Summary: ŌURA’s first Perimenopause Report, released for Menopause Awareness Month, analyzed de-identified data from over 100,000 female Oura Members to explore the physiological changes that occur during the menopausal transition. The report reveals how perimenopause and menopause impact sleep, mood, energy levels, and cardiovascular health. Key findings show that sleep loss progressively worsens during menopause, with hot flashes, night sweats, and cardiovascular risk factors contributing to the challenges women face. ŌURA has also introduced new perimenopause-specific tags to its platform to help women better track and manage their symptoms.
Key Takeaways:
- Progressive Sleep Loss: Women lose up to two hours of sleep per week as they transition from perimenopause to postmenopause, often due to hot flashes and night sweats.
- Mood and Health Effects: Late perimenopausal women are significantly more likely to report mood disturbances and physical symptoms, such as anger, sadness, and migraines.
- Cardiovascular Impact: Heart rate variability, a key marker of cardiovascular health, declines by 20-30% in women during early and late perimenopause.
Smart ring maker ŌURA released its first Perimenopause Report in honor of Menopause Awareness Month.
For the report, a team of research scientists at ŌURA looked at aggregate, de-identified data from more than 100,000 female Oura Members in the early perimenopause, late perimenopause, and early postmenopause age ranges for one year to identify the physiological changes that occur in the years before, during, and after menopause.
The findings shed light on the range of physical and mental changes that women go through during this transition and provide insight into the impact this stage has on sleep, mood, energy levels, cardiovascular health, and more.
“The transition to perimenopause and menopause has been shrouded in silence, stigma, and misunderstanding for far too long, leaving many women unsure of when it happens, what to expect, or how to manage the changes they are experiencing,” says Dorothy Kilroy, chief commercial officer at ŌURA, in a release. “Symptoms from perimenopause and menopause are real and pervasive, despite the fact that 44% of women feel they are not taken seriously by healthcare professionals. This report illuminates the reality of these symptoms, helping to redefine the narrative around perimenopause and allowing women, and those around them, to better understand this life stage and support their health journeys.”
Empowering Women Through Data
All women who live long enough go through perimenopause, a journey that, for most, takes about four years but can range from just a few months to as long as 14 years. During this period, women experience profound hormonal changes, resulting in changes in their physical, mental, and emotional health that can drastically impact all aspects of their daily lives.
Some women may be able to reduce the impact of these symptoms through lifestyle changes, such as physical activity or meditation and mindfulness practices. Others may find symptom relief with hormonal interventions. Regardless of their course of action, in order to address their symptoms, they must first recognize the signs of perimenopause and, in many cases, consult a medical professional. Yet only 28% of women report knowing what to expect in their menopause experience.
To help women identify some of these signs, the new Perimenopause Report from ŌURA includes multiple data points, such as symptoms captured by self-reported tags, sleep data, activity data, and cardiorespiratory data. The data show that the transition to menopause is associated with a cascade of psychophysiological symptoms, affecting not only women’s daily lives but also their overall health and wellness.
Key findings include:
- Lack of restorative sleep impairs daily functioning. Data show a progressive loss in sleep that results in up to two hours of lost sleep each week as women transition from perimenopause to postmenopause. More than half of women experience hot flashes and night sweats that can last anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes, and up to 69% of hot flashes are associated with waking up during the night.
- Perimenopause affects both physical and mental health. Oura Members in the late perimenopausal age range are 33% more likely to tag anger, 28% more likely to tag sadness, 44% more likely to tag migraine, and 51% more likely to tag acne than premenopausal women.
- Cardiovascular risk factors increase. Heart rate variability, an important marker of cardiovascular health, declines 20 to 30% in early and late perimenopausal women.
“It’s impossible to predict what each woman’s experience will be as they go through perimenopause, which is why data from wearables is extremely powerful,” says Kilroy in a release. “Some may have more symptoms than others, and those symptoms may be more mild or severe. Just knowing what those signs and symptoms are—and how they’re affecting your personal well-being—can be extremely validating for those who are experiencing them. Our goal at Oura is to thread that needle so women can identify their symptoms and then work with their providers to find the solutions that best meet their needs.”
Perimenopause Enhancements to Oura Tagging Platform
ŌURA introduced 17 new tags specific to perimenopause and menopause to its tagging platform to help members make the connection between various symptoms and how they show up in their data.
The list of tags is based on a review of research studies examining symptoms most often linked to changes during perimenopause. These include irritability, hot flash, mood swings, crying, difficulty concentrating, spotting, and more.
Members who use these tags will also see them represented in their Cycle Insights Report, a shareable, six-month report of Cycle Insights data. The report includes cycle length, period length, temperature variation, cycle phases, and symptom tags, and is designed to support women in conversations with their healthcare providers as they work together to develop plans to manage symptoms, such as lifestyle changes or hormone replacement therapy.
In Partnership: Improving Access to Innovative Care Solutions
To further support women during this transition, ŌURA is partnering with a variety of like-minded brands and experts in the women’s health space to help members better understand their bodies and offer discounted access to the solutions best suited to their individual needs.
Among these partners are at-home hormone testing platforms Mira and Proov. Both Mira and Proov can help track hormones across the menstrual cycle and complement ŌURA insights, improving each individual’s understanding of their hormone fluctuations and how this can be impacted by perimenopause.
For those interested in in-depth cycle tracking, ŌURA maintains an ongoing partnership with Clue, which recently introduced Clue Perimenopause mode and launched a new research study in collaboration with ŌURA and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, to gain a deeper insight into the physiological changes that occur during perimenopause.
New this month, ŌURA is kicking off partnerships with Hertility and sanoLiving to bridge the gap between patients and providers and offer members access to in-house clinicians and partner clinics. Through these partnerships, Oura Members can connect with experts who specialize in perimenopause and menopause to receive tailored guidance and access appropriate treatments for managing symptoms. Hertility also offers at-home diagnostic testing with clinical grade results for advanced insights into the onset of menopause and provides access to other in-house specialist care, such as fertility counseling services.
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