The Cycle enables you to track your menstrual cycle, in order to better predict your upcoming cycle and upcoming fertile days. Alternatively, you could track this information for a friend/girlfriend/wife. This app might sound a little out of left field for a mobile device, but bear with us.

The app name & splash screen try to be discrete:

On entering the app, the first thing we do is enter the date of our last menstrual cycle start:

The top setting determines whether we're tracking this data for our own cycle or for a friend's. This way men who want to track the cycles of their wives/girlfriends don't have to see "you/your" all over the place. We can also set how long cycles usually last, along with luteal phase length (this is 14 days for many women).

Using our data, The Cycle generates a calendar:

Since we entered July 1 as our cycle start, our menstrual cycle days are red, fading over time. Fertile days are marked in blue, with the actual day of ovulation shown in the brightest blue. Because we indicated in the Settings that we want to "avoid pregnancy", there are "abstain" icons on and around the fertile days:

If we change our goal to "become pregnant", The Cycle changes the icons:

The heart icon indicates we should...be hearty? Right.

If a gray background is too boring, the color can be changed:

The Cycle can also display months in the future--here's the month of September, still based on our July 1 last-cycle-date:

Reminders
A few reminders can be set via Settings. The idea is that we might want a warning about an upcoming ovulation or menstrual cycle start, but we don't want an embarrassing message popping up. So this can be configured:

We can choose when the reminder shows up, and can enter in whatever text we want the reminder to say. If we just want a ".", that works....

Similar options are available for upcoming ovulation, to, ah, follow through on the "heart" icon:

Breast Self-Exams
A breast self-exam reminder can also be set turned on. Breast self-exams can aid in early breast cancer detection--doctors suggest performing the self-exam 6 days after the first day of heavy menstrual flow. We can set the message text that will be shown with the reminder:

Instructions on performing a BSE are also included:

Thanks to www.checkyourboobies.org for providing the instructions!

That's about it for The Cycle, it aims to be relatively simple. If you have any feedback on this application, do drop us a note--we're interested in hearing from users about how this app works for them!


FAQ
Q: Did you really make an application to track menstrual cycles?
A: Yes! It seems strange at first, but it's actually quite useful for planning ahead. Of course nothing is certain month-to-month, but the application at least gives women (or their boyfriends/husbands!) more information about their menstrual cycle.