Chrissylynn’s story

Before I was tracking consistently, I had this idea in my head that I was broken. I was panicking that I was going through like perimenopause early in life. 

I was tracking my cycle with Flo and I was seeing that my cycles were getting shorter. I wasn't having as long of periods and that was frightening me a little bit. And so I was able to take that data, bring it to the hormone specialist. I found out about my egg count and my estrogen levels and my progesterone and found out like everything actually is normal and good. 

I finally am acknowledging the fact that I could have a baby. So basically, she prescribed us lots of sex. She was like, "Every 2 to 3 days, I don't care when you're ovulating, just make sure that you're getting in the habit of doing it and it'll be fun." And you know, she's right. Now I'm 3 days away from potentially my period or a pregnancy test that says positive. And that's so crazy and makes me want to cry.

That is something really really wonderful about being much more attuned to my cycle, which I feel like is a real gift and I'm grateful for that.

Beautiful. Honey's going. Get take that endo taken care of. She's going to do awesome. 

My name is Angelica. I am 31 years old and I was diagnosed with stage three endometriosis. I am a little bit over a year post surgery and I'm currently 20 weeks pregnant with our little miracle baby boy. 

I started using Flo when I got off birth control. So, I was grateful for an app to guide me, not only to learning about my cycle, but also learning about trying to conceive. 

I felt like I had everything planned before we even really started trying. But I was also just so hopeful and honestly thought we were going to get pregnant right away. And then very quickly, I was like, "Something's wrong". 

I remember getting excited for the Flo app to learn about my body. I loved how easy it was to track symptoms. I did have heavy periods, heavy cramping, brain fog, extreme fatigue, clear as day signs right in front of me that I just didn't know. I never really suspected endometriosis. And then it wasn't until I was diagnosed with SIBO, which is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. SIBO and endo can be closely correlated. That's when like the wheels started turning. I realized it's not normal. I just want answers. 

So when I started using Flo, it was like knowledge. All of the amazing articles and the community forums, you have this little community in your pocket. And also when you're at the doctor's office and they're like, "Oh, when was the last day of your menstrual cycle?" I never could answer that before having the app. 

I found a doctor that I really trusted. She knew my goal was to restore fertility. That is her whole practice. She was a specialist in excision surgery. Then I remember hearing my doctor waking up from surgery and she came over to me and was like, "You did it. You were right. We found stage three endo. We got it all out". I just immediately started bawling. Oh my gosh. That feeling of relief will never leave me. 

For the first time in a long time, my body and I feel like a team and working together to protect this baby and to like nourish this baby and to also nourish myself. I feel like there's like a nice little redemption of me and my body finding peace again.

You know, when I was growing up, it's not like it was a taboo to talk about periods. We had less of the shame. We just didn't talk about it a lot. One of my friends in high school, her mom helped her put in a tampon. We were all like, "Oh my god". Of course, we didn't have an app. We didn't have something as useful as Flo. And I don't even know what it was like for my friends cuz we just didn't talk about it.

And I fast forward to thinking about my daughter. She was having a pool party. One of her friends was on her period and was like "I've never put in a tampon". Half the party of these like 13-year-old girls, they all go to the bathroom together to sort of like help her put a tampon in. The adults, we were all just kind of like, "Wow, that is a level of like comfortability around each other and like no shame around this at all". It's really all I remember is like there's a lot of laughter and screaming, but not like "I'm scared" or "disgusted" type of screaming, just more like funny. It was a small moment in that day that allowed us to go swimming and making sure that everyone was having fun.

I had my period before I told you. I remember using toilet paper first. Oh, I vaguely do recall you saying that, and I was like... when your period started, I feel like you were like, "How do I know when this is going to happen?" And I think I was like, "Let me introduce you to Flo".

I like the way that Flo was set up. I like the way that when you open the app, it asks you questions. "Have you been exercising, drinking water, your stress?" And then they help to help you understand what's going on with your body, and it teaches you about that.

I love seeing or like hearing you talk about how you're able to share this with your friends and kind of introduce them to it. I think that's really cool.

I enjoy it because it makes me feel like I am creating kind of a community, that we're all able to trust each other to be there during the kind of confusing times.

It's really nice to see this generation be far more capable of acknowledging that they have bodies and bodies don't always feel good. I really love that. I think that we're moving in the right direction with people being able to communicate around those ideas and issues.