Consumer wearables and personal devices for tracking the fertile window

Abstract

The market for technology that tracks ovulation to promote conception is rapidly expanding in the United States, targeting the growing audience of technologically proficient, reproductive-age female consumers. In this narrative review, twenty-three different, non-prescription wearables and devices designed to help women track their fertile window were identified as currently, commercially available in the United States. The majority of these utilize measurements of basal body temperature or combinations of various urinary hormones. This clinical opinion characterizes the scant available research validating the accuracy of these technologies. It further examines research oversight, discusses the utility of these wearables and devices to consumers, and considers these technologies through an equity lens. The discussion concludes with a call for innovation, describing promising new technologies that not only harness unique physiologic parameters to predict ovulation, but also focus on cost-effectiveness with the hope of increasing access to these currently costly devices and wearables.