For years, the Oura Community has been sharing their patterns and following their body’s cycles manually with the help of their Oura Rings. Now, they have announced a new feature that helps to accurately track your period.
Though not available at launch, Oura users will also have access to educational content on topics like medication and sleep, workout heart rate recording, improved sleep-tracking accuracy, and blood oxygen (SpO2) monitoring during sleep. The educational content and workout heart rate features will be available later this year, and the sleep and blood oxygen tracking will come in 2022.
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What’s Unique About Oura’s Approach?
Period Prediction Beta helps you track your period according to your body rather than your calendar. Because there are unique changes that occur in body temperature across the menstrual cycle, body temperature is the key biosignal used to accurately track, predict, and visualize your monthly cycle. During the menstrual cycle, body temperature tends to decrease during the first half (i.e., follicular phase). Ovulation, which typically takes place during the midpoint of your cycle and marks the transition from follicular to luteal, causes body temperature to sharply increase. Body temperature will usually remain elevated throughout the second half of the cycle (i.e., luteal phase). During menstruation, or your period, body temperature will decrease because of an estrogen surge that takes place, reports Oura.
Oura’s hardware capabilities enable precise and consistent measurement of body temperature, granting us the opportunity to capture your unique alternating patterns and reflect them back to you. Worn 24/7 on your finger, Oura enables a reliable digital diary for tracking and educating on your personal menstrual cycle patterns. Your Period Predictions from Oura are built from comprehensive data that builds over time, not single intakes.
All bodies are vastly different and menstrual cycles change not only from person to person, but also from cycle to cycle. Women, especially, have many physiological changes that occur in their bodies over the course of a lifetime. Because Oura collects temperature data on a continuous basis, all cycles types—long, short, and highly variable—can be tracked and taken into account when making predictions for one unique person. Our personal body temperature patterns and cycles are intimately linked and highly variable for a reason; they’re tailored down to the individual level, which is why Period Prediction at Oura goes beyond taking the one-size-fits-all approach.
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How It Works
Oura predicts your period start date by tracking patterns in your natural body temperature variation over the course of your cycle. Keep in mind, you’ll need at least two months’ worth of consistent temperature data recorded in the Oura app for personal body temperature to be used in predictions. If you’re still in the process of accumulating your 60-day temperature baseline, or if your natural variation can’t be detected due to contraceptive use or other hormonal changes, predictions will be based on your last period, cycle length, and regularity.
