Tracking Sleep, Temperature, Heart Rate, and Daily Symptoms Across the Menstrual Cycle with the Oura Ring in Healthy Women

Abstract

Background and Objective The ovulatory menstrual cycle is characterized by hormonal fluctuations that influence physiological systems and functioning. Multi-sensor wearable devices can be sensitive tools capturing cycle-related physiological features pertinent to women’s health research. This study used the Oura ring to track changes in sleep and related physiological features, and also tracked self-reported daily functioning and symptoms across the regular, healthy menstrual cycle. Methods Twenty-six healthy women (age, mean (SD): 24.4 (1.1 years)) with regular, ovulatory cycles (length, mean (SD): 28.57 (3.8 days)) were monitored across a complete menstrual cycle. Four menstrual cycle phases, reflecting different hormone milieus, were selected for analysis: menses, ovulation, mid-luteal, and late-luteal. Objective measures of sleep, sleep distal skin temperature, heart rate (HR) and vagal-mediated heart rate variability (HRV, rMSSD), derived from the Oura ring, and subjective daily diary measures (eg sleep quality, readiness) were compared across phases. Results Wearable-based measures of sleep continuity and sleep stages did not vary across the menstrual cycle. Women reported no menstrual cycle-related changes in perceived sleep quality or readiness and only marginally poorer mood in the midluteal phase. However, they reported moderately more physical symptoms during menses (p < 0.001). Distal skin temperature and HR, measured during sleep, showed a biphasic pattern across the menstrual cycle, with increased HR (p < 0.03) and body temperature (p < 0.001) in the mid- and late-luteal phases relative to menses and ovulation. Correspondingly, rMSSD HRV tended to be lower in the luteal phase. Further, distal skin temperature was lower during ovulation relative to menses (p = 0.05). Conclusion The menstrual cycle was not accompanied by significant fluctuations in objective and perceived measures of sleep or in mood, in healthy women with regular, ovulatory menstrual cycles. However, other physiological changes in skin temperature and HR were evident and may be longitudinally tracked with the Oura ring in women over multiple cycles in a natural setting.

Concentration QTc analysis of giredestrant: Overcoming QT/heart rate confounding in the presence of drug‐induced heart rate changes

“…25,26 In healthy pre-menopausal women, fluctuations in estrogen levels through the menstrual cycle co-occur with changes in average HR, with the estrogen-low menstrual phase having the lowest HR. 27 Further studies are needed to fully explore the mechanism by which SERDs decrease HR.…”

“…Estrogen receptor alpha has been shown to be expressed and capable of signaling in rat cardiac monocytes ex vivo, and non‐canonical G‐protein coupled estrogen receptor signaling in central nervous system has been implicated in regulating HR in the rat in vivo 25,26 . In healthy pre‐menopausal women, fluctuations in estrogen levels through the menstrual cycle co‐occur with changes in average HR, with the estrogen‐low menstrual phase having the lowest HR 27 . Further studies are needed to fully explore the mechanism by which SERDs decrease HR.…”

Wearable and ingestible technology to evaluate and prevent exertional heat illness: A narrative review

“…Although not a primary focus of this review, due to the general popularity and advertising awareness of other devices, it is important to recognize that there are commercially available devices, such as the Oura ring, that have been found to accurately track the changes of skin temperature for females during a menstrual cycle. 28,29 Additionally, there appears to be promise with the Fitbit or Apple Watch for similar purposes. However, to the authors' knowledge, none of these devices have been validated for estimating core temperature during activity in the heat.…”

Deep Learning Model Using Continuous Skin Temperature Data Predicts Labor Onset

“…Data is then parsed to generate structured schema, table meta-data in AWS glue, and participant partitions (to accelerate querying of per minute temperature data). These are then fed into a serverless querying solution provided by AWS Athena as shown by (2). B) We pass the raw minute temperatures from the device through pre-processing steps.…”

“…However, skin surface temperature has emerged as a practical metric for monitoring the female reproductive system via its influence on thermoregulation and autonomic tone. [11][12][13] Human skin temperature has already been deemed useful in cases ranging from peri-ovulatory window prediction 2,3,14 to conception 15 and fever detection. [16][17][18][19][20] Both the central nervous system and peripheral vasculature contribute to the utility of temperature in reproductive monitoring.…”