Clinicians Need to Know More About the Menstrual Health Apps Patients Use
September 1, 2025 6 minutes read
By Melinda Young
Period-tracking apps are increasingly popular among reproductive-age women in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Survey data show that the proportion of women in the United States who are using the apps has increased from 37% before 2022 to 45% now.1 A new study suggests that healthcare providers should educate themselves about the apps’ functionality, inclusiveness, and health education information before recommending a menstrual app to patients.2
“We definitely see a big variation across apps in terms of functionality and privacy and other things,” says Chen X. Chen, PhD, RN, MBBS, FAAN, a Gladys E. Sorensen Endowed Professor at the University of Arizona College of Nursing in Tucson. Chen and co-authors’ research suggests these apps sometimes have issues with credibility and quality of information.
“That’s something that healthcare providers and app users need to keep in mind,” she says. “With the privacy part, we only reviewed free apps, and many sell data to third parties, and that can be a concern — especially for states with restrictive abortion access.”
Menstrual tracking apps collect intimate data on people’s menstruation and sexual activity. “Healthcare providers need to be aware of that, and when they select apps, they need to be more cautious about privacy features to make sure they are safe,” Chen says. “Some apps have more privacy features than others.”
Clinicians can read studies and data on the various apps so they can recommend a safe and useful menstruation app to patients who ask for help with finding one. For instance, a clinician may ask whether an app sells its data or stores it on the cloud, she says.
“Some of the apps don’t collect identifying information, such as your name or email address, and those apps can be safer, in that regard,” Chen explains. “But there are other things we need to be aware of, like some apps track the location of the user.” Menstrual app users need to know these details about privacy and security before they decide which app to use.
“There are things that users can look into for privacy features, including a company’s privacy policy on its website,” Chen says. “Companies should say they don’t allow third-party tracking, and the app should allow users to use the app without its location services turned on.”
Also, apps that are stored locally and not remotely are better protected from data breaches, Chen notes. “There should be a clear way to delete any data that is stored when there is a concern,” she says. “All of these concerns are valid, given the climate we’re in.” Look for an app company’s information about its data encryption, she adds.
Some patients who ask their provider about menstrual apps might be more comfortable with tracking their cycle by pen and paper. “That’s perfectly fine,” Chen says. “People can still use the traditional method.” Clinicians can suggest this method if patients are concerned about their privacy on a phone app.
For many patients, the benefits of using a menstrual app outweigh their concerns. Investigators found that some women who have regular cycles found the apps helpful in predicting their menstrual cycle.
“They can plan when they will need menstrual products or prepare pain medication for menstrual symptoms,” she explains. “People can plan around their menstrual cycle, but they are not perfect,” Chen adds. “Only one in seven people has a very regular menstrual cycle of 28 days — the textbook cycle.”
Most women’s cycles are longer or shorter, and many women’s menstruation changes from cycle to cycle, Chen says. From the healthcare provider’s perspective, it is useful to encourage the use of a menstruation app to women who wish to gain more knowledge and awareness of their menstrual cycle, whether or not it is a regular cycle, she suggests.
This where it is important for clinicians to do a little research into which apps provide the most accurate and useful health information. “Many of those apps didn’t involve healthcare providers or researchers in app development, and many did not use medical literature for health education,” Chen says. “Many did not involve the user in menstrual app development.”
Apps that were not designed with reproductive health expertise and user input can be lacking, she notes. “We didn’t say that in the paper, but some of my students said, ‘Clearly, some of these apps were developed by men who didn’t have any experience with the menstrual cycle,’” Chen recalls. “Some of these apps were not designed by engaging users.”
Chen offers these tips on how clinicians can help patients select the best menstruation apps for them:
What are the patient’s goals: “What is their goal for using menstrual apps? Is it period tracking?” Chen says.
“Some people use apps for ovulation prediction and either for natural family planning or to prepare for a pregnancy,” she explains. “If that’s the goal, then people do use the apps for those functions.”
Clinicians also could ask patients how important ovulation predicting accuracy is to them because many apps are not accurate in predicting an ovulation date for people who do not have a regular menstrual cycle, she adds.
Where does the patient live? “For some states, there can be more concern about security than others,” Chen says. “People need to be aware of how their data are used and how their data are shared and whether they are secure.”
Does the patient want an app that allows them to remove the data from their phone? For some patients, it is important that they are able to easily remove menstruation cycle data from their phone and keep it out of the cloud, she says.
“Does the app share data with a third party and whether or not they delete data. Is it stored locally or in the cloud?” she asks.
Some patients may find that, once they discover the pattern of their menstrual cycle through the app, they no longer need the app as a reminder. Maybe they could chart their cycle via a calendar or another method.
“For people who have a regular cycle, once they track their periods for a few months, they’ll have a good idea of their cycle,” Chen says. “For people who don’t have a regular cycle, and it changes from cycle to cycle, it’s harder to predict when the cycle is.”
Does the patient want additional information through the app? “There are some apps that include physiological data, including body temperature and other physiological data, and those apps may be more accurate in ovulation prediction,” Chen notes. “We didn’t include those apps in our review, but for those apps you would need to use a sensor like a watch or ring to track physiological symptoms.”
With the use of artificial intelligence and other technological advances, it is possible there will be a more accurate way to predict ovulation and the menstruation date once those technologies are produced, she adds.
Is the patient concerned about gender expression and accessibility? “About half of the apps use only she/her pronouns,” Chen says. “The assumption is that everybody who uses the app self-identifies as a woman, which is not the case.”
Some apps also incorporate an assumed gender in their design. For instance, an app may have a pink background.
Since not all patients would be comfortable with an app that defaults to female gender and culture, clinicians can ask patients about this aspect of an app and make recommendations for apps that do not assume a female gender and culture.
“The apps need to be more inclusive in terms of gender expression, and we should make sure it’s accessible,” Chen says. “We know people who menstruate are a diverse population in terms of age and demographics, and I think those apps need to be more inclusive for our diverse user population, and they need to involve healthcare providers and users.”
Is the app’s health education accurate? The study found that health education varied among the apps. Some had sources that could be checked and others just stated information, Chen says. “But the quality and reliability of that information can vary from app to app, and that’s something users need to be aware of,” she says.
Reproductive healthcare clinicians can take a look at menstruation apps to see if their health information is accurate. They also can see if the educational information is written in a way that’s easy for patients to understand, Chen says.
Melinda Young has been a healthcare and medical writer for 30 years. She currently writes about contraceptive technology.
References
1. Lindsay R. Period apps after Dobbs: More users, more risks. Public Health Post by the Boston University School of Public Health. April 7, 2025. https://publichealthpost.org/sexual-reproductive-health/period-apps-after-dobbs-more-users-more-risks/
2. Bucher E, Sharkey C, Henderson A, et al. An evaluation of menstrual health apps’ functionality, inclusiveness, and health education information. BMC Womens Health. 2025;25(1):261.
Period-tracking apps are increasingly popular among reproductive-age women in the United States and elsewhere in the world. A new study suggests that healthcare providers should educate themselves about the apps’ functionality, inclusiveness, and health education information before recommending a menstrual app to patients.
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