Apple Watch Cycle Tracking app, commonly referred to as female health tracking, helps you know when you’re fertile and when you’re likely to menstruate, making it easy for you to keep your monthly cycle in check.
By logging and tracking your periods consistently, your Apple Watch will collect sufficient data that gives you reliable insights into your period and fertility window. And because the Health app gives predictions based on already logged in data, you’ll get results only after recording your last period.
What is Female Health Tracking on Apple Watch?
Female health tracking on Apple Watch is all about the Cycle Tracking app.
Cycle Tracking allows women to record their periods, track their cycles’ heaviness and length, and log symptoms related to their cycles. Moreover, the app gives them access to cycle history, factors that affect cycles, cycle deviations, and period predictions.
- Cycle History: Log and view your periods and related symptoms.
- Factors: Include factors that affect your cycle, such as contraceptives, lactation, and pregnancy.
- Cycle Deviation: Get alert of potentially abnormal cycle patterns based on the last six months’ worth of data.
- Period Predictions: Know when your upcoming periods are and even get a push notification on your wrist for the same.
How Does Apple Watch Calculates Cycle Prediction?
An Apple Watch predicts your cycle based on your previously logged periods and cycle length. To give you a reliable prediction, the Cycle Tracking app will look at how long your periods last and the typical cycle length for every period.
Therefore, the more you log your periods in the Health app, the better results you get. Apple recommends logging each day of your period for a more precise calculation of your period.
Furthermore, the Health app can use your Apple Watch heart rate data to improve your menstrual cycle predictions. And this option is active by default.
To determine your fertile window, which refers to the 6 days you’re likely to get pregnant in any given month, the Health app subtracts 13 days from the date of your next menstrual cycle based on a traditional calendar method.
And if you have Apple Watch Ultra, Ultra 2, Series 8 or Series 9, you can use the built-in temperature and optical heart rate sensors to enhance cycle predictions and determine your next ovulation.
How to Use Cycle Tracking on Apple Watch
Getting started with female health tracking on Apple Watch is as easy as installing the app, completing the setup, logging and tracking your periods, understanding fertility window colors, and reviewing your menstrual history.
Update Your Apple Watch
Cycle tracking requires your Apple Watch and iPhone to run on watchOS 6 or later and iOS 13 or later respectively. So first, update your Apple Watch to the latest watchOS 11 and your iPhone to iOS 18.
Set Up Cycle Tracking
Open Health app on your iPhone, tap browse, and select Cycle Tracking. State the start date of your last period, how long your period lasts, and your typical cycle.
Decide whether you want to enable or disable period predictions, cycle deviation detection, and period notifications.
- Period Predictions: The Health app uses your profile information to predict the time you’re likely to have your next period.
- Cycle Deviation Detection: Stay informed if your cycle’s history shows a clinically abnormal pattern. Patterns of persistent spotting, irregular cycles, infrequent periods, or prolonged periods may need the attention of your healthcare provider if they’re accurate.
- Period Notifications: You get an alert about your upcoming periods, possible deviations, and, and prompts to log your periods at 8 P.M.
Next, check the fertility window estimate and log options if you would like to get more options about your female health:
- Fertility Window Estimate: The Health app uses your data to give a prediction of your fertile window. Furthermore, it uses the same data to estimate an ovulation date, during which you’re likely to get pregnant from sexual activity.
- Fertility Notifications: If enabled, the Health app will let you know when your fertility window is almost due.
- Log Fertility: Cycle Tracking will add fertility indicators to your Cycle Logif you enable this option.
Log Your Period
Open the Health app on your iPhone, select Cycle Tracking, and choose the correct date in which you’d like to log your period.
Tap Period under Menstruation and choose your flow level, which can be light, medium, or heavy. Select the common symptoms you experience during your cycle and indicate whether you get spotting. Lastly, tap done to log your cycle and get a period prediction.
Note that this information will be available in the Cycle Tracking app on your Apple Watch.
Understand Your Cycle Tracking Timeline
Apple Watch Cycle Tracking features a visual, interactive timeline that represent your menstrual cycle.
The timeline combines your historical female health data with frequently logged information such as period dates, symptoms, and flow levels to help you understand the different phases of your cycle.
Your visual cycle timeline features the following:
- Logged Periods: Represented by a solid red circle, logged period refers to the days you logged your periods in the app.
- Logged Details: Presented in the form of a small purple circle, logged details show the days you entered health information such as cramps, headaches, and test results.
- Period Predictions: Cycle Tracking uses a light red cycle to represent the dates in which you’re likely to have your periods.
- Estimated Fertile Window: Presented in light blue oval, this marks the predicted six-day fertile window (period within which you’re likely to get pregnant).
- Estimated Ovulation: Apple uses a light purple oval to represent an estimate date in which you’re likely to conceive based on your wrist temperature data.
- Logged Pregnancy: Represented by a solid outline, this refers to the day you logged a pregnancy in the Cycle Tracking app.
- Ongoing Pregnancy: Presented in the form of a dashed outline, this refers to a day when you’re likely still pregnant.
- Estimated Due Date: The dark green oval shape represent the date you’re likely to give birth to a child.
View and Export Your Cycle History
To view and export your cycle’s history, open Health app on your iPhone, tap Cycle Tracking, and scroll to access Your Cycles.
Tap Cycle History, and tap Export PDF to generate a PDF file of 12 months’ worth of your cycle’s history. Alternatively, you can tap a specific cycle and generate a PDF file only for that specific cycle.
How to Remove Cycle Tracking App from Your Apple Watch
You can’t hide the Cycle Tracking app on your Apple Watch, but you can delete it if you’re no longer interested in using it.
To delete the app from your Apple Watch:
- Press and hold down the Cycle Tracking icon until it jiggles.
- Tap the “x” icon that appears on the app.
- Tap the Delete App option to remove the app from your Apple Watch.
