Symptom Trackers
Download a free symptom tracker. Choose from a Google Sheets-based tracker or a PDF that can be printed out.
Continue reading below to learn more about symptom tracking and to access a symptom tracker that is customized to your specific condition.
The Importance of Symptom Tracking
Whether you are looking to find a diagnosis or treat an existing health condition, your symptoms provide the clues that tell your story. As a patient, you are in the unique position to be the expert on what your symptoms feel like and what your body is telling you. Some symptoms are “invisible” to the outward eye. By tracking them and sharing them with your doctor, you are helping them help you get to the correct diagnosis and treatment sooner.
Tracking symptoms with the help of a tracker makes it easier to accurately and comprehensively describe them to your doctor. This gives your doctor a window into your condition, which makes it easier for them to recommend the right care. And, when you quantify and visualize your symptom data, trends and triggers may jump out that you would otherwise have a hard time of surfacing.
It is even more important to track your symptoms when they are "dynamic" (when they fluctuate significantly from day to day). This ensures you do not present to your doctor an inaccurate picture of your condition. Plus, symptom tracking is the best defense against brain fog impacting the reliability of the symptoms that you relay to your doctor.
How To Track Symptoms Effectively
The method you employ to track symptoms matters much less than simply doing so consistently. Whatever works best for you is the best way to track your symptoms. Symptom trackers may also be called a “symptom log” or a “symptom journal”. Some ways to track symptoms include:
On paper
In a spreadsheet
With a dedicated symptom tracker app
When tracking a symptom, some dimensions that you should consider including are:
Name and qualitative description of your symptom (i.e., what the symptom feels like and where on your body it occurred)
When the symptom occurred (date and time of day)
Severity of the symptom (rate on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10)
Duration (how long did the symptom last)
Potential triggers (what were you doing/drinking/eating prior to the symptom onset? what was your environment like? were you stressed?)
Relief (did anything help mitigate the symptom?)
Photo (if symptom is visible)
Other notes
If you are partial to paper, here is a template that you can download as a PDF and print out.
However, if you are open to using a digital tool, this has benefits. Digital symptom trackers let you quickly and effortlessly highlight trends and triggers. You can, for example, easily filter the data to hone in on just a certain type of symptom. Or, you can view just the symptoms that occur late in the day, or just symptoms that co-occur with another symptom. The below section includes links to download condition-specific digital symptom trackers.
Consistency is key. So is being as descriptive as possible. If you can consistently track your symptoms as descriptively as possible, your doctor will better be able to help you get to the right treatment. Don’t be afraid to be completely honest, even if some of the symptoms that you experience may seem embarrassing. Remember that it’s highly likely that a symptom that might cause you shame is something that your doctor has seen many times before. If you’d like to learn more about how to accurately describe your symptoms, see here.
Condition-Specific Symptom Trackers
We wanted to make it as easy as possible to track your symptoms. So we created a Google Sheet symptom tracker that already has the most common symptoms for your condition. This lets you avoid searching through a list of hundreds of symptoms for the one that best describes what you are feeling. Find your condition in the list below and click the link to download symptom tracker specific to that condition.
If you don’t see your condition listed above, just let us know at info@chroniushealth.com and we’ll create one for you!
How To Use The Symptom Tracker
Step 1: Click link above to copy tracker. Rename the file
Step 1 - create a copy of the symptom tracker documents
First, navigate to the symptom tracker that you would like to use above. There are links to condition-specific symptom trackers in the section directly above this one or, if you prefer a generic, condition-agnostic tracker, use this link.
Once you have clicked the appropriate link, a page should appear with a blue “Make a copy” button. Click that button to create your own copy of the document.
Lastly, rename your copy by clicking on the name of the file and naming it whatever you like.
Note that you simultaneously created both a Google Sheet (a spreadsheet where your symptom tracking data will live) as well as a Google Form (the short survey that you will use to input your symptoms when you want to track them).
Step 2 - make sure your files are easily accessible
To make it as easy as possible to find and use the symptom tracker spreadsheet and survey form when you need them, find them in your Google Drive and “star” them. Now, next time you want to use these files, you can simply go to your “Starred” folder in Google Drive and they will be there.
You can also create a shortcut on the home screen of your phone that goes directly to the survey form:
On iPhone: Make sure you have downloaded the Google Drive app. Open the app, find the "Copy of [Condition] Symptom Tracker" Google Form, and open up the form in a Safari browser. Click the vertical 3-dots icon in the top right, then click "Preview". Lastly, in the bottom of the screen, click the icon with the arrow pointing up from a square, then click "Add to Home Screen". Now you've got an icon on your home screen that will take you directly to the Google Form any time you want to input a symptom!
On Android: Make sure you have downloaded the Google Drive app. Open the app, find the "Copy of [Condition] Symptom Tracker" Google Form, and open up the form. Click the vertical 3-dots icon in the top right, then click "Preview". Lastly, click the horizontal 3-dots button in the bottom right and click "Add to Home Screen". Now you've got an icon on your home screen that will take you directly to the Google Form any time you want to input a symptom!
Step 3 - use the symptom tracker to input symptoms
Open the symptom tracker survey form on your phone or desktop. Make sure you are in View mode, not Edit mode.
Track your symptom by filling in the form and clicking “Submit”. If you would like to input multiple symptoms, simply complete and submit the form multiple times.
Step 4 - view your symptom data
Navigate to the second tab in your Google Spreadsheet file to see your symptom tracking data. The chart on the right shows the same symptoms by date, time, severity, and type. You can filter the data (including the data shown in the chart) by date range, time of day, and symptom using cells P2 through P5.
Step 2: Star the file and add it to your phone’s home screen
Step 4: view your symptom data by symptom, date, and time of day
Step 3: input your symptom information in the survey form
Want an even more robust tracker?
The Google Sheets-based symptom tracker that is linked to in the page above is helpful, but it can only go so far. To truly make the most of your symptom data, your doctor will want that data alongside the rest of your medical history and medical records. This lets them view it in the broader context of your holistic health data.
That’s why, in addition to the Google Sheets-based symptom tracker, we created an even more robust tracker. And we built it right into the Chronius platform. When you use the symptom tracker in the Chronius platform, your symptom data is seamlessly integrated alongside the rest of your medical records. With one click, you can push your symptom tracking data into your “Health Summary”. There, it will be part of your complete health story rather than sitting out alone in a separate symptom tracking app or file.
To gain access to this symptom tracking functionality, sign up for the Chronius platform today.