Context
The symptothermal method as taught in Taking Charge of Your Fertility has rules for calculating important components of the method, such as your coverline, your peak day, the start date of your menstrual cycle, and your fertile days based on the four FAM rules (first 5 days rule, dry day rule, peak day rule, thermal shift rule).
When designing Cyclisity™, we had a choice to make - either we could put in the logic to allow the app to automatically detect the above components of the method, assuming the user entered in their data correctly, or we could choose not to put in this logic and let the user place these components on her chart herself. In the end, we decided to do both, and let the user decide whether to allow the app to auto-detect these aspects to the method, or place them herself. This way, users who wish to be reminded about what a typical user would do based on their current data can learn from the app, while those who wish to do it all on their own can easily do so. However, as noted below, we are still building the functionality to turn off auto-detection, so for now it's on by default.
Of course, you are required to interpret any output from the app yourself before making any decisions. Cyclisity is not an FDA approved medical device, none of the output from Cyclisity is medical advice, and any information provided by Cyclisity is for informational purposes only.
What is Cyclisity auto-detecting by default?
The following items are being auto-detected by default, based on the data you input:
Coverline
Peak day
First day of your cycle
Fertile phase
Please note that Cyclisity cannot read your mind, so any auto-detections performed require all the data to be input properly first. For example, if an eggwhite cervical fluid day is followed by a dry cervical fluid day, Cyclisity would auto-detect the eggwhite cervical fluid day as your peak day. However, if you do not enter in the dry cervical fluid data on the following day, and just leave that day blank, Cyclisity will not auto-detect the eggwhite cervical fluid day as your peak day, because Cyclisity would not know if there were more eggwhite days on the way. So to avoid garbage in-garbage out, enter in all your data points properly.
How is Cyclisity calculating these items?
Cyclisity is following the rules as outlined in Taking Charge of Your Fertility (2015). You can find these rules in Chapters 6, 11, 12, 13, and Appendix A, F, G, H, I, and J. You can see which of the four FAM rules is being applied to each day by clicking on that day via the calendar or chart screens and seeing the information sheet that appears.
How do I turn off auto-detections?
Simply click on the gear icon at the top of your chart and toggle on "Hide auto-detections on chart". We are currently building in the functionality to manually set your own coverline and fertile phase which will be coming soon.