Introducing CycleGuide: Your fertility treatment planning app
Dr Caroline Fiddler is a Doctor and the Founder of the CycleGuide app. At The Melbourne Fertility Expo, you’ll have the opportunity to meet Dr Fiddler and talk to her about how CycleGuide can help you with your fertility treatment planning.
Can you tell us about CycleGuide?
CycleGuide is an innovative, simple and intuitive app to help you organise your fertility treatment instructions.
It’s purpose-built with a pre-cycle checklist to help you prepare for your Day 1 and your IVF cycle (e.g. appointments, ultrasounds, medication). There are several helpful features, including:
• A calendar and a ‘to do list’, so you know exactly what you need to do for each day of your cycle.
• Colour-coded tasks for easy identification and visibility on the calendar.
• Notifications, which can be especially helpful with medication timing.
• Editing function so tasks can easily be deleted or edited (e.g. the duration of medication can be modified).
• Free text. Medication names and directions are entered by you, so that you can enter instructions in a manner that makes sense to you.
CycleGuide is also available for fertility clinics. You can simply enter your fertility instructions from your clinic, or the clinic can send instructions directly to the app on your phone.
Why develop CycleGuide?
I was convinced there had to be a better way to organise my fertility treatment instructions in a more modern, simple and portable manner. I also thought there should be a more direct method for fertility nurses to communicate vital, and sometimes complex, fertility treatment instructions to their patients.
What is CycleGuide’s mission?
There are so many unknowns during IVF. We want to help reduce the anxiety of IVF and help you be organised. CycleGuide helps you take ownership of the aspects of IVF you can control, e.g. following your treatment instructions correctly.
I also want to help fertility staff. As I doctor, I have often been frustrated by the inflexibility and clunkiness of hospital systems. CycleGuide can be integrated into existing clinic systems without the need for new software or upgrades. Treatment instructions can be sent directly from the clinic software to the app on patient’s phones without nurses having to re-enter information. This gives nurses certainty that patients have received the correct information in a timely manner.
Our aim is also to reduce delayed, incorrect or missed injections that may cause a cycle to be cancelled, or modified, leaving guilt or uncertainty for the patient, especially if the cycle is unsuccessful.
Can you share your journey to parenthood?
I never met Mr Right, and I moved around a lot due to medical rotations which is why I didn’t think about children until later on. I saw a fertility specialist when I was 38 to discuss egg freezing but I couldn’t face fertility preservation. In retrospect, it wasn’t explained to me properly. At 40, I saw another fertility doctor and started egg freezing. I asked a friend to donate sperm, and he very kindly agreed.
I had a growing concern however that my doctor wasn’t really invested in my results and that we were just doing the same, or similar protocols, with little direction. I changed fertility doctors to one recommended by a fertility psychologist and I have continued to see this doctor in Victoria. After 2.5 years of IVF, I am now fortunate to be the mother of my daughter Alice who is 20 months old.
I am now going through the process of egg donation from overseas because I have exhausted all of my frozen eggs and embryos. The use of overseas eggs is banned in Victoria, unlike the rest of Australia where it is legal. As such, my IVF team is liaising with a clinic in Albury, NSW.
What are the top things you wish people knew before starting IVF?
I wish all young women, especially those with demanding university degrees and careers, would consider freezing their eggs or visit a fertility doctor to discuss their fertility options.
Also, I encourage you to get a second opinion if you feel your doctor doesn’t have a plan for both short and longer term. It can be hard to tell why things aren’t working or are taking many months/cycles/years to work.
Finally, it can be very difficult to keep hearing pregnancy and birth announcements. There seem to be baby reminders everywhere. I just kept telling myself that I had started the process and to hang in there. It can be very tough though and I encourage you to chat to your fertility clinic for support.
What are you most looking forward to at the Melbourne Fertility Expo?
I’m really looking forward to meeting anyone considering fertility treatment and explaining how CycleGuide can help you with your fertility treatment planning. I’m also excited about being surrounded by enthusiastic fertility professionals and meeting my fellow exhibitors.
As the founder of CycleGuide, can you give us an overview of your role?
My role was to come up with the idea and to have the courage to pursue the app. I then collaborated with Appetiser Apps project managers and designers to create CycleGuide – Your fertility treatment planning app
I recall spreading all my IVF medications, paper instructions from various egg collections and embryo transfers (from different clinics and doctors), over a large table with Appetiser apps staff Jarrod, Sharon and Tovah. We met regularly to discuss the best way to design a simple, clear and flexible app.
For example, one key decision was whether to add a pre-populated list of IVF medications, with a drop-down list to choose from. But my concern was that medications change their name and branding, doctors have different preferences, and medications vary between countries. I liked the idea that patients could add their medications by a name or description that resonated with them. We decided to make it free text and free of medical lingo. Typing in the information also reinforces your treatment instructions to help you follow them correctly.
Where can people learn more about CycleGuide: Your fertility treatment planning app?
You can visit my website CycleGuide or follow us on Instragram @cycleguide ivf app. We’re also on Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
To download the app, visit CycleGuide: IVF Treatment Mobile App | Appetiser or the Apple store. It’s available in Australia and New Zealand: 7-day free trial, AUD $8.99/month and NZD $9.99/month. For clinics, there’s bulk discounts for 3, 6 and 12-month subscriptions per patient. CycleGuide is currently in progress for the UK, and our aim is to expand globally.
You can also contact me at caroline@cycleguide.com.au and contact@cycleguide.com.au
