Cycle tracking: Read your HRV and symptoms against your cycle.
HRV tends to fall and heart rate to rise before a period, and POTS symptoms often gather there too. Autonomic knows where you are in your cycle, so that dip is compared with your past cycles instead of being flagged as a decline.
Logging, forecasts and Health sync are free
“I’ve been through a dozen apps trying to manage my POTS and PEM. I can say without a doubt Autonomic is the BEST one I’ve tried.”
“It’s already helping me manage my health and gather data to show providers.”
“Only app that isn’t for athlete training and specific to dysautonomia.”
The questions cycle tracking answers.
Tap a question to jump to how Autonomic answers it.
A dip you can expect should not read like a crash.
- 1Log itMark flow in a couple of taps, add cycle symptoms like cramps or breast tenderness, or let Apple Health or Health Connect bring in a period another app logged.
- 2Read in contextYour baseline, crash warnings and strain alerts compare like phase with like phase, so a premenstrual dip is checked against your last cycles first.
- 3See your patternAfter three cycles, Insights shows how your HRV, heart rate and symptoms move across your cycle, with a score by cycle day.
Every part of the app reads your cycle.
Turning cycle tracking on changes how the whole app judges your numbers, not just a calendar.
| Part of the app | What changes | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Your HRV grade | A morning reading is also graded against the same phase of your past cycles, so a pre-period dip is weighed against your own pre-period mornings. | FREE |
| Crash warnings | A slide no deeper than the same days before your past periods says it is in line with your last few cycles. A deeper one says that louder. | FREE |
| Strain alerts | Resting and overnight heart rate, your standing rise and your symptom load are compared with the same phases of past cycles. | FREE |
| Insights | Something you only take around your period, like a painkiller for cramps, is read as part of the cycle and never credited with a change on its own. | PRO |
| Stand tests and episodes | Each result carries a table of your rise by phase, so you can see whether standing is harder in one part of your cycle. | PRO |
| Pacing | A context line in the pacing sheet compares what you spend in this phase with your other days. It never changes your budget. | PRO |
| Reports | A menstrual cycle section, one line per cycle, with every ovulation naming how it was worked out. | PRO |
I’ve been through a dozen apps trying to manage my POTS and PEM. I can say without a doubt Autonomic is the BEST one I’ve tried.
Each mode is honest about what it knows.
Choose the mode that fits your body. It decides what the app is allowed to say, so it never forecasts a cycle it cannot see.
Yours alone. The heads-up before a period never says period or cycle, nothing you log is sent anywhere, and the app warns you before you share an export that holds it.
Why your cycle belongs beside your readings.
- Forecast
- After 2 cycles
- Your pattern
- After 3 cycles
- Ovulation
- Counted back, or temperature
- Logging
- Free
Across a typical menstrual cycle, estrogen dominates the first (follicular) half and tends to lift HRV and lower resting heart rate. Progesterone dominates the second (luteal) half and does the reverse: HRV drifts down and resting heart rate rises a few beats1. Many people with POTS and dysautonomia also find their symptoms gather in the days before a period and during bleeding, when hormones withdraw and blood volume can dip2.
An app that does not know your cycle reads that monthly dip as bad news. A crash warning fires, your HRV grade falls, and a strain alert asks you to rest, every month, on schedule. Over time you learn to ignore the warnings, which is exactly when a real one gets missed.
What cycle-aware means in Autonomic
Your journal holds only what you log: the days you bled, how heavy the flow was, and any cycle symptoms. Periods, cycles and phases are worked out fresh every time, so correcting one day redraws every phase after it.
- Day one is the first day of real flow. Spotting never starts or joins a period, and one unlogged day inside a period is forgiven.
- Ovulation is counted back 14 days from your next period, or read off a sustained rise in overnight temperature from a thermometer or your wrist (never the two mixed)3. Your reports name which way each one was found.
- Gaps are not cycles. A cycle shorter than 15 days or longer than 60 is treated as a logging gap and kept out of every pattern.
- Patterns wait for evidence. A forecast needs two finished cycles that roughly agree; a pattern in your numbers needs three.
Your pattern, not a textbook’s
Autonomic never tells you a reading is fine because of your cycle. It tells you how this reading compares with the same days of your own past cycles, and lets you decide what that means. If heavy flow shows up in three of your last four cycles, it says so and suggests asking your clinician about iron, because heavy periods and low ferritin often travel with POTS4.
Sources
Checked November 2026- A systematic review and meta-analysis of within-person changes in cardiac vagal activity across the menstrual cycle: implications for female health and future studies Schmalenberger KM, Eisenlohr-Moul TA, Würth L, et al. Journal of Clinical Medicine 8(11):1946, 2019. HRV falls from the follicular to the luteal phase.
- Gynecologic disorders and menstrual cycle lightheadedness in postural tachycardia syndrome Peggs KJ, Nguyen H, Enayat D, Keller NR, Al-Hendy A, Raj SR. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 118(3):242–246, 2012. POTS symptoms around the menstrual cycle.
- Real-world menstrual cycle characteristics of more than 600,000 menstrual cycles Bull JR, Rowland SP, Scherwitzl EB, Scherwitzl R, Danielsson KG, Harper J. npj Digital Medicine 2:83, 2019. How long cycles and their phases really run, and finding ovulation from temperature.
- Low iron storage and mild anemia in postural tachycardia syndrome in adolescents Jarjour IT, Jarjour LK. Clinical Autonomic Research 23(4):175–179, 2013. Low ferritin in POTS.
Getting it right is free. Seeing the pattern is Pro.
Every correction cycle tracking makes to your scores and warnings is free, because a warning that cries wolf every month is a fault, not a feature.
- Flow and cycle symptoms in a couple of taps
- Phases, and a forecast of your next period
- Apple Health and Health Connect sync
- Every score, crash warning and strain alert read by phase
- A private heads-up before your period
- Your cycle in Insights, after three cycles
- Progress by cycle day: your score, RMSSD and cycle symptoms
- Stand test results by phase
- A cycle section in your AI reports
Cycle tracking questions, answered
Why does my HRV drop before my period?+
Across a typical cycle, estrogen dominates the first half and tends to lift HRV and lower resting heart rate, while progesterone dominates the second half and does the reverse. Many people see HRV drift down and resting heart rate rise in the week or so before a period. Autonomic compares those days with the same days of your past cycles, so you see your own pattern rather than a general rule.
Can POTS get worse around my period?+
Many people with POTS and dysautonomia notice symptoms gather premenstrually and during bleeding, when hormones withdraw and blood volume can dip. Logging your cycle beside your readings and symptoms lets you see whether that is true for you, and how big the change is.
How does Autonomic work out my cycle phases?+
From what you log. Cycle day one is the first day of real flow; spotting never starts a period. Ovulation is counted back 14 days from the next period, or read off a sustained rise in overnight temperature if you have one, and phases are recalculated whenever you correct a day.
Does it predict my next period?+
In the regular-periods mode, once two finished cycles are logged and they are reasonably consistent. Until then a typical cycle length you enter is used for the forecast. The irregular, perimenopause, contraception and pregnancy modes never forecast.
Does it sync with Apple Health or Health Connect?+
Yes. A period another app logged can arrive through Apple Health or Health Connect, and the days you log in Autonomic can be written back. Cycle sync is its own permission, asked only when you set it up.
Is cycle tracking free?+
Logging, the next-period forecast, Health sync and every correction cycle tracking makes to your scores and warnings are free. Seeing how your cycle moves your numbers, in Insights and Progress, is part of Pro ($7.99 a month or $49.99 a year), and every install starts with 14 days of it.
Who can see my cycle data?+
Only you. It is stored on your phone with the rest of your journal, the heads-up notification never names a period or a cycle, and the app warns you before you share an export that contains it.
About your cycle
All HRV articles →See how your cycle shapes your good and bad days.
Free on iPhone and Android. Logging and forecasts cost nothing.