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Clue launches initiative to close diagnosis gap for female health conditions
The project is supported by top researchers and aims to leverage Clue’s data for new insights
The period tracking app Clue has announced a new initiative to leverage its collective, anonymised health data to help close the diagnosis gap for the most common yet under-researched and underdiagnosed female health conditions.
With the new My Health Record feature within the Clue app, users will be able to input confirmed diagnoses for 21 different health conditions including endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), uterine fibroids, bleeding disorders and anxiety disorders.
Clue is engaging with researchers from top institutions, such as the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Exeter, and collaborating with the Menarche Menstruation Menopause and Mental Health (4M) consortium on the ways in which this unique dataset can be leveraged to help close the diagnosis gap in areas that have previously lacked large-scale data for research.
Launched in 2021, 4M facilitates collaborative interdisciplinary research into how menstruation and menopause interact with mental health.
Research projects planned for Clue’s Health Record data in 2024 include improving diagnostics for endometriosis and PMDD, exploring the impact of the menstrual cycle on ADHD, anxiety, and depression and shedding light on under-researched symptom patterns in early perimenopause.
“Together with our global user community, we are creating what will be the world’s largest data set that can match the menstrual and wider health symptom patterns of people with confirmed diagnoses with those who have the same patterns, but who don’t yet have a diagnosis,” said Audrey Tsang, Clue CEO.
“By working with top researchers from around the world to leverage this data, we believe we will be able to make significant progress to accelerate and improve diagnostics and support for people with these conditions.”
Gemma Sharp, associate professor in epidemiology in the School of Psychology at the University of Exeter, and founder and director of the 4M consortium, said: “I started the global 4M research consortium because I was astounded by the social stigma, lack of understanding and paucity of research in the field of women’s menstrual health, which is a big contributor to gender inequality. Half the world menstruates, and related health issues can have a major impact on quality of life, health and wellbeing.
“Now, this new partnership between our global research consortium and Clue is a really exciting opportunity to conduct research at the intersection of two crucial areas: menstrual and mental health.
“This collaboration will allow us to gather and analyse data on a massive scale, enabling us to generate answers which will improve understanding of women’s health, and ultimately improve lives.”
Professor Kim Harley, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said: “The impacts of perimenopause symptoms, including loss of sleep, hot flashes, mood and mental health changes, are coming to the fore as a major factor in economic and health equality.
“However, there is still a lot we don’t know about the very earliest stages of perimenopause, the frequency and severity of symptoms, and individual factors that increase symptoms. This is tied to the lack of real-time data on large populations of people experiencing this highly individual and often gradual process.
“Working with Clue and its new ‘perimenopause mode’ provides the opportunity to study and understand the perimenopausal process. Clue’s data is unique in that it covers poorly understood periods of people’s reproductive lives, including the transition from fertility to menopause, early onset menopause and the experiences of people at the beginning stages of this process before they would otherwise be clinically identified.
“Many people experience symptoms without understanding them as part of the perimenopause process and few people successfully receive clinical support for their symptoms. We hope that our research with Clue will help individual users understand more about this universal life stage.”
Currently, only one per cent of traditional biopharma R&D funding goes into female health conditions, despite women spending nearly twice as much on healthcare as men.
Conditions that disproportionately affect women, such as endometriosis, migraine and anxiety disorders, all attract much less funding relative to the disease burden, which considers the impact on the population in terms of quality of life, cost of care, and loss of productivity.
“What is politely called ‘the research gap’ is more of a research ‘canyon’ when it comes to female health, with the direct consequence that millions of women and people with cycles people are living with symptoms that could benefit from medical support, but too often it takes far too long for them to access that support and treatment,” explained Tsang, Clue CEO.
“We believe through this initiative we’ll be able to uncover insights and patterns that can be used to develop personalised insights to help people engage with their healthcare providers and accelerate the diagnosis process.”
She added: “We know data is power and agency when it comes to health and that it can play a critical role in making what is otherwise invisible, both visible and quantifiable.
“We’re excited to take the scale of Clue data and put it to work to specifically address the diagnosis gaps that cause so much frustration, confusion and pain. Having a diagnosis can mean validation, relief and most importantly, the opportunity to get the help and treatment one needs.”
To paint a picture of the current diagnosis gaps and delays for women and people with cycles:
- In 72 per cent of cases, women will wait longer than men to get a diagnosis for the same health conditions.
- One in 10 will have endometriosis, but only 40 per cent will be diagnosed, with seven to 12 years between the first onset of symptoms to the actual diagnosis.
- 90 per cent of women with PMDD are undiagnosed, with an average delay of 20 years before it is correctly identified.
- 70 per cent of women with PCOS are undiagnosed and for a third of those with the condition, it will take two years to diagnose. Almost half of people with this condition had to see more than three healthcare providers to get a diagnosis.
- One in three women with perimenopausal symptoms go undiagnosed and middle-aged women are more likely to have their symptoms brushed off as mental health related.
As a Germany-based company, Clue says it adheres to the world’s strictest data privacy laws. Data tracked within the app, the company says, has long contributed to important scientific research helping to close the gender-data gap, to improve societal understanding of menstrual and reproductive health.
According to Clue, data is only used for research with the express consent of users – and research partners only work with anonymous data that cannot be traced back to any individual.
In a recent survey, 85 per cent of Clue users indicated that they wanted their anonymised data to be used for health research.
A new Female Health Hub launched by the English FA will support women and girls in grassroots football in England with trusted advice on health issues affecting play.
The hub brings together expert-backed guidance, practical tools and player insights in one place, giving women and girls practical advice and reassurance on female health in football.
It has four core aims: to help women and girls better understand their bodies and how female health affects performance and participation, to educate players on key health topics and when to seek further advice or support, to provide practical strategies to help navigate common female health challenges, and to help break down taboos and normalise conversations around female health in football.
Users of the hub will also be able to hear directly from members of the England women’s national team, who share their own experiences of navigating female health matters while playing at the highest level of the game.
“Our ambition is to create a game where women and girls can thrive,” said Sue Day, the FA’s director of women’s football.
“To achieve that, it’s essential that players feel supported in environments that understand and respond to their female health needs.
“We’ve heard directly from grassroots players that they want better information and support around female health, but that they often don’t know where to find it.
“The launch of the Female Health Hub marks an important step in changing the landscape.
“We want every player to feel confident in her own skin and supported without judgment, so she can feel empowered by her body, rather than held back by it.”
The platform was launched following research conducted by the FA that highlighted the need for better education and support around female health in football.
According to the FA, 88 per cent of adult players surveyed said their menstrual cycle has an impact on their ability to train or play, but 86 per cent reported they had never received education about the menstrual cycle in relation to football performance and training.
The research also found 64 per cent of women experience issues related to sports bras or breast health while playing football, despite sports bras being considered one of the most important pieces of playing kit.
Players also expressed strong interest in learning more about injury prevention, at 87 per cent, nutrition, at 84 per cent, and mental health, at 77 per cent, in relation to female health.
The first phase of the Female Health Hub focuses on three of the most requested topics: menstrual health, breast health and injury resilience, with further content to follow, including nutrition and pelvic health guidance.
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has referred to the women’s health strategy as a ‘missed opportunity’ to address maternity services.
The renewed strategy was released by the government this week, with the aim of putting women’s experiences at the centre of care and ensuring they are “better heard and served”.
However, the government stated that because of ongoing investigations into maternity services across the country, the strategy “does not seek to address safety in maternity and neonatal services”.
The RCM described this as a “missed opportunity” and urged the government to ensure that, following the inquiries, maternity is placed “at the very heart” of the strategy.
Gill Walton, RCM chief executive, said the college was “deeply disappointed” that maternity services “do not feature as a headline priority” in the renewed strategy.
She said: “This is a significant missed opportunity and one that is very difficult to understand.
“Pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period are not a footnote in women’s health – they are one of the most significant and consequential phases of a woman’s life.
“A strategy that treats maternity as an afterthought is not truly a women’s health strategy at all. It is exactly the kind of thinking that has allowed maternity services to reach the point they are at today.”
Walton acknowledged that the strategy contained commitments on ensuring women’s voices shape their care, on supporting families through pregnancy loss and on the principle that services should be held accountable when they fail to listen to women.
She added: “But a strategy that addresses one part of women’s health while leaving maternity care behind is only doing half the job.”
Walton urged the government to ensure that this is addressed when the ongoing investigations into maternity care conclude, with any recommendations placed “at the very heart of this strategy with the seriousness and urgency that women, families and midwives deserve”.
In the foreword to the renewed plans, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting referred to the ongoing independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation as action being taken by the government to improve safety in maternity services.
The strategy also refers to the new National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by Streeting, which aims to help deliver “safer, more equitable care” for women, babies and families.
The foreword said that, because of ongoing initiatives, it was “important that this work continues without restriction and that the government can properly respond to the findings”.
It added: “This renewed women’s health strategy therefore does not seek to address safety in maternity and neonatal services other than that related to women’s health before and during pregnancy and the actions we are taking immediately to improve maternity and neonatal care.”
The strategy does, however, include plans to prioritise health education in schools, communities and healthcare settings to “empower women” with the “knowledge and tools they need to help control their fertility” and “prepare for the best pregnancy outcomes.
It also promises to provide women with access to “safe and high-quality contraception, abortion care, fertility services, preconception care and support after pregnancy loss in convenient settings.
Article produced in association with London Pregnancy Clinic and Jeen Health
For the majority of couples planning a pregnancy, genetic testing is not something they think about until a problem arises.
Pre-conception genetic carrier screening challenges this approach by identifying risk before pregnancy begins.
As panel sizes have grown and at-home testing options have become widely available, carrier screening is transitioning from a niche clinical referral into a mainstream component of reproductive planning.
What Carrier Screening Tests For
Being a carrier of a genetic condition means carrying one copy of a variant in a gene associated with that condition, without being affected by it.
In most cases, carriers are entirely unaware of their status.
The clinical significance of carrier status emerges when both members of a couple carry a variant in the same gene: in this scenario, each pregnancy carries a one in four chance of resulting in a child who inherits two copies of the variant and is affected by the condition.
The conditions most frequently included in expanded carrier screening panels include cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), fragile X syndrome, sickle cell disease, and a range of metabolic and enzyme deficiency disorders.
The Beacon 787 carrier test, offered by Jeen Health, screens for 787 conditions from a single sample, making it one of the most comprehensive panels currently available to UK families.
Who Is Most Likely to Benefit
Any couple planning a pregnancy can consider carrier screening. It is particularly relevant for:
- Couples with a family history of a known inherited condition
- Those from populations with higher carrier frequencies for specific conditions, including Ashkenazi Jewish, South Asian and African communities
- Couples pursuing fertility treatment, where genetic information informs treatment planning
- Those who wish to have the most complete picture of their reproductive health before conception
Importantly, being a carrier of a condition does not mean a child will be affected. It means there is a defined statistical risk that can be quantified, discussed and planned for with appropriate clinical support.
How the Test Is Performed
Carrier screening is typically carried out on a blood or saliva sample.
For at-home options such as the testing offered by Jeen Health, a cheek swab collection kit is dispatched to the patient, the sample is returned by post, and results are delivered digitally within a defined turnaround period.
In-clinic carrier testing may use a blood draw and provides the advantage of immediate access to a clinical consultation at the point of result delivery.
London Pregnancy Clinic offers genetics counselling through its partnership with Jeen Health, allowing couples to receive and contextualise carrier test results with expert support.
Genetic counselling before and after testing is recommended by Genomics England as a standard component of any genomic testing pathway.
What Happens If Both Partners Are Carriers
If both partners are identified as carriers for the same autosomal recessive condition, they are typically offered further counselling to discuss their options.
These may include proceeding naturally with an awareness of the risk, using prenatal diagnosis (CVS or amniocentesis) during pregnancy to test the fetus, or pursuing preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) in the context of IVF, which allows unaffected embryos to be selected before transfer.
The purpose of identifying carrier status before pregnancy is to give couples time to consider these options without the added pressure of an ongoing pregnancy.
Knowledge of carrier status does not remove reproductive choices; it expands the information available when making them.
The Role of Pre-Conception Services
Carrier screening sits within a broader category of pre-conception care that includes fertility assessments, general health optimisation and, where relevant, management of existing conditions before pregnancy begins.
London Pregnancy Clinic offers pre-conception services encompassing fertility investigations, genetics counselling and carrier testing as part of an integrated 0th trimester approach, allowing couples to address genetic and clinical risk factors before their pregnancy starts rather than after.
Disclaimer: This article is produced for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Clinical guidance referenced reflects published NHS, NICE and RCOG standards as at March 2026. Individual circumstances vary; readers are advised to consult a qualified healthcare professional before acting on any information in this article.
This piece was produced in association with London Pregnancy Clinic and Jeen Health, which provided background clinical information for editorial purposes.
Hyperlinks to external sources are included for reference only and do not represent an endorsement of any product, service or organisation.
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