Whether you’re brand new to fertility charting or very familiar with it, you’ll probably notice a few things that Kindara does differently than most other fertility charting apps. Rest assured we put a lot of thought into how we display fertility data and I’ll explain in this post why we chose to do it this way and how to read the charts.
(Note: Our charts do make it easier to see when you are fertile, but if you are using fertility charting to avoid pregnancy, the rules of the Fertility Awareness Method must still be followed correctly.)
What you’ll see when you look at a Kindara chart is the cervical mucus axis on the left, and the temperature axis on the right.
On the Chart, you will notice red, grey, and pink bars. These indicate Menstruation, and whether or not there was Cervical Mucus, as well as what type and how much Cervical Mucus was recorded. Temperature is indicated by the blue dots and line.
The Cervical Mucus axis goes in order of less fertile (Menstruation or None) at the top, to more fertile (Eggwhite or Watery) at the bottom.
Why the chart looks this way:
After studying with the Fertility Awareness Center, and Grace of The Moon, and consulting with reproductive endocrinologists, we’ve come to a simple conclusion: Cervical Mucus and Basal Body Temperature (BBT) are equally important, and so deserve equal representation on a fertility chart.
Cervical Mucus tells you when the Fertile Window opens, and BBT tells you when it closes. They serve different, and complementary roles in determining fertility. Additionally, the interaction between the two signs provides more insight into the fertility of the woman, than either of the two signs can on their own. This is why displaying them together on the graph is so useful.
How to read it:
Think "High and Dry" - The higher the Cervical Mucus bars are, the drier, and less fertile the Cervical Mucus.
The lower, and darker pink the bars go think of it like dipping down into the "Sea of Fertility" the higher the water content of the Cervical Mucus, the closer to ovulation a woman is.
Once the temperature spikes, the Cervical Mucus bars should go up also, allowing you to visually confirm ovulation by using BOTH of your primary fertility signs instead of just temperature.
The Menstruation bars follow the same pattern, the lighter the flow, the higher the bars, so that's why you'll see the "heavy" days showing as bars that are lower than the "light" days. You can think of it like if something is heavy, it would sink to the bottom of the Sea of Fertility. Generally, women are not considered fertile for the first five days of menstruation each cycle, though if you have had a cycle shorter than 26 days in the past 12 months, you would only be considered infertile until day 3 of Menstruation.
When your period ends, you might have a few days of no Cervical Mucus. You can mark “None” for these days. Once you notice “Sticky” or “Creamy” Cervical Mucus you know you have entered your fertile window - and conception is possible now.
As your cycle progresses and your Cervical Mucus becomes wetter and more fertile, your Cervical Mucus bars will drop closer to the bottom of the chart and become brighter pink. The closer the Cervial Mucus bars are to the bottom of the chart, the closer you are to ovulation and the higher the chance of pregnancy.
After ovulation, your Cervical Mucus will go back to a less fertile quality, as the high water content is no longer needed to mobilize the sperm. When this happens the Cervical Mucus bars will rise back up toward the top of the chart, and stay there till your next period.
A day or so after ovulation your Basal Body Temperature will rise at least 0.2 degrees F, and stay high for the remainder of your cycle. When your Cervial Mucus line and temperature lines are both high, after a number of days of being low, you can visually confirm that you’ve ovulated and your Fertile Window is now closed.
The hearts underneath the chart represent the days you had sex. Solid hearts = unprotected sex, and outlined hearts = protected sex. If you have cervix tracking turned on, your cervix data will appear under the sex hearts. Finally, Notes and Custom Data will appear at the bottom of the chart.
So in conclusion, a Kindara chart is distinct. It has a Cervical Mucus axis on the left, with labels going from top to bottom, in order of increasing fertility. It has a Temperature axis on the right. When the pink bars indicate Cervical Mucus, the Fertile Window is open, and pregnancy is possible. The lower and darker pink the bars get, the closer a woman is to ovulation. When the Cervical Mucus bars and Temperature lines both rise together and stay high, the Fertile Window is closed. We think this is a great way to visually confirm fertility and ovulation. For even more tips on using Kindara, check this blog post out! Try tracking with Kindara for a few months and we think you’ll love it too.