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This week I’m piggy-backing off of last week’s Women’s Wellness series post by discussing Kindara and its Wink tracker. Last week I discussed taking my basal body temperature and the Fertility Awareness Method. The Kindara App is what I use to track everything, along with its Wink thermometer. Today I’m reviewing those, as I have been using them for 2 years and feel I have a pretty good grasp of it.

Before I get into the actual review, I just wanted to mention that I use these as a natural form of birth control. I think a lot of people think that to track all that means you’re trying to get pregnant, but that is just not the case. I guess in a way it is the same because you are looking at the same timeline, just adjusting your actions accordingly. The data you use to get pregnant is the same data you can use to not get pregnant. Don’t be scared of this method // don’t think it means it is taking this giant life-changing decision like a baby… though switching from hormonal birth control (HBC) to a natural form of birth control can be pretty life changing. Read how quitting HBC changed my life here. Taking your temperature every morning / tracking everything is an amazing way to listen to your body and is very empowering. PLUS it’s data that you can look back on / your doctors can use. My OBGYN and my acupuncturist have both used my tracked information and such to get to know my body more and are able to help me better / faster because of it.

Wink Thermometer (no longer in production - options here, here and here) | Woven Blanket | BKR Water Bottle (old color, similar here)

I wanted to address the Wink thermometer I use. Sadly, Kindara no longer produces it. I really like it because it has bluetooth and connects with my phone; however, you don’t need it to use the Kindara app. I’ve used this thermometer for almost 2 years now, but I used a regular thermometer for almost 3 months prior to that. I just manually typed in the time and temp and it was fine. I can see why they stopped producing it, as there are a couple other products on the market that are similar, but focus more on getting pregnant. Even though I mentioned above that just because you track your basal body temperature (BBT) it doesn’t mean you’re “trying” for a baby, I can see how the majority of the people who are tracking are probably actively trying. Kindara is actually coming out with a product that is geared more to actively getting pregnant called the Priya, which aligns more with the current market. I think this is a smart business move on their part. I originally planned to review the thermometer in this post. Though I love it, I probably could have spent $150+ a better way considering you don’t have to have it for the app. My lid no longer clicks shut on the thermometer and there is a small part that recently chipped off too; however, I literally use it every day and it still works. It goes for a long time without having to re-charge too! Overall I am glad I have it.

Back to Kindara and the app… Before Kindara, I tried to track my period and it just didn’t stick. I remember going to the doctor’s office and getting asked when the first day of my last period was and literally being like …???. Now I can’t imagine not knowing that! The first app I tried was Flo My Health and Period Tracker. I don’t remember there being anything wrong with it, I just didn’t keep it up. I will say that I didn’t have the knowledge I do now AND I was still on birth control, so it wasn’t to prevent pregnancy or anything like that. To learn more about your body and the WHY behind everything, I would highly recommend Taking Charge of Your Fertility. After that I used Kindara and have been using it ever since. I will say that I was initially drawn to it because it had an in-house thermometer, but even if my Wink broke tomorrow, I would still use Kindara. All that to say, here are my main reasons for using Kindara over others.

Why I like Kindara:

• Tracks what you need. To the point!! It tracks everything I need and honestly more. From my period, to discharge, and more.

• Portable. I love that it is all on my phone and with me wherever I go. You can track this on paper of course, but since it’s online, it is less likely to get lost. Like I mentioned before, I share this with my acupuncturist every week - it’s nice to not have to remember to grab a notepad if i were tracking this manually. I suppose I could do it in my phone to make it portable and my own charting, but why do that when there are great, free options out there?

• Ability to track other things / take notes. You can add other things to track like working out, alcohol intake, supplements, and it has a notes section. This is where I track bowel movements and headaches too!

• Community. Be sure to ask your doctor questions, but if you need help learning FAM or anything else like that, Kindara has a community tab where you can scroll, ask questions, give tips and more. It is super helpful when you’re just starting out / learning to read charts.

• Products. I know they aren’t making the Wink tracker anymore, but they are working on the Priya. i like that they know how to make products and have that mindset, as it shows in their app versus a free app without product knowledge/ what is going on in the market space.

• Safe. Other period trackers have caught heat for sharing data, like your period stats and more. Kindara doesn’t do this, thank goodness!

• Free. They do have a premium subscription, but the base level is free. I had premium for a while, as it came with my thermometer; to be honest, I didn’t use any of the extra functions. I wanted to stress that it was free, because a lot of the other natural birth control options aren’t. I feel like they aren’t accessible to everyone because of the price. Kindara breaks down that barrier.

Have I tried any other apps? None besides Flo / the one I mentioned above and Kindara. If I were to try another one, I would look into MyFlo Period Tracker by Alisa Vitti. I have been meaning to read her book In The Flo, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Ultimately, you do have to pay for her app, and I don’t really want to do that, plus I’m happy with Kindara. Other apps that I have heard others say they like are Glow Period, Fertility Tracker, Clue Period and Cycle Tracker, and Eve Ovulation and Menstrual Calendar. As far as other devices go, Natural Cycles has a thermometer and an app. While the thermometer is affordable at $15, you have to pay $10 a month for the app or $90 a year. It also bugs me that they promote they are FDA cleared when it’s not something you ingest or anything like that. It kind of feels like fear mongering in my opinion. There’s also the Daysy ($300) and the Ava ($279) and both come with an app as well. Besides being kind of expensive, they also have you rely on their metrics versus learning what your body is actually saying. It is helpful when you are first learning everything , but I think it is important to learn the signs your body is giving you. We might fail ourselves, but technology will fail us and knowing the why behind things is an easy way to be more fail-proof.

Do you have a favorite tracking app? Let me know! I love Kindara but am always looking to learn more!

P.S. My winc thermometer book broke. Since they don’t make it anymore, I have started using this $10 thermometer one from Amazon.

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