. It effects many things including fitness, body weight, calorie intake/burning, eating habbits, sleep cycle. Honestly, pretty much everything the fitbits are able to track and monitor are effected by a woman's mentrual cycle. Even if fitbit made attempts to integrate other period tracking apps (Clue, for example) that would work wonders with getting an accurate account of your daily lifestyle on/off your cycle. This is very important and actually very upsetting that half the fitbit users are being alienated.
Going forward I wish fitbit app would have a period tracker built in. I was looking at the Bella beat leaf and their app does it. As much as I love my fitbit and it's app I want more personal features so I can use it as an all in one life/fitness/food tracker. Maybe when you sign up and select female you can have the options to add period/cycle/nursing/pregnant options and tracking
Why is this not an option? Women's cycles change everything from calories to heart rate. I got my fitbit charge hr in February and I am extremely surprised/disappointed that I haven't even been able to find a 3rd party app that I can sync with. Has anyone figured out a solution?
It's a lot more complicated than it looks. There are various ways it could do this.
1. You manually enter data about when you menstruate. Once it's got a few cycles stored, it can make a guess about when your next period will arrive and warn you in the app. It cannot know for sure, and it is useless with irregular cycles. It cannot tell you when you will ovulate, regardless of any claims made to the contrary, as you need other forms of data to know this. This is what Bellabeat is doing. I'm bothered that it is claiming to predict ovulation when it can't do that, and suspect it will stop making that claim before long. This is similar to the "calendar method" of avoiding pregnancy, which is renowned for being wildly unsuccessful. If anyone were to use this as a way of trying to avoid pregnancy, Fitbit would be sued from here to Doomsday. If it were a simple "You are on Day 23 of your cycle. Your period is likely to start in six days" (this is assuming the user has said they have a cycle length of 29 days, which is the average), that would be OK, and would be popular with a lot of people.
2. You enter more complex data manually: when you ovulate, your basal temperature, your cervical fluid, and the height/openness/softness of your cervix. This is called the Fertility Awareness Method, sometimes known as the sympto-thermal method, and I've been practising it for years. Some people use it for avoiding pregnancy, though I wouldn't want to rely on it for that, some people use it for helping them get pregnant, and a few, like myself, use it simply for knowing when their period is going to show up. I have irregular periods and hormonal problems such as menstrual migraine and severe PMS, so it's useful for that. This method is subject to a great deal of user error, whether that's taking your temperature at the wrong time or misinterpreting the consistency of your cervical fluid, and again, Fitbit might not want to take that on. There are plenty of apps that already do this, and I'm not sure if any have a good reputation for getting the ovulation right. A good compromise, I think, would be if Fitbit could partner with one of the better companies offering FAM software, so that you could sync between accounts and have the FAM software accessible from your Fitbit app. Personally I'd be happy to use this, as long as it was using reliable software with the option for a manual override.
3. You use a device which takes your temperature, logs it, interprets it, and tells you where you are in your cycle based on that. Temperature is the most important sign for fertility monitoring, and it's the only one I use, since I'm not doing FAM monitoring for anything important enough that the odd error matters. Supposedly these devices have the high level of accuracy needed to deliver reliable fertility monitoring based on temperature alone. LadyComp is a device that does this, with a built-in oral thermometer. (Warning: the LadyComp website appears to be strongly anti-abortion and anti-contraception, with a heavy religious overlay.) A new one which is still in production is Tempdrop, which is a device worn continuously on the skin of the armpit. I think it's possible that you could integrate a thermometer into a wristband devices, but it sounds like it may not be a good spot on the body for providing the high level of accuracy needed to show the subtle temperature rise that occurs at ovulation (and at the start of pregnancy). I've never even heard of a basic fever thermometer that uses the wrist. If it were possible, it would be incredibly useful, but it would mean branching out into a whole new area, one with significant political and even religious complications, and I suspect Fitbit does not want to do that. If it's possible, someone is going to do it sooner or later. And if it could be done in a way that avoided all the weird anti-birth control religious stuff, I think it'd be amazing.
I mean, one of the reasons why I do FAM charting is because when my temperature plummets during my period, the hormonal shift causing the temperature drop is also very likely to cause menstrual migraine. I've been getting menstrual migraines for 23 years, since I was 15. Waking up and seeing a big temperature drop during my period means that I know to be careful about when and what I eat and drink, and am on standby to take pain meds as soon as a migraine starts up. Imagine having an app that has already figured this out based on a temperature sensor and past data, and can give you a message warning you that you might get migraine today, perhaps with a reminder not to skip breakfast. Hopefully this is the future of activity trackers.
Would it be possible to add a feature for women to track their menstrual cycle? This may explain fluctuations in weight throughout the month and make them alert of craving moments as well. Thank you.
Fitbit, you don't need to wait until the US elects a female president to integrate with a period tracker. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. The data would be a marketing goldmine and perhaps improve fitness for women, teen girls, and the family and friends who love them. What's the holdup?
It seems like such a no brainier to add this important information to the fitbits capability. An essential part of women's health: I bet if a man had a period, it would have been in the beta! Please consider adding this helpful feature.
As interesting as your feature is, you have to take into consideration who is using the Dashboard. Essentially everyone. Adding this feature could use "precious space" on people's Dashboards.
Though I am not a woman, a menstrual cycle tracker would be... interesting. Maybe it would only show if the person's gender was set to Female.
There are PLENTY of apps that track menstrual cycles, and most of them are free :);):D
It's not a big deal to have features that some people might find offensive.
The idea that we should drink a certain amount of water is not scientific (google peer reviewed sports articles on hyponatremia to see the details) and it offends me to be told otherwise, so I hid that from my dashboard as soon as I installed the app. On the other hand the menstrual cycle is a fairly uncontroversial reality, and as a man I wouldn't be offended to see it on the dashboard. Obviously if it were only a default for women then more sensitive men would be saved the hassle of having to hide a tile.
The fact that there are plenty of free apps to track it shows how popular a feature it would be.
I think there should be a section where you can add notes about the day: if you started a new diet or workout plan, etc you can log details about it here. Also, write down anything else that may be relevant: such as if you were sick, what medication you took, etc. Like yesterday was the first day in over a month I did not reach many of my goals due to illness and it would be awesome to record that so when I look back at my data I can remember why.
I also think the option of a menstural cycle tracker for females would be a great option. Just somewhere to mark when it started and when it finished. Maybe as an option in the notes section.
Fitbit needs to take into account the changes roughly half their users go through each month Either make Fitbit compatible with period trackers already on the market or create their own way of tracking periods, but please fix this major oversight.
I use the Clue app. They said they've been trying to work with Fitbit for awhile. How can Fitbit integrate with weight loss apps when so many changes in weight are hormone related? How can this be escalated to executives at Fitbit?
I don't think Fitbit will do anything on it's own. But it could integrate with existing female health apps like Clue. It's my personal favorite and I do not work for them. I'm just a user.
If Fitbit can integrate with weight loss apps, which are mostly targeted at women, it can certainly integrate with women's reproductive health apps.
For Clue, submit a support request to Clue telling them you want it to integrate with Fitbit. CThe more Clue users who request integration, the more likely Fitbit will get something done.
Many women have a menstrual tracking app on their phones to record when their menstrual cycle began and ended, how heavy the flow was, and the symptoms that were present each day such as cramping. This is very important to women's health as eating and exercise habits can alter periods. Also, tracking menstruation can lead to an understanding of changes happening in our bodies. Tracking our periods also allows us a basic understanding as to when we may be ovulating. As menstrual cycle tracking is another great aspect to incorporate in a health tracking app, I suggest to expand the Fitbit app to allow for menstrual tracking. Thank you for your time and consideration.
we need over 1366 votes on this topic to get it in the top ten of feature requests. We only have 95 votes in the 878 days this thread has been open. You can bet if men had monthly cycles that seriously altered their fertility, body temperature, appetite, weight and mood, this feature would have been part of the app a long time ago. Lets speak up! Encourage your friends on fitbit to post a thumbs up to this thread, and add their voice too to the comments.
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