Apple's Health app will finally track menopause — but your doctor still matters

Uma Arora, 50, had been noting the changes for months. The irregular cycles, the sleep that had stopped coming easily, the moods she couldn't account for. She hadn't mentioned any of it to her doctor.

Yesterday, when Apple announced that its Health app would begin tracking perimenopause and menopause, she was pleased, if a little wry about it. "Better late than never," she says, "for both of us."

Arora is among the many women who will soon be able to use Apple's newly announced Health app update, unveiled at WWDC 2026 on Monday. Coming in iOS 27, the Health app's Cycle Tracking feature will gain dedicated perimenopause and menopause support, including notifications, symptom logging, and educational resources — using long-term cycle data to detect a hormonal transition that can begin a decade or more before menopause itself.

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For women who have spent years navigating the Health app's fertility-centric interface, it marks a long-overdue shift in who the app actually speaks to.

The numbers make clear how overdue it is. An estimated 1.1 billion women worldwide were postmenopausal as of last year. In India, the picture is more complicated.

"The average age for menopause is reducing," says Dr. Nimmi Rastogi, a gynaecologist and Certified Menopause Practitioner (CIMP) based in Malviya Nagar, Delhi. "Menarche is arriving earlier, and the ovaries are shutting down sooner. Premature menopause is bad news for a woman's heart health, her joints, her emotional and mental health."

'You can stay youthful even if your ovaries are shutting down'

The app will surface a notification if logged cycle patterns suggest perimenopause, though only for users aged 40 and above. Dr. Rastogi sees the logic in encouraging women to stay on top of their cycle data regardless of age: "Most women today are on the go. They shouldn't be casual about it. If they miss a cycle, the app will give them essential information about regularity, predict patterns — and if cycles are thinning out, they'll know it's not the same body it was at 20 or 30."

The symptoms worth tracking, she adds, are often dismissed or misread: dry skin, hot flushes, vaginal dryness. Women who seek professional help have real options.

The symptoms worth tracking, she adds, are often dismissed or misread: dry skin, hot flushes, vaginal dryness. Women who seek professional help have real options. "With proper consultation, HRT is something you can explore. You can stay youthful even if your ovaries are shutting down." She also recommends regular screening.  Mammography and lipid levels, and flags environmental factors she believes are increasingly linked to earlier menopause: microplastics, rising rates of PCOD, obesity, and substance use.

Where Dr. Rastogi is more measured is on the question of what the app can reasonably do on its own. "Every woman is different. Every woman's reproductive tract, her ovaries, her genetics — all of it plays a role. Family history of breast carcinoma, for instance, changes the conversation entirely around HRT.

No app can tell you the finer nuances of treatment protocol." The notifications, she emphasises, are a prompt.

Users will be able to log symptoms and access educational resources designed to provide guidance through the transition, alongside new Fitness+ workouts tailored to perimenopause and menopause. For Uma Arora, even that baseline feels like progress. "I just want to feel less alone in it," she says.