Your smartwatch can ping you about an irregular heartbeat. Your phone can assess your fall risk. And now, research suggests temperature trends picked up by wearables can tell you if you’re pregnant before you even think to take a test.
Looking at temperature data from 30 women who became pregnant while wearing an Oura ring, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found that nightly maximum temperatures were noticeably higher two to nine days after sex that ultimately led to conception. Retrospectively, they showed how that temperature shift could have been used as a passive pregnancy notification — one that, for these users, would have popped up about nine days before they received a positive test.
If the idea pans out, it could prove a compelling use of wearable data, which has so far struggled to meaningfully change the course of clinical care.
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