DocWire News Editors

DocwireNews

A research team from &Eacute;cole Polytechnique F&eacute;d&eacute;rale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Stanford University recently conducted a large-scale analysis of <a href="https://www.docwirenews.com/abstracts/assessment-of-menstrual-health-status-and-evolution-through-mobile-apps-for-fertility-awareness/">fertility awareness apps</a> to better understand their effects. This data came from 200,000 users of the menstrual tracking <a href="https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/home-page-picks/can-smartphone-app-help/">smartphone apps</a> Sympto and Kindara, and provides information regarding demographics, behavior patterns, and accuracy in measuring menstrual health. Their work was recently published in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-019-0139-4#Sec8">npj Digital Medicine</a>.&nbsp;Historically, women assess their menstrual health and fertility through physician evaluation. This method is effective; however, a shortcoming is that it relies heavily on the patient remembering their menstrual cycle. With many menstrual tracking apps available now, women are beginning to use these to more accurately document their menstruation.Though many of these apps are made by experts in the field, there is little research regarding their impact at the population level. As for each app&rsquo;s accuracy, how they&rsquo;re used by consumers, and how they help them and their gynecologists, there is currently a lack of relevant data.<h2>Background of the Fertility App Study</h2>To address this gap in knowledge, Laura Symul and EPFL&rsquo;s Digital Epidemiology Lab worked with Stanford to gather this large-scale data. 200,000 users of Sympto and Kindara were included in the study. Both apps use the sympto-thermal method to track the user&rsquo;s fertility through evaluation of cervical fluid, body temperature, and other physiological data.In this population level study, over 30 million days of observations were gathered from more than 2.7 million menstruation cycles. This study had two main goals: to describe the typical app user in terms of behavior and to evaluate how accurate the apps are in detecting ovulation timing.Symul and colleagues found that the typical menstrual app user is roughly 30 years of age, lives in North America or Europe, and is at a healthy weight (measured via BMI). Users who also log in their sexual intercourse were found to enter their observations more frequently. In addition, those who reported fertility awareness body signs showed timing patterns similar to those seen in small-scale clinical research.The researchers noted that the women aiming to get pregnant entered Sympto-Thermal readings every day for up to 40% of their menstrual cycles. It was also found that the average range and duration of the follicular phase (time from cycle start to end of ovulation) were both larger than previous data showed, with only 24% of ovulations were found to occur at days 14-15 in the menstrual cycle. As for the latter portion of the cycle, the luteal phase, the researchers found that the duration and range was consistent with other studies.&ldquo;Our study provides a common ground for users and their doctors to incorporate digital records in their visits, evaluate their own menstrual patterns and compare them with the statistics we report,&rdquo; said Symul. &ldquo;New technologies, and in particular self-tracking, are changing the way we perceive our bodies and health. Both users and doctors wonder about the opportunities and the usefulness of digital self-tracking. Our study shows that users voluntarily track their menstrual cycle and fertility-related body signs very frequently, and what they track is aligned with what is expected in the vast majority of cases.&rdquo;Symul concluded that though the measurements are not always &ldquo;perfectly regular, they provide valuable information for inferring the underlying hormonal changes and timing of ovulation in a way that is scalable both in time and in number of participants.&rdquo;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Are fertility apps useful? Researchers have carried out an analysis of the largest datasets from fertility awareness apps &ndash; via <a href="https://twitter.com/ScienceDaily?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ScienceDaily</a> <a href="https://t.co/S3EY8JKxzA">https://t.co/S3EY8JKxzA</a>
&mdash; EPFL (@EPFL_en) <a href="https://twitter.com/EPFL_en/status/1152215520604803072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 19, 2019</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jordana Jampel

Positive Preliminary Results From Phase 1 Trial of Dopaminergic Neuron Graft for Parkinson’s Disease

Dementia

Bradley Warady, MD

Joel M. Topf, MD, FACP

2025 Hume Award Winner Is Dedicated to Children’s Care

NKF Spring Clinical Meetings 2025

Distant Brain Metastases in Cutaneous Melanoma May Be Mitigated With Multiple Pathway Inhibitors

Melanoma

Latest News

Study Evaluates the Effectiveness of Fertility Apps

Future of Medicine

A research team from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Stanford University recently conducted a large-scale analysis of fertility awareness apps to better ...

About Us

Editorial Policy

Advertising

Contact Us

eNewsletters

Contribute

Career Center

MashupMD

Blood Cancers Today

Cancer Nursing Today

GU Oncology Now

Urban Health Today

Bile Duct Cancer

Colorectal Cancer

Gastroesophageal Cancer

Gastric Cancer

GEP-NETs

GIST

Liver Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer

GI Oncology Now

Anemia

Deep Vein Thrombosis

Essential Thrombocythemia

Hemophilia

Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Myelofibrosis

Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Polycythemia Vera

Pulmonary Embolism

Sickle Cell Disease

Thrombocytopenia

Thrombophilia

Thrombosis

Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Venous Thromboembolism

von Willebrand Disease

Heme Today

Acute Kidney Injury

ADPKD

Anemia and Kidney Disease

Chronic Kidney Disease

COVID-19 and Kidney Disease

Diabetes and Hypertension

End-Stage Renal Disease

Gout

Hyperkalemia

IgAN

Kidney Transplantation

Metabolic Acidosis

Nephrology Times

HER2 Breast Cancer

HR Breast Cancer

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Genetics & Breast Cancer

Breast Cancers Today

Atherosclerotic Disease

Atrial Fibrillation

Heart Failure

Hypertension

Interventional Cardiology

Lipid Management

Practice Tips With Dr. Lichaa

Preventive Cardiology

Stroke

Cardiology

Breast Cancer

Gynecologic Cancer

Head and Neck Cancer

Skin Cancer

Oncology

Sleep

Urology

Diabetes

Ophthalmology

— Demodex Blepharitis

Neurology

Rheumatology

Gastroenterology

Pulmonology

Infectious Diseases

— HIV

Health and Wellness

Lupus

Orthopedics

Pharmacology

Career News

More

Conferences

CardioNerds

The Sleep Source With Dr. Morse

Rheumatology Rounds With Dr. Maheswaranathan

Partners

Expert Interviews

Subscribe