JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Emerging digital health technology has moved into the reproductive health market for women. In the past, mHealth apps have been used to monitor the menstrual cycle using manual entry. New technological trends involve the use of wearable devices for tracking fertility by assessing physiological changes including temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate. Little is known about whether these wearable devices are effective for tracking fertility and menstruation.

Objective:

The aim of this review was to better understand what emerging wearables have been developed for menstrual cycle tracking and their overall efficacy.

Methods:

Methods:

A scoping review of PubMed/Medline was undertaken to evaluate wearable devices for their effectiveness in predicting fertility and differentiating between different stages of the menstrual cycle.

Results:

Fertility cycle tracking wearables including devices which can be worn on the wrists, fingers, intravaginally, and inside the ear. Wearable devices hold promise for predicting different stages of the menstrual cycle including the fertile window and may be used by women as part of their reproductive health. Most devices had a high accuracy for detecting fertility and were able to differentiate between the luteal (early and late), fertile window, and menstruation by assessing changes in heart rate, heart rate variability, temperature, and respiratory rate.

Conclusions:

More research is needed which will evaluate consumer perspectives on reproductive technology for monitoring fertility and ethical issues around privacy of digital data need to be addressed. Additionally, there is also a need for more studies to validate and confirm this research, given its scarcity, especially in relation to changes in respiratory rate as a proxy for reproductive cycle staging.