The menstrual cycle remains poorly understood by many patients. Research indicates that more than 50% of women are unable to predict their next menstruation on their own and approximately 67% lack awareness of when ovulation occurs within their cycle. Improving patients' understanding of their own menstrual physiology can support shared decision-making and promote more proactive engagement with their reproductive health.

Cycle Insights enables members to understand their individual reproductive cycle physiology. Cycle Insights supports both women with menstrual cycles and those who choose hormonal birth control methods. 

  • Menstrual Cycles: Cycle Insights uses physiological data influenced by hormonal fluctuations, such as heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), temperature trends, and respiratory rate, to identify the follicular and luteal phases and label the day of ovulation. The supporting algorithm predicts period start date within a six-day window.
  • Hormonal birth control experience: Women using cyclic or continuous hormonal birth control see experiences that are uniquely oriented to the contraceptive method that they are on, be it oral contraceptives, IUDs, patches, shots, and more. Hormonal birth control can affect temperature trends, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and sleep quality. Cycle Insights gives women a comprehensive view of their birth control within the context of their overall health by showing hormone and hormone free phases, as well as enabling bleeding and symptom tracking. Patients can switch birth control methods without losing their historical cycle data. 

Download the Oura Women's Healthcare Guide 

Clinical Usage: 

Reproductive Health Monitoring: Longitudinal cycle tracking can offer clinically meaningful data regarding an individual's baseline menstrual pattern, including typical cycle length, cycle length variation, bleeding duration, and flow characteristics. Deviations from an established baseline may serve as early indicators of underlying pathology, and can be used to screen for abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB). 

Encouraging patients to monitor their cycles may facilitate earlier clinical presentation and support more timely diagnosis and management of reproductive health conditions.

Symptom Pattern Recognition: A significant proportion of patients experience cyclical symptoms that correspond to specific phases of the menstrual cycle, including gastrointestinal upset, mood changes, headaches and fatigue. In patients with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), these symptoms can be substantially disruptive to daily functioning. Members can tag symptoms within the Oura App that overlay with their biometric data and cycle days. 

Cycle tracking and symptom tagging enables pattern recognition and can inform individualized treatment planning and self-management strategies.

Build Patient Health Literacy: The average woman menstruates for thirty to forty years and individual cycles can change from early puberty to postpartum to perimenopause. To support individual understanding of what is happening in their bodies, Oura Members can chat with Oura Advisor, which draws from a broad foundation of established medical standards, research, and knowledge sources reviewed by Oura’s team of board-certified clinicians and women’s health experts. Oura Advisor integrates biometric signals and long-term trends to deliver personalized, evidence-based guidance. In between visits a patient can ask questions to Advisor with confidence, knowing that the answers will be evidence-based. 

Encouraging patients to engage with Oura Advisor between visits can support informed self-advocacy, and help patients arrive at appointments with greater health literacy and more meaningful questions.

Patient Education:

LEARN MORE: Advancing Human Health with Oura: Bridging Everyday Life and Clinical Care