Take Charge Of Your Fertility With Lily

Have you heard of the new trend TCOYF (take charge of your fertility)? No? Let me tell you about it. It’s a total hippie thing. If you’re not a hippie, this probably isn’t for you. I didn’t know I was actually a hippie until I had my daughter. I’m almost positive that at the same time as I gracefully (ha!) and gently (HAHAHA!) welcomed my daughter into the world, my inner hippie was also born into existence. My inner hippie now tells me that I can do things myself and be all natural like.

Awesome.

So, it would make sense that I would apply that to my fertility, and seek ways to control it (or understand it) without medication. That’s what TCOYF is all about. Basically, the idea is that you chart your cycles and other various information in order to determine when you are most fertile during your cycle, how long your cycle actually is, and when is the best time for you to conceive. The information you chart can also be used to help you avoid conception (which is how I’m using it, for the time being).

It doesn’t matter if you are trying to conceive, or trying not to conceive, you can TCOYF! Lily is an app for smart phones that takes care of all the charting for you. It’s way better than sitting there with a spread sheet and hi-lighter and whatever else you need to manually chart. I’m going to tell you all about it, because I am in love with Lily. So easy. So user-friendly. So hippie. And your charts can go with you anywhere. In your purse! Wait…..hippies and iPhones? Let’s call ourselves Modern Hippies!

Before we talk about what Lily does, I need to mention a couple of disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1:

This post is basically for women (obviously). So dad, you don’t have to read this unless you think it will be helpful to understand this stuff! This post will make frequent use of words like “cervix” and “discharge”. If that made you cringe, no need to torture yourself. Skip this post!

Disclaimer 2:

Neither Modern Day Moms nor Whimsical Lily will be held responsible for unexpected results by using this app. This is an app, people. It doesn’t do anything to physically protect you from conception or STD’s, nor does it do anything to boost your fertility. The Lily app is only as “smart” as the information you provide it with. Please read their policies and the manual on their website before you use this app.

What is Lily?

Lily is an app for smart phones that tracks your cycle using information the user inputs.

What does it do?

The main purpose of Lily is to evaluate what time during your cycle, you are most fertile. Secondary to that, Lily also will help you understand your body and how it works. And can help you recognize if there’s something up with your cycle. Do you have sporadic cycles? Lily will help you see if there’s any sort of pattern there. You can also use this information to talk to your doctor about concerns you may have.

How does it work?

Lily is a very detailed charting method, and tracks several different aspects of your body in order to give you feed back about your cycle. For example, you have the option to check your cervical position. The position and phase your cervix is in will tell you a lot about how fertile you are in that part of your cycle. The manual explains how to check your cervix. If that isn’t something you are prepared to do, you can turn that off in the app.

You will also be asked to track things like your body temperature when you wake up in the morning, your cervical discharge, when you have intercourse (and if you used protection), your moods, period symptoms, and the list goes on.

Then what?

Lily computes all the info the user puts in, makes its calculations and then creates a chart view and a calendar view of your cycle. With time, Lily gets more and more accurate so you can begin to see patterns and make really good estimates as to when you’ll be fertile and when you won’t!

And that costs $6.99?

Yes! And it’s worth every last penny. First of all, there is a ton of information covered. I only touched on the main points, but this app actually tracks several other things. You would be sitting there for an hour every single day writing all this stuff down, comparing cycles, counting days, looking at temps and going out of your mind. For the price of a tasty cheeseburger, Lily does it for you. If you are using it to avoid conception, this will save you significant amounts of money over other forms of contraception. Like, the pill for example.

The user interface was designed so nicely, that you actually want to use it! It’s really a pretty design and so easy to figure it out. That also makes it worth the cash!

Here’s some screen shots of the interface, and the information you put in.

 

I love that last screen shot. This is what all your information looks like. The blue squares are your most fertile days, the hearts indicate intercourse. The red squares indicate your period. And so on. Then you just swipe the screen to look back though your cycles! You can see what happened in past cycles, down to the day! That also means you will see the exact number of days in your cycle.

All in all, I love this app. I’ve been using it for a couple of months now, and I love being able to see my cycles and information all laid out for me. It’s also great that I can email myself my charts and print them to share with my doctor! I feel like I have a much better understanding of my own body. That’s something that birth control pills were unable to offer me! The longer I use the app, the better it gets. I hope you will have the same experience.

Now that you know about Lily, and what this great app has to offer, I’m happy to say that Lily would like to giveaway 5 downloads to Modern Day Moms readers!

Entering is easy. Giveaway is now closed!

Here are our 5 winners!

 

 

 

 

 

Mandatory entry:

Visit the Whimsical Lily website. Leave a comment here and tell me what you like most about the app. (you don’t have to say anything personal here, if you don’t want to!)

Extra Entries:

Follow Modern Day Moms on twitter @moderndaymoms

Follow Whimsical Lily on Twitter @WhimsicalLily

Bonus Daily Entries:

Earn one extra entry per day by completing the following:

Tweet about this giveaway, or share it on your Facebook wall! Be sure to tag Modern Day Moms (and Lily if you tweet) so we can see you! Be sure to include the tcoyf hashtag on Twitter.

example tweet:

enter to win a free download of @WhimsicalLily from @moderndaymoms! #tcoyf http://wp.me/p1CZOK-3Ad

Giveaway will end on November 2nd at 3:00 p.m (pacific standard). Winner will be announced shortly after.

Guidelines: Must be 18 or older to enter and live in the United States, unless otherwise noted. To see our official giveaway guidelines, please visit this link.

*I was not compensated for this review. I bought the app myself, and loved it so much that I reached out to Whimsical Lily. The giveaway is extended on behalf of Lily (thanks Lily!) and prizes will be issued by Lily. No download codes are available to Modern Day Moms.