March 06, 2017 2:15 pm
Getty Images/Carol Yepes

Are you tired of letting your hormones control you and your period symptoms ruin your day? Yeah, us too.

You already know when your period will start and how it will feel, but what if finding a new way to track it could make it altogether less annoying…and even lessen your symptoms too?

A new female-developed period and hormone tracking app called MyFlo aims to help you take period tracking to new levels and learn how to manage your body’s monthly changes in ways that make the most sense for your flow and your life.

“Your cycle provides a structure by which you are given a map of how to eat, how to exercise, and what to prioritize so that you can be your most healthy, happy, and productive without burning the candle at both ends, overdoing it, and living in a 24 hour male hormonal time construct,” says the app’s creator, nutritionist and hormone expert Alisa Vitti, who is also the founder of “You have the whole cycle to march to the beat of your body’s timing and get to all of the things that matter to you without running yourself ragged.”

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By learning your patterns, the app can help you to be interact with and embrace your womanhood. MyFlo is the first-ever period tracker app to not only help you follow your cycle but to also help you work toward being symptom free. Women who use the app can determine which exercises will support their hormones and when and how to reduce period symptoms while also receiving monthly reminders about when their period will begin.

“The biggest misunderstanding is that the suffering is permanent and part of your destiny just for being female,” says Vitti. “The truth is you can resolve your period problems and restore hormonal balance with food.”

Menstrual cramps, says Vitti, are a great example of an avoidable period symptom.

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“If we were destined to have cramps then it would be part of our hormonal code, but instead we have three hormones that govern uterine activity (PgE1, 2 and 3),” Vitti adds. “If cramps were part of our ‘menstrual destiny’ then we’d have more cramp causing PgE’s than relaxing ones.  But the hormonal code says that we’re designed NOT to have cramps because we have PgE1 and 3 causing uterine relaxation and only PgE2 causing uterine contraction.”

So why are women doubling over in pain with often debilitating cramps each month?

“If you’re eating the wrong fats – like canola oil – then you’ll make excess PgE2 and insufficient 1 and 3 and, voila,  cramps,” says Vitti. “Just by changing your diet, you can unwind this pattern.”

When you download the app, you can find out things like what foods are best to eat during each cycle and when your brain and body is at its best for certain activities, like having sex, spending time with kids or friends or exercising.

Tracking your flow this way can even help you stay healthy.

“Your body’s performance and symptoms should be something you pay attention to so you can have a shot at being healthy now and in the future,” says Vitti. “So what your period is doing symptom wise can indicate your overall health. Also the NIH biocycle study shows that PMS left untreated in your 20s can increase diseases of inflammation post menopause.”

This article originally appeared in Essence.

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