[App Fridays] Period tracking app Nyra makes it easy for women to manage physical and emotional wellbeing

Long brushed under the carpet, the menstrual cycle has suddenly become a focus area for startups across the world. The past couple of years have led to an increased interest in reproductive and feminine health from startups in India. Offerings include customised pads, pain relief roll-ons and patches, PCOD drinks, packets for disposing of used sanitary napkins, sanitary cups, period-proof underwear, and trackers for women’s health and periods.

A visit to a doctor, especially a gynaecologist, often involves questions regarding your last period, period pattern, and period type. If you are one of those who always fumbles for an answer, it is high time you use a period tracking app.

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Period tracking can help you to know your own body and cycle, identify changes that can indicate potential health issues, and also reveal when you are likely to be most fertile (important if you are trying to become pregnant or are avoiding pregnancy).

Google Play Store (India) has hundreds of apps for tracking the menstrual cycle. We decided to review the latest entrant, the Nyra app, which was launched a week ago, on May 28, which was World Menstrual Hygiene Day.

Here are our first impressions of Nyra, launched by Mumbai-headquartered healthtech startup Vivant:

Starting up

You need to sign in to start using the app; signing up is easy through a Gmail or Facebook login. The app’s privacy policy claims that it does not feature any advertisers on the platform, which might mean that it does not share any private data with advertisers.

Apart from English, the app is also available in Hindi. This is a great move, given that a Google and KPMG report has estimated that the number of Hindi internet users will surpass English internet users in India by 2021. A user can switch languages easily by going into the settings menu. Other languages will be added soon.

Multiple options, one app

Nyra is essentially a period tracking app, but that’s not all it does. The app tries to cover overall menstrual health in a holistic manner with multiple modes, which include track period, try to conceive, avoid pregnancy, and pre-menopause. These modes are really impressive. We have used other period tracking apps, but none has all these features. The pre-menopause feature will help the app cater to a wide age range, from young girls hitting puberty to middle-aged women experiencing perimenopause.

Based on the health information collected, the app provides women with personalised feminine health, hygiene and fertility advice to help manage their wellbeing.

The ‘Period Tracker’ mode allows users to track period start and end date with a calendar, cycle analysis, period days, past cycle log, flow intensity, moods etc.

The ‘Try to Conceive’ mode lets users track fertility and ovulation. With the help of past period dates, Nyra helps predict ovulation day, track your fertility window, and log ovulation tests results.

The ‘Pregnancy Tracker’ lets a user track pregnancy week by week, in terms of baby growth etc. This mode also offers pregnancy-related articles and allows a mom-to-be to log pregnancy tests and results.

While these features are impressive, the fact that we were not able to change modes was a disappointment. But, since the app has just launched, we are hopeful that things will change.

Besides tracking, the app lets you analyse your lifestyle and periods with a quick quiz. It ends with a conclusion, revealing if you are well or unwell, and offers tips on improving overall and period health.

The app also has a dropdown menu on the left, which has various options, including menstrual health-related articles and blogs.

One of the most interesting features is ‘Chat with Doctor’, where users can drop a query. We tried the feature, and voila! It worked. However, in these fast-paced times, we felt the response – in one working day on our registered email id – was a tad slow. Also, the response was anonymous, so the credibility of the health expert could not be gauged. But we liked the feature – and the response – and feel it helps the app score a brownie point.

Other features

Users can set reminders, and get notifications for period, ovulation, and fertility window. One can also set reminders for lifestyle habits, physical activity, mood swings, medication, and contraception.

Details like weight, physical activity, sleep hours, and water intake can be logged every day. Users can also feed in PMS symptoms, moods, and lifestyle habits in the app smoothly with just a few taps.

Overall UI

The app has subtle colours and a smooth UI. It can be used with a few taps without the need to type in anything. The features are easy to navigate, owing to the smart home screen and dropdown menu on the top left of the app.

It would have been great if the app had an option of changing and switching modes, for instance, from ‘Trying to Conceive’ to ‘Pregnancy Mode’. But there’s always room for improvement!

The free period and fertility tracker has already notched up 4.6 stars and 5,000 downloads within a week of launch.

Our verdict

Our first impressions of the app are good, and we would recommend women of all ages use it, especially those with certain special needs such as women trying to conceive or those with issues like PCOD/PCOS. All features under one app is a great way for women to get anytime, anywhere access to personalised feminine health information and advice.

However, keep in mind that no app can replace a doctor and proper medical guidance. That said, go ahead and take control of your health!

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