Senior Android Engineer

Beyond the period tracker: how wearables are finally getting hormones right, and who does it best. From temperature-sensing smart rings to menopause tracking on your wrist, wearables are finally taking hormonal health seriously 11 October 2026 / 18:50 BST For years, women's health on a fitness tracker meant a glorified period calendar. You logged your flow manually (requiring you to remember to do so), and you'd get a vague prediction for the following month (only helpful for those with regular cycles). That was about it. The same device would happily tell you your VO2 Max to two decimal places, but when it came to correlating your energy score with your cycle phase, you'd be out of luck. That's finally starting to change (albeit slowly). It hasn't happened because of a single breakthrough, but because several pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Wearable sensors can now detect subtle overnight temperature shifts, and companies are using AI models trained specifically on reproductive health data rather than treating female health tracking as an afterthought. There's still work to do, but wearables are moving in the right direction for tracking female health and hormonal changes. Here are the leaders and what they offer. Oura. For any woman who has used the Natural Cycles app, it will likely come as no surprise that Oura is one of the companies setting the pace in female cycle tracking. It was the first wearable to partner with the FDA-cleared birth control app, allowing users to wear its smart rings for temperature input instead of using a basal thermometer every morning before getting out of bed. Other wearables also now support Natural Cycles integration, but Oura pipped them all to the post in 2022. This year, ahead of the Oura Ring 5 launch, the Finnish company introduced Menopause Insights. It centres on the Menopause Impact Scale, a questionnaire developed by Oura to measure how 22 symptoms affect quality of life and daily functioning. Oura combines your answers with your long-term biometric data to explain your results, show how symptoms correlate with trends such as HRV and sleep disturbances, and track changes over time. For cycle tracking, Oura also released an AI model trained specifically on reproductive health data and added the option to tell the app which birth control method you are using (hormonal or non-hormonal), if any. By entering this information, the app takes it into account to deliver more accurate and relevant insights. Oura uses temperature data to predict ovulation, helping not only to tell you what stage of your cycle you are in and what that might mean for metrics like your heart rate and HRV, but also to identify which days you're most likely to conceive. It also has an AI-powered advisor, allowing users to ask questions about their data and cycle to help them make sense of the information being presented to them. Ultrahuman. Ultrahuman takes a similar approach to Oura, continuously tracking temperature with its smart rings - Ring Air and Ring Pro - to provide insights into the female cycle. Unlike Oura, which has a monthly subscription, Ultrahuman doesn't require one. However, there is the option to add paid PowerPlugs, including the Cycle & Ovulation Pro, which costs $3.99 a month. The free cycle tracking included with Ultrahuman uses temperature to predict ovulation and determine your cycle phase, with helpful insights to explain what that might mean. The Cycle & Ovulation Pro PowerPlug takes this several steps further. It uses the same sensors as the free version but, following the company's acquisition of viO HealthTech (a medical device company behind the OvuSense fertility monitor), adapts viO's temperature-sensing algorithm, developed over 15 years and trained on more than 260,000 cycles collected with medical-grade sensors. Ultrahuman says Pro confirms ovulation with more than 90 per cent accuracy, based on its own testing against LH and progesterone rises. It's aimed at people whose cycles don't follow the textbook 28-day cycle, including those with PCOS or endometriosis, though it isn't FDA-cleared or intended for contraception. Another notable feature is Cycle Flags, which analyses temperature data for patterns rather than making single-cycle predictions: for example, consistently early or late ovulation, a shortened luteal phase, or cycles where ovulation doesn't appear to occur at all. None of that is diagnostic - Ultrahuman is explicit that Pro is a wellness tool, not a substitute for clinical testing - but surfacing a recurring pattern over several months could be a helpful piece of information to bring to a doctor, rather than something you'd notice from period-diary logging alone. Whoop. Historically the most performance-obsessed of the bunch, Whoop leans more on lab work than its rivals. Its Hormonal Symptom Insights and Predictions, announced in March of this year, build a personalised model of your cycle from your physiological data and history. The model adapts over time, widening or narrowing its forecast as it learns how variable your cycles are. Whoop says it accounts for irregular cycles, perimenopause and hormonal birth control. Whoop Advanced Labs adds a Women's Health panel of 81 biomarkers, including 11 female-specific ones: AMH, progesterone, prolactin, thyroid markers, leptin, B12, folate, magnesium and phosphorus. Testing is conducted at Quest Diagnostics locations, with results reviewed by a licensed clinician. The panel is sold separately and is US-only, so unfortunately for anyone this side of the pond, you can't benefit from it just yet. For those in the US, results are tied back to your cycle, with reference ranges matched to your cycle phase and sorted into optimal, sufficient or out of range. Whoop says this helps with perimenopause, thyroid function and nutrient levels, which it says standard testing often under-measures. It has published a white paper on its modelling, so if you fancy some bedtime reading. Apple Watch. Apple takes a slightly more cautious approach than the others I've mentioned so far. Its Cycle Tracking app (also in the Health app on iPhone) logs periods, symptoms, spotting and basal body temperature, then predicts your next period and a six-day fertile window. Predictions rely on what you log, and the fertile window uses the traditional calendar method. Heart rate data from the Watch, enabled by default, further refines predictions, and on compatible models, overnight wrist temperature is used to estimate ovulation retrospectively, improving predictions. Menopause support has also been introduced with the latest software - iOS 27 and watchOS 27. For users aged 40 and over, Cycle Tracking can notify you when your logged cycles suggest perimenopause. In the Health app on iPhone, you can then log perimenopause or menopause and track symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats and sleep changes. Once menopause is logged, predictions and fertile window estimates are disabled. None of the devices mentioned above measure hormones directly. They infer hormone levels from temperature, heart rate and HRV, and illness, alcohol, travel or a bad night's sleep can all muddy the signal. A wearable can't always distinguish ovulation from a rough night, which is why pretty much every brand stresses that its features are for wellness, not diagnosis. The next step may be dedicated hormone monitoring. Clair Health is developing a wearable that it says reads hormone patterns from more than 130 physiological signals, using machine learning trained on paired hormone data. That's still inference rather than direct measurement, and it isn't on sale yet, with devices due in January 2027. For now, then, what's above is what is available. They might not be perfect, but it's a lot better than what it was even a couple of years ago, so Stuff is on the right track. Britta O'Boyle About. Britta has covered the consumer tech industry since 2012. Her specialties include smartphones, smart home, speakers and wearables.

ŌURA to 'vigorously defend' lawsuit alleging deceptive sleep tracking marketing claims. Published on: 9th October 2026 at 11:50 AM Wearable tech brand ŌURA has said it will "vigorously defend" allegations that it misled consumers through marketing claims about the accuracy of its sleep tracking technology. The lawsuit, filed on 20 August in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by plaintiff Madison Surber through the Clarkson Law Firm, alleges that ŌURA overstated the accuracy of its sleep tracking capabilities and deceptively marketed its smart rings as being able to accurately measure different stages of sleep. The case argues that sleep staging requires monitoring brain waves, eye movements and muscle tone, rather than relying solely on the heart rate, movement and temperature data detected by a ring. The allegations specifically target ŌURA's marketing claims, including assertions that its devices achieve between 79 and 95 per cent accuracy in sleep staging compared to clinical sleep labs. The plaintiff alleges that ŌURA's rings lack neurological and ocular sensors, such as brain wave or eye movement monitors, and instead rely on peripheral data and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning estimates. The lawsuit contends this approach can be no better than a coin flip under certain conditions. The filing accuses ŌURA of misrepresenting "faulty AI-based inference as reliable science" and taking advantage of consumers who struggle with sleep or have health concerns. The lawsuit claims the marketing messages were spread across several channels, including ŌURA's websites, retail partners and social media, with the plaintiff alleging the brand presented its sleep tracking capabilities as offering near-clinical levels of accuracy. ŌURA officially launched in 2013 and released its first-generation ring in 2015. Its fifth-generation ring was launched in June this year. In Australia, Oura Ring 5 in Gold, is currently being sold for A $799 on their official website. The case explains that the ŌURA Ring 4, ŌURA Ring 4 Ceramic and ŌURA Ring 5 models at issue, contrary to the defendants' marketing claims, merely "infer sleep stage data" based on heart rate, physical movement, peripheral skin temperature and, depending on the model, blood oxygen trends. None of these measures neurological activity. According to Surber, accurately tracking sleep metrics must involve, among other things, electrodes connected to the scalp and sensors on the eyes and chin, which are typically used in a hospital or laboratory setting. The case emphasises that "sleep happens in the brain, not on one's finger" and argues that the "unparalleled accuracy" claims touted by ŌURA are unfounded in light of the rings' limitations. It adds that "Oura did not just claim to measure a heartbeat or a temperature, but the exact stage of sleep the wearer is in - which in reality requires electrodes in the scalp and sensors on the eyes, as only a hospital or other clinical setting can do. Yet Oura claimed that their ring - which uses no such technology - delivers 'unparalleled accuracy'." In the filing, Surber also alleges that marketing messages promising near-100 per cent accuracy in sleep stage tracking "were spread across every channel Oura controls", including its websites, retail partners and social media. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Ricky Bloomfield, ŌURA's chief medical officer (CMO) said ŌURA stood by its data and accuracy claims, highlighting the release of publicly available research supporting its technology. "We will vigorously defend against those in the appropriate legal forum," he said. Bloomfield said ŌURA did not make diagnostic tools, and its devices were designed to provide customers with information that raises awareness about various disorders and leads to more informed discussions with doctors and other health professionals. "We don't have enough primary care physicians, and those that we do have feel like they're overworked and they don't have a lot of time to spend. And so, oftentimes, when someone comes in with a very specific concern supported by data, it often helps to short circuit a lot of the discussion for clinicians, so that they can focus in on the questions that they need the answers to then get to a diagnosis," Bloomfield added. In a similar case earlier this year oral healthcare brand Hi Smile was forced to cough up $138,600 in penalties by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as a result of misleading social media advertising. An official trial start date has not yet been scheduled for the Surber v. Oura lawsuit, with legal proceedings remaining in the early stages. Join more than 30,000 advertising industry experts Get all the latest advertising and media news direct to your inbox from B&T.