Last week, Apple announced early results from its ongoing hearing health study. Conducted alongside the University of Michigan School of Public Health, the figures were released to mark World Hearing Day. Now, a day after International Women’s Day, it’s releasing results tied to its Women’s Health Study.
As with the hearing study, the figures are collected from those who choose to participate via the Research app the company launched back in 2019. It’s all a part of Apple’s attempts to take a more serious approach to user health, built, in part, on data collected through the Apple Watch and iPhone.
Early results note that symptoms like nausea and sleep changes are common, along with more frequently discussed things like bloating and cramps. The study also notes that many of the tracked symptoms are common and consistent across age, race and location — even though they may not be widely discussed. The company says the efforts are, in part, to de-stigmatize discussions around these sorts of symptoms.
Data was collected from some 10,000 participants around the U.S. with a range of different ages and ethnic backgrounds. While much of the data collection is still in early stages, Apple and research partner Harvard are looking to study the connection between menstrual cycles and a variety of different health conditions, including infertility, polycystic ovary syndrome and perimenopause.
“What researchers and physicians in the scientific community want and need to know is more about the menstrual cycle, its relation to long-term health, as well as more about what environmental factors might affect cycle length and characteristics,” Harvard’s Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah said in a statement. “With this study, we are creating a larger foundational data set on this topic, which can eventually lead to further discovery and innovation in women’s health research and care.”
