Main points
- A lack of attention to women’s health in research and education leads to dangerous misdiagnosis.
- Oura Women’s Health Product Manager Dr. Gotlieb explains how the Oura Ring improves understanding of the female body.
- Oura’s features help track cycles and pregnancy and enhance women’s health.
Unfortunately, women’s health often gets pushed aside. Even today, research focuses primarily on men (or, more specifically, those who don’t cycle). Lack of research has a trickle-down effect. Women are often gaslighted in doctor’s offices, keeping us from addressing health issues. Additionally, there is a significant lack of education for women and others with menstrual cycles, resulting in limited understanding of our bodies and experiences. At best, these three issues can be frustrating and confusing, but at worst, it can lead to dangerous health problems through failure to diagnose.
Enter Dr. Neta Gotlieb, Oura’s Women’s Health Product Manager. Dr. Gotlieb first started using the Oura Ring during a high-risk pregnancy. She had more questions than the doctor had answers, and Tamaki Ohura at least allowed her to get a baseline of health statistics so she could monitor the situation herself.
Dr. Gottlieb saw an opportunity to help women better understand their bodies and increase “body literacy,” as she describes it.
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Dr. Gottlieb saw an opportunity to help women better understand their bodies and increase “body literacy,” as she describes it. She also recognized that by collecting data, women could submit reports to their doctors if something went wrong. Oura joins the team, initially as a scientist and then in the role of product manager. Now, it’s a team of women creating features that help women, and that’s a powerful motivator.
Not enough research has been done on people with periods
Dr. Gottlieb shared with me the shocking gender bias in science and medicine. “It’s not malicious or intentional, but men have been the default subject in research,” she said. Even diseases that primarily affect women use male subjects (including in animal or cell models).
This exclusion from research results in a huge knowledge gap that is anything but harmless. It leads to overmedication and misdiagnosis of serious health problems in women.
Dr. Gottlieb went on to say that this gender bias is due to the long-held belief that male subjects are easier to study, largely because ovarian rhythms increase the population variance in a random sample. However, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, recently published a study using the Oura Ring to track remote body temperature for six months and found that “sex differences were present as expected, but across multiple statistical comparisons and time scales, in no single group.” difference”. Always exceeds the others in variance. “
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This exclusion from research results in a huge knowledge gap that is anything but harmless. It leads to overmedication and misdiagnosis of serious health problems in women. Oura is committed to changing this situation and is very active in the field of research. The company recently collaborated with the UCSF Center for Reproductive Health on a study to understand how continuous menstrual monitoring using the Oura Ring could help women with irregular menstruation and polycystic ovary syndrome. It also previously collaborated with the University of California, San Diego to uncover key patterns in pregnancy.
Women need better education
“Most of us are taught that women have periods, periods,” Dr. Gottlieb explains. There is no education about our entire cycle and the impact each stage has on the body. It was only a few years ago that I learned about the different phases of our cycle and the impact each phase had on how I felt, and I was already in my thirties.
Understanding why this happens is empowering and allows me to work with my body rather than against it.
Knowing why you feel the way you do can be very powerful. For example, Dr. Gottlieb and I discussed how the phases of the cycle affect motivation and performance in the gym. The luteal phase can make us feel sluggish and weak, and before I knew this, I would have been very frustrated with such fluctuations.
Understanding why this happens is empowering and allows me to work with my body rather than against it.
Dr. Gottlieb advises, “Instead of thinking you had a bad day at the gym, you can know you had a really good day based on how your body performed that day.” This mindset is definitely one I will stick with .
Simply put, our education system sets people up to fail because of the cycle. As the saying goes, knowledge is power. Dr. Gottlieb explains that better education allows people with periods to “understand their bodies, even if they are not prepared for success. This allows them to take care of themselves accordingly.”
How does Oura Tamaki influence all of this?
Its unobtrusive shape is a huge help
The Oura Ring can serve as a supplementary support and education system for cyclists. Using an array of sensors built into the ring (including a negative temperature coefficient sensor for measuring body temperature), the Oura ring can help you gain insight into your cycle.
When asked why the ring stands out over a smartwatch that also measures temperature, Dr. Gottlieb said, “The biggest win is the form factor. You charge it once a week, it’s not as noticeable as a watch, and There are no screens to distract you. ”
Initially, Oura predicts when your period will start based on how your body temperature changes over time. “The next step is cycle insights, which adds another layer,” Dr. Gottlieb said.
Cycle Insights, launching in fall 2023, will provide a more detailed view of monthly cycles. It’s still based on body temperature, because “after ovulation, body temperature goes up. Then, if pregnancy doesn’t happen, body temperature goes down,” Dr. Gottlieb explains.
It helps people with periods make informed decisions and gives you an intimate window into your physiology, allowing you to become your own expert.
With Cycle Insights, users can see the average length of their menstrual cycle and what phase they are currently in. This information is particularly useful and helpful for the one in 5,000 people who are born without a uterus. “They can still see themselves going through their menstrual cycle and ovulating, which validates what they’re experiencing,” Dr. Gottlieb said.
Cycle insight tools are also important for getting the most out of your body.
Every day is different, and this tool helps women understand how to exercise, eat, and sleep based on their current stage. It helps people with periods make informed decisions and gives you an intimate window into your physiology, allowing you to become your own expert.
–PhD.Ola Gottlieb
Better understanding of their bodies can also allow people with periods to understand if and how their cycles change. For example, Dr. Gottlieb told me about a woman who noticed that her menstrual cycles were very irregular and long, and she also noticed that her body temperature increased significantly.
She told her doctor about this information and was diagnosed with primary ovarian insufficiency, which caused her to enter perimenopause at age 27.
She took this information to her doctor and was diagnosed with primary ovarian insufficiency, which caused her to enter perimenopause at age 27. Without seeing this data, she might never seek medical care or might be turned away by a doctor.
How Oura helps pregnant women
I asked Dr. Gotlieb what she is most proud of at Oura
She said that in addition to being proud of her team of women for supporting such a powerful tool for women, she’s most proud of the app’s new pregnancy feature. The Pregnancy Insights feature, launched earlier this month, is just the latest step Oura is taking to provide better information and education to women.
This feature focuses on the mother and her body, not necessarily the baby, which makes it stand out from other apps that help you track your pregnancy.
This new feature is designed to help expectant mothers through the different stages of pregnancy. You can now enter your pregnancy information, track your gestational age, and get maternal education. This feature focuses on the mother and her body, not necessarily the baby, which makes it stand out from other apps that help you track your pregnancy.
Dr. Gottlieb explains that women are not told what to expect during pregnancy, making it difficult to know whether what they are experiencing is normal or worrisome. Using data from the Oura Ring, the app can help you understand your heart rate or sleep during pregnancy. It also provides weekly information on maternal changes based on specific stages. All of this information can provide reassurance to pregnant women and give them a better idea of when something might go wrong.
In addition to helping mothers, Dr. Gotlieb said obstetricians and gynecologists have found the Oura app’s history tab to be very useful when working with patients. You can also export the data and send it to the doctor, which is very convenient.
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Women’s Health Features Moving Forward
While Dr. Gottlieb could not provide any details about their plans, she did say they have a “very ambitious roadmap.” To help that growth, users can provide anonymous feedback about content they’d like to see or want improved, which she said will be carefully considered and evaluated.
Dr. Gottlieb said that outside of Oura, she’s glad people are talking more about women’s health. She’s also pleased to see President Biden push for a focus on women’s health by expanding research and funding for sexual and reproductive issues. To improve our understanding of the female body, support is needed at this level. Tools like the Oura Ring can aid this research while also enhancing people’s daily lives.