Menstrual Cycle Tracking Applications and the Potential for Epidemiological Research: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature.

Purpose Of Review: We reviewed published studies on menstrual cycle tracking applications (MCTAs) in order to describe the potential of MCTAs for epidemiologic research.

Recent Findings: A search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus for MCTA literature yielded 150 articles. After exclusions, there were 49 articles that addressed the primary interest areas: 1) characteristics of MCTA users in research, 2) reasons women use or continue using MCTAs, 3) accuracy of identifying ovulation and utility at promoting and preventing pregnancy, and 4) quality assessments of MCTAs across several domains.