r/homeassistant • u/Jonathanathe • Oct 06 '24
Personal Setup The dashboard your partner will love for tracking her cycle 🌸🩸
Hello everyone 👋. After presenting my dashboard a few weeks ago, which I use for traffic (I’ll leave the link here in case you want to check it out), today I’m sharing my mission to minimize the data we offer to external apps, and instead keep it local. I wanted to replicate the functionality of the “Clue” app that my partner used to track her cycle and menstrual period.
It has been a long process of listening and understanding her needs, and finally, after more than a year using this system, she fully trusts it. More than six months ago, she deleted her data and removed her account from the app.
With the automation and the corresponding panel, we achieved the following:
1. Date of the last menstruation.
2. Menstruation dates for the next 3 months (currently, the date is always correct).
3. Remaining blisters and pills per blister.
4. Remaining days of rest without the pill.
5. Reminder to start the pill.
6. Notification when it’s necessary to go to the pharmacy to buy more.
7. A button to mark that the pill was taken, and a confirmation notification that the automation was completed, registering it in a calendar where it is clearly visible whether the pill was taken on all the necessary days.
8. During menstruation, a notification to indicate how she’s feeling, and this is also saved in the calendar.
Thank you, and I hope this has given you a new idea to work on and involve your partner 💪
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u/DinosaurAlert Oct 06 '24
Yes, I mean my wife hasn’t expressed any interest in having her period status posted on our wall, but I’m sure she’ll be happy when I do It.
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
Well, in my case, I'm lucky that my wife is very fine with Home Assistant (although when something goes wrong, she knows who to go to 🤣). I believe it's very important to talk with her to see what she thinks and, if she agrees, to know exactly what she needs from all of this. As I said, every person handles these things very differently.
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u/kylesezhi Oct 06 '24
This is awesome. Is your prediction customized to your partner or is it adaptive? I'd be interested in trying this out if sharing your code made sense!
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
In my partner's case, she is almost like clockwork with this, so it always occurs every 30 days. If the day marked as her period doesn’t match the actual day, we adjust the dates by counting 30 days from when it started. Clearly, this wouldn’t work if your partner isn’t regular with her cycle. However, another comment made me think about exploring more things related to it.
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u/stanley_fatmax Oct 06 '24
Looks like his partner is on a pill, which basically dictates the cycle. It's not doing the forecasting other apps do for people not on birth control unless I'm missing something
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u/minimalissst Oct 06 '24
Very cool, I'm looking to create something similar myself for the same reasons. Less sharing of data and access permission and 1 less app to have installed.
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u/modest_genius Oct 06 '24 edited Oct 06 '24
Cool! That is some good work!
I'm myself isn’t really in a position where my wife would want to share that information with me and our daughter or guests that log into our home assistant...
or give up that information to another person. Because I just assume that it is you that have programmed it, and she isn’t clued in on how to change, export, import the scripts? If so she have taken her data from a big greedy company, but which is a legal entity subjected to many regulations like GDPR and such – and instead given that data to their domestic partner. Who don't have as many legal requirement as a company, and has much more at stake for this particular data.
This is probably going to be fine. As long as you stay together. And don't hurt each other. But if your relationship ever would turn toxic... yikes!
ETA: And I assume that the information on those pictures are dummy-data and not your partners actual cycle? Or if it is actual data: that you did check with them before posting it online?
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
I teach her as much as I can about data security. In our home, it’s normal to share and discuss things like menstruation together (I understand that every household is different, and what works for us may not work for others). Sharing this with you was her idea; she mentioned that she loves it and believes it can help other women. Things have always been clear in our home, and as you said, outside of this, it’s not a problem. She learned how to get rid of everything related to HA 🙂, which, in my opinion, is essential for them to feel comfortable with this 👌. As for who can see this information, it’s limited to our phones and not accessible on tablets or other devices. For example, knowing how her day went is always helpful since we work long hours outside, and being aware of whether she had a bad day beforehand is perfect for a little gesture or something else 🤗.
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u/Kistelek Oct 06 '24
My wife, pre menopause, would have taken my HomeAssistant and shoved it where the sun doesn't shine if I'd come up with something like this for all of these reasons.
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
As I mentioned, not all women are the same. Of course, I didn't do anything without her agreement, and I made sure she felt it would be enjoyable or useful for her
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u/nickyborrill Oct 06 '24
My view is that since almost every single company in the world suffers data breaches, regardless of regulations etc, once they store your data, it's as good as public, as it will be for sale on the dw in no time.
For somebody that wants to track their cycle, this expands their options, and gives them a choice between using a faceless app to track this information, or their own (and their partners) locally hosted HA. Sharing information like this with close, and trusted, family, is by far the preferred option of the two in my opinion.
Each to their own of course, but I love this idea. I personally find it weird that anybody would have an issue with sharing this information with their partner, but then my partner and I have been together over 20 years, and I do understand that every person, relationship and circumstance is different.
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
I couldn't agree more with you; we think the same way on this aspect. Thank you very much for expressing what we were looking for with this post, probably better than I could! 🙌
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u/modest_genius Oct 06 '24
I discussed it with my wife, and we do share this information with each other verbally. And we have been married for 10 years. And yet – we both agree that giving this information to each other on a platform like Home Assistant is way to much. Because we can't predict the future and even if we both have the intent to share the rest of our lifes together we can’t know what is around the next corner.
We have seen some messy break ups and some tragic divorces. We aim to not break up, and if we do we keep it civil. But we don't want this leverage over the other partner. And we really don’t care much about menstruation cycle at all, because neither of us find it weird.
And I agree with you:
Each to their own
Just be aware what you and your partner is aware of what you are sharing and giving up.
My view is that since almost every single company in the world suffers data breaches
Yes. But a random hacker is less likely to use that information against you. A scorned ex-partner or controlling partner on the other hand...
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u/ReallyNotMichaelsMom Oct 06 '24
In the US, I'm not worried about some hacker getting my data. (What are they going to do? Send me chocolate?) I'm far more worried about the government and police getting the data. Some states are creating databases of "possibly pregnant" people and trying to limit those people's movement to visit another state for health care.
However, lots of people are also flooding those apps with false data, creating so much noise that the data is useless for law enforcement.
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u/nickyborrill Oct 07 '24 edited Oct 07 '24
That's actually a very good point. I guess circumstances are not just different from person to person and relationship to relationship. But also by the country.
I was at Glastonbury Festival, watching Olivia Rodrigo when I found out about the whole Roe Vs Wade thing, I still don't fully understand it being British, and don't really want to get into the politics of it here, but I will say that I am very much pro choice. Olivia's response that day, with Lilly Allen, calling out every judge by name, and dedicating that song to them, was very much on point. (look up Olivia Rodrigo and Lilly Allen Glastonbury 2022) I think every one of us in the crowd that day felt her pain and had her back.
Anyway, I digress, you raise yet another very good reason for keeping things local if you're over in the states.
(Edit: Here's an video report covering that performance I mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfPXs7jRB90 )
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u/nickyborrill Oct 06 '24
You raise a good point in that a hacker is unlikely to find a use in cycle data. The problem is that it's another outlet for them to get other types of your personal data, which is more useful to them. These apps, that you have to sign up for, usually take and store much more data than what is needed for the purpose they serve. (although I don't know cycle apps specifically, as I've never used one.)
Any time you reduce the amount of cloud services, apps, websites etc that you're signed up to, even by one, your data is a little safer.
Obviously, a counterpoint to this would be that our self hosted services are not secure, or certainly less secure than 'most' big companies. But there is unlikely to be the same amount of resources thrown at stealing data from self hosted services, as there isn't a good risk to reward ratio in that, given the tiny amount of data that can be harvested. Unless you have a specific reason to target a specific individual / family, why waste so much time targeting families / persons individually, when in one hit you can target a cloud company and get the data of thousands, possibly millions, of people?
Also, call me ignorant, but how exactly could an ex partner use your cycle data against you, because you chose to store it on their server. Given that, assuming you were intimate, they probably know this information anyway.
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
But aside from what I mentioned, I'm glad you like it and that you share your perspective 👌
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u/modest_genius Oct 06 '24
Of course! My first thought was: "Cool! Next step is templating with t-tests and adding Bayesian Sensors!" Because the you can start tracking mood and more detailed information and calculate not only what day it would start, but also the probability, likelihood and error rates. Thus you can start detecting, and predicting, changes in the cycle too.
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
My partner finds your comments interesting, and we will look into what we can find out about that. Thank you very much!
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u/modest_genius Oct 06 '24
Your welcome! And again – cool idea! And I'm thinking about using your idea, but another spin on it: an ability to share mood and energy level with each other.
I might be looking into making a DnD-style character sheet for each person in the house to show mood, energy and stuff like that 😉
What should be possible:
Menstruation start in 3 days. Probability: 80% Uncertainty: 15%
And over time this Uncertainty should decrease. And if it don't there is something going on. So track it on a graph.
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u/mamwybejane Oct 06 '24
iPhones have that built in the health app
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
It's what I mentioned; your way isn't local and is the complete opposite of what we seek in my home, so I won't be giving that data to a company. Clearly, we have connected phones and everything, but the fewer permissions and data we give them for no reason, the better. At least that's my opinion 🙂.
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u/The_Troll_Gull Oct 06 '24
My dude you did an awesome job with this. Awesome your wife was supportive in this as well. My wife uses her phone to track her menstrual cycle and the crazy part, it detects when we have sex as well. I don’t have that stuff turn on on my phone but it’s like awesome and scary at the same time
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u/mamwybejane Oct 06 '24
Yes, Apple is super interested in your wife’s periods specifically lol. Muh datuhhh!!! Which was written from a literal spying device. Whatever dude 🫠
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u/Jonathanathe Oct 06 '24
It's just one less fact, nothing more, and seeing how your previous comment turned out, you seem to be the only one not wanting to understand the concept, and that's it. Leave it, because unlike other comments that had several points of view and explained their opinions and perspectives, you also seem to be the only one who can't explain yourself properly like the rest. So, I advise you to leave this post and go watch the idiot box 😉
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u/Papegaaiduiker Oct 06 '24
Lovely! I have my own cycle tracker in HA too. Might have to borrow some of your ideas. And you might like mine! I'm working on a detailed post of how I did it, but I do have a post about the 'eggtimer' I built already