iPhone and Apple Watch ‘Cycle Tracker’ tool helps research on menstrual health

March 21 (Portaltic/EP) –

The tool iPhone and Apple Watch ‘Cycle Control’ contributes to research on menstrual health conducted by the technology company, whose preliminary results help to understand the relationship between prolonged irregularities in the period, polycystic ovary syndrome, endometrial hyperplasia and cancer

‘Cycle Control’ is a health service present in the Health ‘app’ on iPhone and as an independent application on Apple Watch, which allows record the menstrual cycle as well as symptoms and ovulation test results.

This feature uses information from the previous periods and the duration of the cyclesas well as heart rate data from Apple Watch, to predict the start of your next period or fertile days.

In iOS 16 and watchOS 9, it also indicates whether the history recorded for the last six months shows signs of irregular, infrequent, or prolonged periods, or persistent spotting, data that may be related to different health problems.

This is data that has been used in the latest Apple study on women’s health to expand scientific knowledge on the relationship between prolonged period irregularities, polycystic ovary syndrome, endometrial hyperplasia, and cancer.

This research is being conducted in collaboration with the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the US National Institute of Environmental Sciences, and after doing a preliminary analysis of more than 50,000 participantsinterim results have now been shared.

Specifically, the investigation diagnosed the 12 percent of participants from polycystic ovary syndromeand from it it can be deduced that this syndrome increases the risk of developing endometrial hyperplasia (pre-cancer of the uterus) by more than four times and more than 2.5 times the risk of developing uterine cancer.

He 5.7 percent of the participants had taken five years or more to cycle regularly from the first period. Participants in this group had more than double the risk of endometrial hyperplasia and more than 3.5 times the risk of uterine cancer compared to women whose cycles had regulated in less than a year.

These data join other previously shared by the team of the Apple study on women’s health, focused on disturbances of the menstrual cycleas prolonged and irregular periodswhich may be indicative of polycystic ovary syndrome, uterine fibroids, progressive disease, and infections

16.4 percent of the participants had menstrual cycle disorders. And according to the findings, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the prevalence of infrequent periods was 33 percent higher among black women than non-Hispanic whites, and the prevalence of irregular periods was higher among Asian participants.

Once demonstrated how common menstrual symptoms are, the research team determined that the most common symptoms were abdominal cramps, bloating and fatigue. Among all the participants who had recorded their symptoms, more than 60 percent had those three, more than 50 percent had acne and headache, and 37 percent had other, less-recognized symptoms, such as diarrhea and sleep disturbances.

After analyzing more than 125,000 menstrual cycles, the team concluded that these they slightly lengthened when they coincided with the Covid-19 vaccinebut that they returned to have the usual duration in the following cycle.