My experience with fertility apps
How I navigated an unplanned pregnancy at 42
Hi everyone,
It’s quite an intimate one today but the topic is in the news and the ex-editor in me can’t resist a peg, so let’s get into it. I will be putting up the paywall later because how I navigated this situation is very personal. But to avoid any confusion for my free subscribers in the future (and to not leave a giant cliffhanger), I want to let readers know that I am no longer pregnant and I am very happy about it. Everything, as they say, is as it should be…
A new study released this week found that women in England and Wales were turning their backs on forms of hormonal contraception, such as the pill, in favour of fertility-tracking apps, raising the risk of a rise in unplanned pregnancies. Use of hormonal methods fell from 19% in 2018 to 11% in 2023 among tens of thousands of women surveyed, while use of natural methods increased from 0.4% to 2.5%. This trend has corresponded to a rise in abortion rates in the same time period.
I have used an app to track my period for a few years, ever since I downloaded one when I was trying to get pregnant. These apps provide an estimate of a woman's fertile window, and users can either, well, go for it on these dates if they want a baby or avoid sex to prevent pregnancy.
The apps, it should go without saying, are not foolproof. According to The Guardian, “The typical failure rate for these methods ranges from two to 23 in every 100 women in the first year of use, compared with seven in 100 women for the pill or implants and fewer than one in 100 for the coil.”
But this new study hardly surprised me. Why? Because in December, at the age of 42, I found myself accidentally pregnant.
I mention my age because it made the discovery all the more shocking. When my period was late, I dismissed it as probable perimenopause, when your cycle can begin to get a little irregular in the years before full-blown menopause. When I eventually decided to take a test, I told my husband that there was no way I was pregnant. I watched in disbelief as a strong blue plus sign was revealed on the stick, my very own unexpected crossroad.