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A little while ago my girlfriend requested me if I can make a menstrual period tracker and shared an image of this product on Amazon:

It looked fine to me but had one major limitation — the number of days in each phase is fixed.

This would mean if you had a total of 3 days of period discharge you still have 2 more days to move the marker — but the phase has ended for you!

This didn’t feel right as every body is different and there needs to be variable phase days which users should be able to decide based on their mood and body response. Such a tracker should help them get a qualitative view of their cycle and I decided to build one!

Instead of just being a tracker where you move a magnet everyday, I started to work on a tracker that can also show how many days you were in a specific phase.

Design 1

I started my work, sketched out a simple template for a 29 day cycle, created some quirky and funny art on my girlfriend depicting each phase (I didn’t want my tracker to look boring :P).

I got the template printed on a 350GSM sheet. For the base I chose MDF and hand drilled equally spaced 10mm holes in 58 positions and fixed a 3mm magnet in each position.

For indicator pieces I bought a colored set of art beads and fixed a magnet on the back side. I chose 4 colors: Red — Menstruation, Green — Follicular, Blue — Ovulation, Pink — Luteal.

Users select the indicator pieces based on the phase they are in and place them on top of the board (on position marked by a purple dot). As they place the pieces, the board will fill and by the end of the cycle they can see how they performed, which phases were longer or shorter, and assess what went right or wrong in that phase.

These indicator pieces will be placed on the outermost circle; on the inner circle there will be a single indicator piece depicting which phase you are currently in, and it needs to be moved daily.

This was the basic idea but there were some mistakes:

• Board was too messy with graphics and pieces could not be seen properly — they need to pop out.
• There was no need for an inner current-day circle — it’s redundant as users place pieces; empty spaces and numbered markings are enough to tell what day you are currently on.

With these refinements, here comes version 2.

Design 2

Improvements

• Removed inner circle and rearranged graphics.
• Added more graphics around the magnet circle to make it look highlighted.
• MDF base CNCd, 12x12in.
• Printed template on Vinyl allowing it to be wipeable for cleaning.

I am quite happy with how this version has turned out. I like the graphics; they look minimal and the indicator pieces do pop out.

This is when I decided I am going to sell this build as a product. I plan to have 2 mount options at the back:

• Fridge — neodymium magnets
• Wall — wall hook attachments

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Also, I thought that instead of removing the inner circle it could be kept, allowing users to track 2 menstrual cycles in a single tracker. This can help with comparison from the previous month and for those who have a cycle longer than 29 days — they can extend their cycle on the outer circle and continue placing pieces. I’ll work on this version too and have it listed on my store.