In The News

May 2024: A new study adds to the evidence that girls in America are reaching puberty earlier with potentially troubling implications for their long-term health.

May 2024: A new study of 71,341 women supports the growing concern that the age at which girls start menstruating is getting younger, and the trends are even more pronounced for some racial and ethnic groups.

May 2024: A new study found that girls are starting their menstrual cycles earlier now than in previous decades.

May 2024: In an analysis of more than 60,000 participants who reported menstrual cycle and other hormone-related data via the Apple research app, researchers also found that longer time to menstrual cycle regularity since menarche was associated with a higher prevalence of several cardiometabolic conditions.

September 2023: Researchers are using smartwatches and fitness trackers to do large-scale studies that would have been impossible in the past. Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah and Dr. Huichu Li highlight the benefits of tech wearables in menstrual cycle research.

March 2023: Apple Women’s Health Study researchers used survey data from over 50,000 participants to advance the scientific understanding of the relationship between persistently abnormal periods, PCOS, and endometrial hyperplasia and cancer.

March 2023: Menstruation is a natural and normal part of life for half the population, but it remains surrounded by stigma in both science and society. Dr. Sumbul Desai and Dr. Michelle A. Williams wrote an op-ed arguing that it’s time to drop the euphemisms and start the conversation.

May 2022: Shruthi Mahalingaiah, co-principal investigator of the Apple Women’s Health Study, joined Apple Health’s Lauren Cheung for a panel discussion about how digital tools are helping to advance women’s health research.

March 2022: Smart watches and other wearable devices have the potential to transform medical research. Michelle A. Williams, Former Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Sumbul Ahmad Desai, M.D., VP, Health, Apple took part in a panel discussion at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Health Forum, where they discussed their work to advance medical research using wearable technology.

February 2022: Shruthi Mahalingaiah, assistant professor of environmental, reproductive, and women’s health, presented a webinar about wearable tech and fertility care for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). As part of the webinar, Shruthi shared insights from the Apple Women’s Health Study.

December 2021: Throughout 2021, the Apple Women’s Health Study team presented analyses and findings in a variety of ways.

November 2021: Thanks to survey, menstrual cycle tracking, and sensor data shared by Apple Women’s Health Study participants throughout the study’s first two years, the study team has been able to gain a deeper understanding of women’s health across the lifespan.

November 2021: Shruthi Mahalingaiah, one of the Apple Women’s Health Study’s principal investigators, joined the principal investigators of the other two studies in the Research app, the Apple Hearing Study and the Apple Heart and Movement Study, for a panel discussion about the potential impact of virtual, longitudinal studies on improving health outcomes. The panel was organized by the American Heart Association (AHA) as part of the Scientific Sessions.

October 2021: The Apple Women’s Health Study’s first paper, Design and methods of the Apple Women’s Health Study: a digital longitudinal cohort study sets the stage for future analyses aimed at facilitating discovery in women’s and reproductive health.

September 2021: From May 2020 to October 2020, pregnancy attempts among women in the U.S. dropped from 6.1% to 4.9%—almost 20%—according to a new analysis from the Apple Women’s Health Study.

June 2021: The Apple Women’s Health Study team led a session on “Digital Innovations for Women’s Health Research” during the 2021 National Summit on the Health of Women. The summit, presented by the Brigham and Women’s Marry Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, convened a multi-stakeholder group of bioscience experts to celebrate recent advancements in women’s health and advance innovative research.

July 2021: Shruthi Mahalingaiah, one of the study’s principal investigators, presented a poster about the design and methods of the Apple Women’s Health Study at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI) in July 2021. The annual meeting brings together researchers to discuss improving reproductive health outcomes.

March 2021: The Apple Women’s Health Study team at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has released preliminary scientific data on women and their menstrual symptoms, contributed by a cohort of 10,000 participants of varying ages and races across the U.S. participating in the study through Apple’s Research app. The data could advance the science around women’s health and help destigmatize menstruation, according to the researchers.

November 2020: This month marks the first anniversary of the launch of the revolutionary Apple Women’s Health Study. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health along with Apple and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) are working to gain a deeper understanding of how demographic and lifestyle factors could have an impact on menstrual cycles and gynecologic conditions including infertility, menopause, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Spring 2020: The Apple Women’s Health Study—a unique partnership among Apple Inc., the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—has set out to demystify and illuminate menstruation and accord it the scientific scrutiny and social acceptance it deserves.

March 2020: Could an app help scientists better understand menstruation, fertility, and menopause? On an episode of Harvard Chan This Week in Health, Shruthi Mahalingaiah and JP Onnela talk about the groundbreaking Apple Women’s Health Study.