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Apple’s collaboration with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the Apple Womenâs Health Study has begun shedding new light on how women’s health and technology intersect. One of its most recent findings, updated on the Harvard site in 2024, focuses on the relationship between exercise habits and the menstrual cycle â a topic long steeped in both science and speculation.
This unique study, which began in 2019, uses data collected from over 110,000 participants via Apple devices like the iPhone and Apple Watch. The scale of this research makes it one of the most comprehensive health-focused datasets available to date. Over 22 million individual workouts were analyzed to determine whether or not the menstrual cycle affects how much women exercise â and if so, how significantly.
The findings might surprise many.
the Study: Cycle, Activity, and Health
The top five exercise types among participants were walking, cycling, running, functional strength training, and yoga.
Participants with regular menstrual cycles averaged 20.6 minutes of exercise per day.
Those with irregular cycles averaged slightly less, at 18.6 minutes per day.
When broken down by menstrual phases:
During the follicular phase, the median daily exercise was 21 minutes.
During the luteal phase, it slightly decreased to 20.9 minutes.
These differences indicate minimal variation in workout duration based on menstrual phases.
The study suggests that while cycle awareness may be increasing, it doesnât significantly dictate actual physical activity levels.
The core message from lead researcher Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah: Consistency in movement matters more than timing, and long-term benefits arise from sustainable, enjoyable routines.
Dr. Mahalingaiah emphasized the holistic health impacts of exercise: better mood, more energy, and reduced long-term health risks.
Apple devices played a critical role by tracking exercise, menstrual data, and syncing them anonymously, providing a powerful platform for health insights at scale.
Data was crowdsourced but processed with privacy-preserving techniques.
This study helps reinforce the importance of integrating digital health tools with medical research.
What Undercode Say:
This kind of longitudinal, large-scale health study points to a deeper trend: the fusion of wearable tech and personalized healthcare. Appleâs move isnât just about selling smartwatches â itâs about becoming a core player in public health research. Thatâs not trivial.
Weâre seeing a subtle but important shift: data democratization. Where once medical insights relied on small, often geographically narrow test groups, now companies can gather anonymized data from tens of thousands of users across the world. And this is just scratching the surface.
From a tech perspective, this study also hints at increasing public trust in health tracking technologies. Apple users voluntarily contributed sensitive information â from menstrual logs to workout habits â in the name of science. Thatâs a significant trust signal, and Apple is positioning itself to capitalize on that credibility.
For developers and researchers, this also introduces new questions:
Can this model scale to other conditions, like mental health or chronic fatigue?
Will fitness data ever influence personalized health recommendations at the device level?
What role will AI play in synthesizing the nuanced relationship between biology and behavior?
From a data science angle, the low variability in workout times across menstrual phases was a subtle but key takeaway. We often expect dramatic behavioral differences based on hormonal shifts, but this massive dataset tells another story: women adapt. They maintain habits. The assumption that menstrual cycles drastically hinder performance may be exaggerated â at least in terms of day-to-day exercise duration.
Also worth noting: this data contradicts a lot of popular content in the fitness influencer space, where cycle syncing (timing workouts to your menstrual phase) is often promoted. This doesnât mean the practice is useless, but it does suggest that broad behavioral trends donât align neatly with that approach.
For healthcare providers, this reinforces the idea that individualized advice beats generalized cycle-based prescriptions. Most importantly, the message is empowering: women arenât biologically bound to their cycles in terms of motivation or capability. Theyâre more consistent than theyâre given credit for.
Technologically, Apple is quietly building an ecosystem where your health is tracked continuously â and that data can directly fuel global medical studies. The implications for research, preventative care, and even insurance underwriting are massive.
From a UX standpoint, expect to see more cycle-aware features in Appleâs Health app over the coming years. Not because behavior drastically changes, but because awareness improves outcomes. This also opens doors for health startups to create new tools based on long-term health data aggregation.
Fact Checker Results
Verified: Apple began the Womenâs Health Study in 2019 in partnership with Harvard and the NIH.
Accurate: Over 22 million workouts and 110,000 participants were involved.
Confirmed: Minimal variation was found in exercise across menstrual phases.
Prediction
Apple will expand this kind of research across more demographics and health conditions, likely involving longitudinal mental health studies next. The Apple Watch will evolve into not just a fitness tracker but a diagnostic assistant. Over the next 3â5 years, expect major healthcare partnerships with universities and insurance providers using anonymized Watch data to fuel everything from epidemiology to personalized health guidance. Meanwhile, menstrual health tech will continue to mature, integrating AI for predictive modeling, alerts, and tailored coaching.
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Reported By: 9to5mac.com
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