Apple wants to start a dialogue around women’s health and you should tune in

The subject of women’s health is equally complex and under-discussed. It encompasses various aspects of physical, mental, and emotional well-being –– from reproductive health to hormonal imbalances, pregnancy to menopause.

Fortunately, though, discussion around health, in general, has been on a rise lately –– you’d notice –– especially after COVID-19.

A natural wedge in the discussion of health is a smartwatch –– which can help in tracking fitness goals and health data, among other things. Of the many options available in the market, Apple Watch is a popular choice with a share of 60 per cent of the global smartwatch market revenue in 2022.

While most smartwatches are often used as a supporting device to the phone, Apple has always pushed for users to see the Apple Watch differently –– as a companion for monitoring health. And with the recent addition of the temperature sensor, the company has especially drawn focus on women’s health.

So when Apple recently invited me for a closed-door event to talk about women’s health and the role Apple Watch can play in aiding it, I immediately accepted.

While Apple took us through the features of the Health app, demonstrating how it works, what caught my attention was how other women in the room use the app. While a mother vouched for the Meditation app to keep her calm just before she is about to “lose it” on her children, the other spoke about how the Sleep tracker helps her REM cycle each night. Interestingly, a music artist in the group shared how she uses the Noise app and its notification to monitor her own voice and sounds while recording a song.

But my biggest take away was something Apple’s VP of Health, Dr Sumbul Desai said, that “menstrual health is not just about the monthly cycles and ovulation, but a crucial factor in understanding the overall health for women”. She pointed out that women with PCOS have a twice as likely risk of a future cardiovascular event, like a heart attack or stroke. The same has also been found in a John Hopkins Medicines study.

I too suffer from PCOS, and this naturally piqued my curiosity. A little chat with Dr Desai, pointed me towards Apple’s new Women’s Health Study.

The study, with over 50,000 participants, was conducted with the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) that aims to advance the understanding of menstrual cycles and how they relate to various health conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), infertility, and menopausal transition.

Looking at a preliminary analysis, the study team found:

-12 per cent of participants reported a PCOS diagnosis. Participants with PCOS had more than four times the risk of endometrial hyperplasia (precancer of the uterus) and more than 2.5 times the risk of uterine cancer.

-5.7 per cent of participants reported their cycles taking five or more years to reach cycle regularity after their first period. Participants in that group had more than twice the risk of endometrial hyperplasia and more than 3.5 times the risk of uterine cancer, compared to those who reported their cycles took less than one year to reach regularity.

And this is where the Apple Watch comes in.

The core idea is that with just the iPhone and Apple Watch, users have enough data handy to track their health and fitness.

The Watch has built-in sensors and health-tracking capabilities, like the Cycle Tracking app, the new temperature sensor that can help women and all menstruators track and monitor their cycles, fertility, and even symptoms of menopause.

It uses information logged for previous periods and cycle length, plus heart rate data from Apple Watch, to offer period and fertile window predictions.

Personally, I love the Cycle Deviations and Factors in the app that one can add for better predictions and health suggestions.

Cycle deviations notify you if your logged menstrual cycle deviates from a natural pattern, which is usually a good indication that you need to book an appointment with your gynaecologist.

‘Factors’ like pregnancy, lactation and taking contraceptive pills are events that can influence the timing of your cycle. So if you input the start and end of these factors into your app, the health alerts can include their impact.

And with the Apple Watch Series 8 and Series 8 Ultra, the Cycle Tracking is aimed to be more accurate with the temperature sensor, which allows users to receive retrospective ovulation estimates.

Cyclical patterns in temperature changes can reveal the biphasic shift –– an increase in temperature that occurs in response to changing hormones after ovulation. The most common way to track the biphasic shift is by manually charting basal body temperature using a thermometer and journal. With the sensor, the Watch makes the process convenient by providing retrospective ovulation estimates using wrist temperature data.

Basically, it gathers overnight wrist temperature data that can estimate the likely day of ovulation after it has occurred and improve period predictions. I have been using the Apple Watch Series 8 for three months now, and two out of three times, the period prediction for me has been bang on! (I am still testing the Watch to understand if the inaccuracy is because I didn’t wear it overnight for a few weeks or if there are other factors affecting the reading, but more of this in my review)

All this data put together, the Cycle Tracking app can inform users if their logged cycle history from the previous six months shows a pattern of irregular periods, infrequent periods, prolonged periods, or persistent spotting. It’s important to know when these patterns occur, as they may be a sign of an underlying health condition. Users are also able to learn about the Cycle Deviation detected, and export the last 12 months of their cycle history as a PDF to share with their provider. The Health app on iPhone allows users to choose what information they would like to share in the PDF and what they want to leave out.

In addition to menstruation data, the Watch can also track sleep patterns, which is important for women who may experience sleep disturbances during different stages of their menstrual cycle or menopause.

For women who are experiencing menopause, the Apple Watch can be a valuable tool for tracking symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, and mood changes. By tracking these symptoms, women can identify patterns and triggers and work with their healthcare providers to find effective treatments.

Essentially, going back to my opening point, we don’t talk about women’s health enough. As a personally experience, which I can back with anecdotal evidence from many women in my life, doctors often dismiss women’s health issue as mere “period problems”, and the most annoyingly common solution offered are taking contraceptive pills for single women, and the push to conceive for the ones who are married.

This study by Apple is proof of just how critical the monthly period cycle is for a woman’s overall health. Any deviation in the cycle is important to be addressed. And if the Apple Watch can help in starting a dialogue around this, then it’s important we all pay attention.