(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)
LAS VEGAS—Perimenopause is one of the most talked-about health topics these days, and a new wearable I saw at CES promises to provide personalized insights and support for women going through it.
Winner of our Best Wellness Tech category at CES, Peri is a device that sticks to your skin and detects the symptoms women experience as they transition to menopause, including anxiety, hot flashes, menstrual changes, night sweats, and sleep disturbances.
"We want to empower women with information about their own transition," Peri cofounder Donal O'Gorman told me. "It's going to help them make decisions about how they want to manage that. Some women want to manage it with lifestyle only, some prefer supplements, some want hormone therapy as well."
Peri sticks onto your torso with a double-sided adhesive developed in collaboration with 3M. You need to change the adhesive every 10 to 14 days, and Peri comes with two detachable batteries, allowing one to power the tracker while the other is charging. The device is quite slim and lightweight, suggesting that the Peri team has optimized the design for comfort.
Inside, the tracker features a sensor array similar to what's found in many smartwatches, including accelerometry, electrodermal activity (EDA), photoplethysmography (PPG) optical heart rate, and temperature.
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(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)"Where our IP is, and what we do differently, is how we use the raw data from those biosignals," O'Gorman said. "We have developed our own algorithms that are able to detect hot flashes and night sweats. We developed the digital biomarker of a hot flash, using all the sensors."
The tracker sends your data to a companion app, which is organized by symptom. As one limitation, the device doesn't measure brain fog, a common perimenopause symptom O'Gorman says is too difficult to detect.
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)Peri is available for preorder now for $449 and is expected to start shipping after CES. The app lets you track your symptoms over time, with no subscription fee.
As a 40-year-old woman, I am highly interested in Peri. I don't love the idea of having to stick the device to my skin with adhesive, and would much rather it have a ring or wristband design. However, for those struggling with perimenopause symptoms, the potential benefits seem to outweigh that drawback. I hope to test Peri soon, so stay tuned for more.