Decoding female physiology: a scoping review on the use of digital health tools to improve women’s health and performance

The increasing adoption of digital health tools by women offers a unique opportunity to characterize biometrics across the menstrual cycle and through menopause, and to understand interactions of biometrics with sleep, physical activity, physiology, and symptoms. This understanding is a vital first step toward solutions to manage symptoms and optimize health. We conducted a scoping review of research using digital health tools like wearables or smartphone applications to characterize physiology, sleep, physical activity, and symptoms throughout the menstrual cycle, perimenopause, and menopause. We summarize the knowledge gained from 36 original research articles. We then report capabilities and accuracies of commercial wearables for measuring biometrics. Finally, we discuss future research needs, including understanding physiological changes during perimenopause, and the role of health behaviours in symptom management. We hope this review will help researchers to fill knowledge gaps to improve wellbeing and performance of women throughout the menstrual cycle and the lifespan.