Cycle Insights – Oura Help

Cycle Insights allows you to better understand your menstrual cycle by tracking the two main phases, follicular and luteal, through ovulation detection and period logging. Cycle Insights predicts periods and also provides information about how the full cycle impacts the entire body. The feature is available for:

Gen3 or later with active membership
iOS
Android

This feature is not available on Gen2 or older.

Women's Health Intentions
How to Use Cycle Insights
How Cycle Insights Tracks Your Cycle
Logging, Editing, and Deleting Periods
What You'll See in Cycle Insights
Cycle Phases
Period Prediction
Cycle Stats
Fertile Window
How to Opt Out of Women's Health Features
How to Remove Your Women's Health Data from the Oura App
Troubleshooting Cycle Insights
Things to Keep in Mind
More Information

Women's Health Intentions

By selecting one or more women's health intentions, you can personalize your app experience based on your current reproductive goals.

How to Use Cycle Insights

To turn on Cycle Insights, tap on the Track my cycle intention. You can access Cycle Insights from the home card or the Cycle day shortcut at the top of the Today tab, or in the Vitals tab.

If you're new to Cycle Insights, you’ll be guided through a short questionnaire that includes the date of your last period, how long your cycle typically is, and whether you use hormonal contraceptives or other hormones. Once you enter the date of your last period, it can't be edited later. However, Cycle Insights doesn't rely solely on the calendar method to track your cycle.

Based on whether you indicate that you use hormonal birth control (cyclic or continuous), non-hormonal birth control, or other hormones, your insights and in-app experience will adjust accordingly. You can update your contraception and hormone answers in the Oura App under Settings > Women’s Health.

Note the feature does not allow overlapping hormonal birth control methods, so once you enter an end date for a method, you won't be able to set or edit a start date for a method that overlaps. If you use the pill or monthly method, input your start date when you start a new pack, patch, or ring.

How Cycle Insights Tracks Your Cycle

Different hormone levels in each phase contribute to natural temperature fluctuations in the menstrual cycle. Cycle Insights uses these temperature deviations to accurately track, predict, and visualize your monthly cycle. Your Readiness Score also takes into account these natural biometric fluctuations during the menstrual cycle.

Because hormonal contraception primarily works by preventing ovulation, things like cycle phases and fertile window are not relevant for people on these medications (i.e., birth control pills). However, if you are using hormonal contraception, you can still track your bleeding and use symptom tagging to identify your patterns over time. You can still use Cycle Insights, but you’ll only see period predictions and not cycle phases or your fertile window. If you stop using hormonal birth control and update your information in Women’s Health settings, Cycle Insights will begin showing your cycle phases and fertile window again starting with your next logged period.

To see cycle phases and fertile window, you must select "None" when asked if you take hormonal contraception. Selecting "Prefer not to say" will also hide these features.

Predictions for your period start and fertile window are based on information you provide about your last period and average cycle length. To get the most accurate predictions, be sure to log both your period start date and each day of your period.

Logging, Editing, and Deleting Periods

To get the most out of Cycle Insights, log your period start date and each day you're menstruating.

There are a few ways to log a period:

Tap the + button in the bottom right of the Today tab
- Select Log period
- Choose the date and, if you'd like, your flow level
Go to the Cycle Insights detail view from the Shortcut at the top of the Today tab, or from the card in the Vitals tab
- Move or swipe to the desired date in the temperature graph
- Tap Log under the graph
- Choose the date and, if you'd like, your flow level

To edit or delete a period entry:

In the Cycle Insights detailed view, scroll back to your logged period in the temperature graph (look for the droplet icon)
Tap Edit under the graph
Change the flow level or delete the period

What You'll See in Cycle Insights

In the Cycle Insights detailed view, you'll find a deeper look at your temperature patterns, current cycle phase, cycle stats, chance of conception, and educational content related to your current phase. You'll also find a shareable report summarizing the last six months of your data, including cycle length, period length, temperature variation, cycle phases, and symptom tags.

Cycle Phases

The menstrual cycle has two main phases, the follicular phase and the luteal phase. During the follicular phase, which is from the first day of menstruation to ovulation, low progesterone usually goes along with an overall lower and stable average body temperature. During the luteal phase, from ovulation until the next menstruation, rising progesterone levels usually elevate your average body temperature.

Period Prediction

Oura uses your nightly average body temperature, along with other biosignals like HRV, to make your multi-day period prediction window. Your period prediction windows are created from comprehensive data that builds over time, not single intakes. Historically, most period tracking solutions rely on the calendar method, which uses your last period start date and a user-inputted cycle length to predict the start of your next cycle. However, periods can change from cycle to cycle and be impacted by various factors like stress, diet, and illness.

You can see your period predictions for the next 12 months. These predictions update over time and may shift slightly as you continue logging, as they become more accurate with more information.

Cycle Stats

Your Cycle Stats show your typical cycle length, variability, and period length, based on the medians of the cycles you’ve logged over the past six months.

Cycle length is the number of days from the first day of your period to the day before your next one starts. A typical cycle length is 21–35 days
Cycle variability measures how much your cycle length changes from month to month. A variation of ±3 days or less is considered regular
Period length is the number of days you experience menstrual bleeding. Periods lasting 7 days or less are considered regular

You can also view your Cycle Stats in the Cycle Regularity hub in the My Health tab.

Many things can affect cycle variability. A single long or short cycle is usually nothing to worry about, but if you’re noticing consistent changes or have questions, consult with your doctor.

Fertile Window

Your fertile window is the time during your cycle when you're most likely to conceive a pregnancy. It includes the five days before ovulation, ovulation day, and the day after—seven days total. This estimate is based on your logged cycle info and physiological data, such as temperature trends, cardiovascular signals, and respiratory metrics.

When you’re in your estimated fertile window, your chance of conception will be labeled "High." Outside this window, it will be marked as "Low."

Once you log your period start date, your estimated fertile window appears and remains visible until your luteal phase begins. After that, the app shifts to show your predicted period, if available. In the Calendar view, you can track your estimated fertile window, ovulation day, and upcoming period all in one place.

Fertile window and ovulation day predictions are available up to 12 months in advance to support long-term planning. Predictions further out may adjust over time based on your cycle patterns and period logging, as they become more accurate with each cycle.

In some cases, people may have cycles without menstruating. If you don't have a period during a cycle, wait until the end of your luteal phase when your temperature drops, and log a period with "Skipped period." The ovulation and fertile window can’t be predicted if periods are not logged accurately.

Before Ovulation Is Detected

In the Predictions section, dashed white circles mark your estimated fertile window. One of these days will include a white egg icon—your estimated ovulation day
Your estimates may shift as more data becomes available. These insights are for tracking purposes only and should not be used as a form of birth control

As Ovulation Is Being Confirmed

It takes around 3-5 days to confirm ovulation via your temperature patterns, though timing may vary across cycles
- During this time, the estimated ovulation day icon in your Predictions section will temporarily switch from an egg to a clock icon
You’ll see your Cycle Phase as confirming, and your chance of conception will be marked as "High: possible ovulation"

After Ovulation Is Confirmed

In your Predictions section, your fertile window will be marked with solid white circles, and your confirmed ovulation day will appear with a solid white egg icon
On your Daily Temperature graph, confirmed fertile window days will be shown as dots beneath the temperature line
Your chance of conception will be marked as "Ovulation detected"

Keep in mind, if you update a historical period log or if your temperature patterns shift significantly, your confirmed ovulation date may adjust.

As Fertile Window is a regulated feature, it's available only in countries where the regulatory requirements have been met. See the Feature Availability list and the Fertile Window User Manual.

How to Opt Out of Women's Health Features

Tap the menu in the upper-left corner of the Today tab, then go to Settings > Women's Health.

If you tap on Opt out of Women's Health features, all women's health features, including Cycle Insights, Cycle Regularity, and Pregnancy Insights, will be disabled, but your data will not be removed.

How to Remove Your Women's Health Data from the Oura App

Women's Health data may include information about your cycles, such as your latest period start date and cycle length, women's health-related tags (such as positive pregnancy test, ovulation, positive LH test, etc.), period prediction settings, birth control settings (hormonal, non-hormonal, and other hormone options), pregnancy information, and fertile window. Your data is collected, used, and protected in compliance with Oura's Privacy Policy.

You can remove your data, including women's health data, from the app over a specific time range in the Settings menu. Currently, you're unable to delete data from a single metric or feature, so this will permanently delete all your Oura data for that period. If you would like to delete your Oura account, you can choose Delete account and all data in the Settings menu or through Oura on the Web. See How Oura Protects Your Data.

Read about our commitment to reproductive health data privacy on The Pulse Blog.

Troubleshooting Cycle Insights

New Cycle Isn't Starting

If you've logged a period start, but Cycle Insights isn’t showing a new Cycle Day 1, it may be because there are fewer than 12 days between your period logs.

Cycle Insights currently requires at least 12 days between the end of one period and the start of the next to detect a new cycle. We understand this may not work well for everyone, especially if your cycle is irregular or affected by certain health situations. Our team is actively working on improvements to make Cycle Insights more flexible in the future.

To check the number of days between logs:

Go to Cycle Insights
In the Predictions section, tap View calendar
Look for dates circled in red, which show logged period days

If needed, you can delete days that you logged your period. Only the first day of a period needs to be logged to count it as a period and to inform the algorithm.

Unknown Cycle Phases or Period Predictions

If you're not seeing cycle phases or period predictions, it could be due to:

You haven't worn your ring consistently, especially during sleep
You haven't synced the Oura App recently
You haven’t logged your periods
There's a lack of a clear physiological pattern
You are taking hormonal contraception (for cycle phases only)

If there's a lack of physiological pattern, it could be caused by:

Short-term factors, such as alcohol, illness, medication, jet lag, stress, or a one-off anovulatory cycle (a cycle when you don’t ovulate)
Long-term factors, such as using hormonal contraceptives, recently coming off hormones (within the last six months), pregnancy, persistent anovulatory cycles (you repeatedly do not ovulate every month), or coming off hormones more than six months ago without menstruating

Fertile Window or Chance of Conception Is Unknown or Missing

Fertile Window availability is limited to certain countries due to regulatory requirements.

Check feature availability here
Check your country settings. Tap on the menu in the upper-left corner of the Today tab and go to Settings > Country of residence

If hormonal contraception is in use, Fertile Window won’t be shown in Cycle Insights. Fertile Window relies on natural temperature fluctuations to determine the chance of conception and ovulation. Because hormonal contraception helps you avoid pregnancy by preventing ovulation, you then don’t have temperature changes associated with ovulation. Check your reproductive hormone answers.

Tap on the menu in the upper-left corner of the Today tab and go to Settings > Women’s Health > Hormones > Update answer if needed

Things to Keep in Mind

Cycle Insights is designed for individuals who menstruate and have a natural hormonal cycle. Some health factors, life stages, or medications can affect your temperature patterns and limit what the feature can show
- If you're in menopause or post-menopause, you may still see temperature trends, but without period logs, Cycle Insights won’t display predictions or cycle phases. You can still use tags to track symptoms related to perimenopause or menopause and better understand how your body is changing
Cycle Insights can still be used by individuals who ovulate but don’t menstruate. If your temperature shows a consistent shift from above your baseline to below your baseline, this may signal the start of your follicular phase. You can log a skipped period when this shift occurs to help track your cycle phases
If you consistently don't see cycle phases or Fertile Window predictions after troubleshooting the above, it may be helpful to discuss your cycle history and temperature trends with your doctor. A one-off anovulatory cycle is perfectly normal, but a persistent lack of temperature pattern could point to an underlying issue.
Oura uses your nighttime temperature trends to help determine key events in your cycle. If you're also using another app, your predictions may not match exactly — each method relies on different data points and weighting. Oura measures your temperature once per minute throughout the night to capture a more complete picture. You can read more about our temperature accuracy here
Fertile Window is intended to help individuals who are trying to conceive by providing visibility into ovulation timing and chance of conception. This feature complements our partnership with Natural Cycles, an FDA-cleared Class II medical device in the US that offers both birth control and conception modes. We encourage our members to select the feature set that is right for them based on their goals and preferred user experience. See How to Use Natural Cycles with Oura for more information