Product test
Fitbit Versa: The tech industry discovers women. Nice try.
by Livia Gamper
Menstruating with Garmin: What can the new period tracker do?
12.7.2019
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: David Lee
I menstruate for a living. After Fitbit's period tracking, I'm going for the one from Garmin. Find out here whether it's any good or just publicity.
Apps for menstrual tracking are like sand in the Sahara. However, smartwatches that also track periods are still in short supply. This is despite the fact that the menstrual cycle has so much to do with a woman's health and performance.
Fitbit integrated a period tracker into its smartwatch app with an update around a year ago. However, in my opinion, the function is more of a gimmick. Important features, such as a link to the rest of my health data, are missing from Fitbit.
After Fitbit, Garmin is now trying its hand at period tracking. The American manufacturer also integrated period tracking into the Garmin Connect app with an update two months ago. Garmin uses the totally uncomplicated term menstrual cycle tracker. I tested the function during two cycles with a Vivoactive 3 watch.
The tracking that really is for all women
Fitbit calls its period tracking "health for women". In my test of Fitbit's tracking, I was upset that Fitbit's health for women is not for all women. This is because older women who are going through the menopause, for example, cannot use Fitbit's health function or can only use it to a very limited extent, as they cannot enter their period and therefore the function cannot be activated at all.
Garmin solves this better. Even if you don't have a period as a woman, you can still record your physical and emotional symptoms with Garmin.
Tracking made easy - but not on the watch?
In the Garmin smartphone app, you can easily add the widget for period tracking and enter your period with a single touch. The app then calculates your cycle, just like all other period apps. You simply need to know your cycle length, otherwise the calculation will be incorrect.
Unfortunately, it is not easy to bring Garmin's period tracking to the Vivoactive Watch. I can't find the widget for period tracking. It takes a lot of persuasion, research and patience to get the period tab onto my watch. Unlike the widget in the smartphone app, the watch widget has to be downloaded separately from the Garmin Store and then loaded via synchronisation. That would still work. But then you have to add the widget again on the watch itself - with Fitbit this was much less complicated.
On the watch, using the Garmin app is tedious and fiddly. I'm constantly mistyping and logging the wrong symptoms. Or I forget to save my entries. Why can't the app simply memorise my entries? In any case, it's much easier to enter the data on the smartphone.
Small differences to other apps
If I only use the function on my mobile, you could just as easily use an app like Clue. Clue is the best-known menstrual calendar. The difference with Garmin is that if you're tracking your health in the Garmin app anyway, you'll have your period data in the same place. You can also record your data on the watch without taking out your mobile - if you want to put up with the fiddly input. Unfortunately, Garmin does not provide you with a real connection between your fitness data and your menstrual cycle.
In contrast to the Clue app, you do get tips and a more precise visualisation of which phase of your cycle you are in. You can see when you should get your period in pink colouring. Your fertile days are coloured green. Garmin also shows you the follicular phase and the luteal phase and what characteristics they have. If there is a risk of period-related cravings, for example, you will receive a message in the app - very practical, so I can at least justify my chocolate escapades.
Compared to Fitbit's period tracker, Garmin's has slightly more functions. Fitbit updated its period tracker around three months ago. But not much new has been added. As far as I can see, only the option to record emotional moods has been added.
You can enter this data into Garmin:
- Your last period
- Physical symptoms such as acne, bloating or cramps
- Your mood
- Your discharge
- Your ovulation, if you know it
- Sexual activity
- Sexual drive
The app calculates this data for you:
- Fertile time
- Day of ovulation
- Predicted period
- Display of the two phases
So you enter quite a lot of data, but only get a little, or a standardised evaluation. Hopefully, Garmin will improve these functions with an update. After all, you can always look up all the symptoms you have entered in the app, so you always have this important data together. And you get a reminder on the watch and in the app when you get your period. This gives you advance warning to pack enough tampons.
Important things are missing
Almost all better smartwatches have an integrated heart rate monitor. However, neither Garmin nor Fitbit include heart rate measurement in their menstruation tracking. That is a pity. Various studies have shown that the heart rate is higher during the fertile phase. This would refine cycle tracking, and the data you collect would not be the only basis for calculations.
It would also be exciting if the manufacturers were able to measure body temperature, as is the case with explicit cycle trackers. More precisely, it would make sense to measure the basal body temperature. Basal body temperature is the temperature the body has when you wake up in the morning. Around ovulation, the basal body temperature rises by around 0.2 degrees. However, such an accurate measurement on the wrist is probably not yet technologically possible.
I also miss explicit tips from the app based on my data. The tips on nutrition and training are based on the two cycles that the app calculates in a standardised way.
Conclusion: Quite nice, but still not what women need
Garmin's menstrual tracking is also still waiting for the period revolution. The period tracker from Garmin is nice, has some nice functions and is certainly useful. But I expected more. The whole thing is still too standardised and not tailored to the different needs of women. That's a shame.
Period tracking with the smartwatch doesn't stand out enough from all the free apps with similar functions. Garmin does not manage to create any added value here. The app is therefore more publicity than it offers essential functions.
Unfortunately, proper cycle tracking is not possible with a sports watch. Too much is missing in terms of hardware and software. I hope this will change in the future. Nevertheless, it's great that Garmin is another manufacturer that has explicitly launched a function just for women.
Testing devices and gadgets is my thing. Some experiments lead to interesting insights, others to demolished phones. I’m hooked on series and can’t imagine life without Netflix. In summer, you’ll find me soaking up the sun by the lake or at a music festival.
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