Women often rely on their Smartphone apps to monitor their fertility, but a new study involving more than 90 fertility apps shows that it is not very effective and accurate in preventing and planning pregnancies.

The study, to be published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, has recommended against fully relying on fertility apps to avoid or achieve pregnancy.

According to the report from , most of the fertility apps available for download tack the menstrual cycle of women to pinpoint the exact day of ovulation, when women are most likely to get pregnant. Other apps monitor the basal body temperature (BBT). BBT normally increases two to three days prior to ovulation. On the other hand, some downloadable fertility apps track the cervical mucus of women. Women that are at the peak of their fertility period often have cervical mucus.

According to the report from Medical News Today, most of the fertility apps available for download tack the menstrual cycle of women to pinpoint the exact day of ovulation, when women are most likely to get pregnant. Other apps monitor the basal body temperature (BBT). BBT normally increases two to three days prior to ovulation. On the other hand, some downloadable fertility apps track the cervical mucus of women. Women that are at the peak of their fertility period often have cervical mucus.

For the study, researchers analyzed 95 fertility apps available for download through iTunes, Google and Google Play Store. Among those, 55 apps are either had a disclaimer stating that it should not be used to avoid pregnancy or failed to use an evidence based fertility awareness-based methods (FABM).

The researchers were then left with 40 apps to review. Using a rating system employed by the Family Practice Management, the researchers rated each app on a five-point scale for 10 criteria considered to be important for avoiding pregnancy.

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