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The innovators driving the period tracking tech revolution
Period tracking has moved on from the days of jotting down dates in your diary and menstrual apps have been in business for a while now. But with femtech a growing market, having exploded so much over the past 12 months that it is predicted to be worth US$60 billion by 2027, period tracking is getting increasingly advanced, as Femtech World discovers.
Period tracking apps heralded the start of the focus on femtech, which has since developed into a lucrative industry, tapping into what has traditionally been a somewhat neglected field of healthcare.
However, there is still plenty of development going on in the field of tracking women’s menstrual cycles, with new innovations – and, admittedly, concerns – arriving on the scene all the time.
These are just some of the latest developments.
Choosing a tracker
While period trackers have one main goal – to track menstrual cycles – not all are created equal, and some may be more or less suitable depending on why a woman is tracking her period.
With reasons ranging from fertility concerns to preparing for menopause, the apps currently on the market perform a range of functions; some are a simple tracker, while others are more educational and interactive.
In a comparison of the main brands on the market, Nandhini Gopal, founder of Femcy, an app for menstrual health guidance, found that Flo, which has more than 200 million users, had the most all-round features, from tracking and analytics to knowledge courses and anonymous communities.
Meanwhile, Glow was commended for catering to the whole menstrual cycle in detail, from tracking period, trying to conceive, tracking pregnancy and caring for a newborn.
All together
Femtech company Orchyd has taken period tracking one step further, launching an app along with a connected smart wallet to store a one-day supply of period products.
The app will track users’ periods, ovulation and overall health, using artificial intelligence in order to collect information about a user’s history. Women can also set up the app to give them alerts telling them when to remove tampons, to avoid the risk of toxic shock syndrome.
The tool can also alert users a few days before their expected period with a reminder to be ready and make sure they have everything they need in the associated smart wallet.
Ending period poverty
It was only a matter of time before women’s hygiene brands entered the tracking app market, and Always did so earlier this year – with a difference.
In partnership with behaviour change technology company Thrive Global, the firm launched the Always You app, a period tracker and wellness app that also aims to end period poverty.
The tracker also leverages Thrive Global’s expertise to bring users exclusive Thrive Microsteps – small, science-backed actions users can take to build positive habits.
For every new Always You registration and for every 100 donation points earned, Always pledged to donate one period product to US non-profit Feeding America, up to a maximum donation of 1,000,000 pads.
Users earn 20 points for every period or bladder leak event tracked, with a maximum of 200 per month, 10 donation points per day by completing all Microsteps, and five donation points for each piece of content consumed.
Ringing the changes
Most period trackers are found on either phones or smart watches, such as FitBits or Apple Watches. However, in October, Oura, a sleep and activity tracker ring, announced the addition of a menstrual tracker to its Generation 3 smart ring.
The ring will use changes in temperature and user feedback to predict when a women might get her period up to 30 days in advance. Body temperature changes through the menstrual cycle, rising just before ovulation and falling as menstruation begins.
The company said period prediction was only the beginning of its interest in menstruation and fertility, as the area is currently underinvested. A study in partnership with researchers at the University of California San Diego has previously showed that the Oura ring can use temperature changes to identify pregnancy around nine days before an at-home pregnancy test, although pregnancy prediction is not part of the device at this point.
Privacy issues
As women share their most intimate health details with apps and wearables, it is not surprising that some privacy concerns have come to light.
As Michelle Richardson, director of the Privacy and Data Project at the US Center for Democracy and Technology, told Marie Clare: “Everything I put into my period-tracking app is fair game to be sold.”
Reports of women downloading a pregnancy app only to be bombarded with baby-related ads on their phones are commonplace.
A study, led by Lori Andrews, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, backed those reports up. Her team set up a tracking device to monitor 600 medical apps, of which some collected period data, and found that the majority sent identifiable information such as a user’s prescriptions to both the app developer and marketing companies.
As Andrews points out, such tracking could have real-life repercussions for women, especially in the US where many employers encourage staff to use such apps. “There are real possibilities women could get fired because they’ve disclosed [to an app] they were trying to conceive,” she says.
Ovarian cancer cells quickly activate survival responses after PARP inhibitor treatment, and a lung cancer drug could help block this, research suggests.
PARP inhibitors are a common treatment for ovarian cancer, particularly in tumours with faulty DNA repair. They stop cancer cells fixing DNA damage, which leads to cell death, but many tumours later stop responding.
Researchers identified a way cancer cells may survive PARP inhibitor treatment from the outset, pointing to a potential way to block that response. A Mayo Clinic team found ovarian cancer cells rapidly switch on a pro-survival programme after exposure to PARP inhibitors. A key driver is FRA1, a transcription factor (a protein that turns genes on and off) that helps cancer cells adapt and avoid death.
The team then tested whether brigatinib, a drug approved for certain lung cancers, could block this response and boost the effect of PARP inhibitors. Brigatinib was chosen because it inhibits multiple signalling pathways involved in cancer cell survival.
In laboratory studies, combining brigatinib with a PARP inhibitor was more effective than either treatment alone. Notably, the effect was seen in cancer cells but not normal cells, suggesting a more targeted approach.
Brigatinib also appeared to act in an unexpected way. Rather than working through the usual DNA repair routes, it shut down two signalling molecules, FAK and EPHA2, that aggressive ovarian cancer cells rely on. FAK and EPHA2 are proteins that relay survival signals inside cells. Blocking both at once weakened the cells’ ability to adapt and resist treatment, making them more vulnerable to PARP inhibitors.
Tumours with higher levels of FAK and EPHA2 responded better to the drug combination. Other data link high levels of these molecules to more aggressive disease, pointing to potential benefit in harder-to-treat cases.
Arun Kanakkanthara, an oncology investigator at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “This work shows that drug resistance does not always emerge slowly over time; cancer cells can activate survival programmes very early after treatment begins.”
John Weroha, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “From a clinical perspective, resistance remains one of the biggest challenges in treating ovarian cancer. By combining mechanistic insights from Dr Kanakkanthara’s laboratory with my clinical experience, this preclinical work supports the strategy of targeting resistance early, before it has a chance to take hold. This strategy could improve patient outcomes.”
Nighttime temperatures during pregnancy may be linked to a higher chance of an autism diagnosis in children, a recent study suggests.
The research tracked nearly 295,000 mother-child pairs in Southern California from 2001 to 2014 and linked warmer overnight temperatures with higher risk in early and late pregnancy.
Children of mothers exposed to higher than typical nighttime temperatures during weeks one to 10 of pregnancy had a 15 per cent higher risk of an autism diagnosis.
Exposure during weeks 30 to 37 was linked to a 13 per cent higher risk.
Lead author David Luglio, a post-doctoral fellow at Tulane University, said: “A key takeaway is that we identified specific windows when a mother and her developing child can be most affected by exposures to higher nighttime temperatures.
“This is critical and hopefully can help mothers prepare accordingly.”
The study is described as the first to examine how temperature may affect fetal neurodevelopment, the process by which a baby’s brain and nervous system form during pregnancy.
Extreme temperatures linked to increased risk were classified as above the 90th percentile, meaning 3.6°F hotter than average, and the 99th percentile, 5.6°F above average.
The association held even after researchers accounted for factors such as neighbourhood conditions, vegetation and fine-particle air pollution.
The study could not account for other factors such as access to air conditioning. Researchers did not find the same association with daytime temperatures, potentially because people spend more time away from home during the day.
“Heat waves are becoming more frequent, and people may only think of the dangers of daytime heat exposure,” said Mostafijur Rahman, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Tulane University.
“These results indicate a strong association between high nighttime temperatures during pregnancy and autism risk in children and show that we need to think about exposure to heat around the clock.”
The study did not examine how higher temperatures at night might affect prenatal development, though Luglio said it is possible that warmer nights disrupt sleep for pregnant mothers.
Previous research has suggested insufficient sleep during pregnancy may be linked to a higher risk of neurocognitive delays in children.
“Extreme heat exposure during pregnancy has been linked to a range of adverse health outcomes, including prenatal neurodevelopment delays and complications with an embryo’s development of a central nervous system,” Luglio said.
“The goal of our study was to specifically explore the link between prenatal heat exposure and autism diagnoses for the first time.”
Kindbody has launched a fertility platform integrating AI with clinical care and patient support for employers and health plans.
The platform will enter a pilot with select Kindbody employer clients in 2026, covering over three million lives, ahead of wider availability in 2027.
Building on the company’s clinical model, the platform aims to improve outcomes and cost efficiency across family-building journeys. It connects Kindbody-owned clinics, partner clinics and an integrated clinical app.
The app offers virtual care across conception, pregnancy and reproductive health, extending through the menopause transition.
Launch features include updates in medication management, third-party reproduction, adoption, pregnancy, men’s health and global programme design.
David Stern, chief executive of Kindbody, said: “With our next-generation fertility platform, Kindbody is redefining what comprehensive, intelligent and affordable family-building care looks like for employers, health plans and patients.
“By unifying best-in-class clinical care, AI-driven intelligence and whole-person support, we are making it easier and more cost-effective for more people to build the families they envision.”
Kindbody has expanded access via its national network of IVF centres, including IVIRMA, Inception Fertility and Ivy Fertility.
A new Fertility Medication Portal is designed to streamline authorisations so medicines can be dispensed on time, giving patients visibility from prescription to coverage, pharmacy fulfilment and delivery tracking.
Through KindMan, men’s health education, digital resources and integrated clinical care are expanding, including hormone management programmes.
Services cover andropause (age-related testosterone decline), erectile dysfunction, low testosterone and other male reproductive conditions.
Specialist fertility care includes semen analysis, diagnostic testing, male hormone panels, genetic testing, surgical sperm extraction and sperm cryopreservation.
Launching in the second quarter, a pregnancy support app will act as a digital companion for expecting and new parents, with resources, interactive tools and clinical assessments to identify social drivers of health and mental health needs during pregnancy and beyond.
Kindbody’s physician-led menopause programme provides consultations with board-certified obstetricians and gynaecologists to diagnose, treat and manage menopausal symptoms, including hormone replacement therapy where appropriate, with support from nutritionists, mental health therapists and pelvic floor specialists.
AI and analytics will be embedded across the care journey. An AI care navigator will guide employees from benefit activation through intake, triage and scheduling.
Tools will track benefits and treatment plans, showing coverage and expected out-of-pocket costs at each step.
AI-supported scribing will assist clinicians with documentation, and a predictor tool will estimate a patient’s likelihood of having a baby across different treatment paths.
In 2027, Kindbody plans a savings model for eligible large employers that it says will guarantee lower total fertility spend while improving clinical efficiency and patient experience.
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