I've been living a more natural lifestyle for years now. As a health coach, naturally-minded mom, and someone who prefers to understand what's happening in my body rather than simply mask symptoms, I've learned to pay attention to the signals my body gives me.

I've been off hormonal birth control for over five years and have tracked my cycle naturally ever since. After having two children, I thought I was pretty good at recognizing the early signs of pregnancy. But with my third pregnancy, something unexpected happened: my Oura Ring knew before I did.

Just 4 days after ovulation, I saw changes in my data that made me suspicious. In fact, I was so convinced that I started taking pregnancy tests every day until I finally saw that extra line.

In this post, I'll share how I use my Oura Ring, what it tracks, and the specific changes I noticed that tipped me off to my pregnancy before a test could officially confirm it.

[DISCLAIMER]: Keep in mind I am not a doctor and this is NOT medical advice. This post may contain affiliate links meaning I may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using these links. I only recommend products I love and trust. To see our full disclosure, click here.

What Does the Oura Ring Track?

The Oura Ring is a wearable device that tracks quite a lot of important health metrics while you sleep and throughout the day. Think of it as a way to gather information about how your body is functioning behind the scenes.

Some of the things the Oura Ring tracks include:

Sleep

The Oura Ring monitors your sleep duration, sleep quality, and the different stages of sleep you experience throughout the night. Since sleep is one of the foundations of good health, this can help you identify patterns that may be affecting your energy, mood, and recovery. This is originally one of the reasons I got my Oura ring- I thought my son wasn’t letting me get any sleep.

Body Temperature

The ring continuously measures changes in your body temperature. This can be helpful for tracking hormonal fluctuations, illness, recovery, and even fertility-related patterns. I also got it for this reason- it helps track your cycle using the body temperature.

Resting Heart Rate

Your resting heart rate can provide insight into how stressed or recovered your body is. Changes in resting heart rate may reflect things like illness, increased stress, overtraining, or hormonal shifts.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measures the variation in time between heartbeats. In general, a higher HRV is associated with better recovery and resilience, while a lower HRV may indicate that your body is under more stress.

Activity Levels

The Oura Ring tracks your daily movement and activity patterns, helping you understand whether you're getting enough movement throughout the day or if your body may need more rest and recovery after certain exercises. This was super helpful for me because I figured out that when I work out in the afternoon, my body struggled a lot to recover.

Readiness Score

One of Oura's most popular features is its Readiness Score. This score combines several metrics—including sleep, heart rate, body temperature, and activity—to give you a snapshot of how prepared your body is for the day ahead.

Rather than guessing how your body is doing, the Oura Ring provides data that can help you make more informed decisions about sleep, exercise, stress management, and overall wellness. It can also let you know if something is stressing your body and what to look out for.

How I Use the Oura Ring as a Woman

I originally got the Oura ring to track how my sleep was going because I felt like my baby wasn’t letting me get into a deep sleep (it showed me that I was getting enough rest, surprisingly). I also got it because it has an integration with the Natural Cycles app. I use this app as birth control (or to get pregnant- clearly) by tracking my cycle using my temperature since the body temperature elevates after ovulation. It’s a great natural alternative to taking hormonal birth control. I also liked using the tagging feature to see patterns in how what I was eating would effect me and what exercises would help me recover best.

How My Oura Ring Showed Me I Was Pregnant

Because I was using my Oura ring and Natural Cycles app integration every single day, I knew exactly when I ovulated and could conceive. I confirmed ovulation with ovulation strips as well because I still didn’t have my cycle after having my last baby. 4 days after ovulation (DPO), I received my first “stressed” alert from my Oura ring app that looked like this:

I’ve gotten these alerts before whenever I was sick, but this time I had no symptoms of being sick. Four days later, I received a “minor signs of strain” alert. It also explained what was causing the “stress” alert- elevated temperature, elevated resting heart rate and elevated respiratory rate.

Here’s a calendar break down of what my notifications looked like leading up to getting a positive pregnancy test.

It’s important to note that I have not had a cycle since before I had my son over 18 months ago, so tracking my cycle with Natural Cycles and the Oura ring app was challenging- this is why I relied on ovulation strips to figure out if I was even ovulating. Once I was suspicious that my Oura ring may have detected me becoming pregnant before a pregnancy test could tell me, I found a lot of blog posts confirming women had a similar experience. There’s even been a scientific study done showing that the Oura ring is effective at early detection because of its ability to capture temperature so frequently.

Try Oura Ring & Natural Cycles App

I highly recommend the Oura ring if you’re interested in tracking your overall health and wellness. I turn my ring on Airplane mode throughout the day and only turn it off when I am not wearing it- this reduces EMF from radiating into you while wearing it. I love that it has that option. [You can get $50 off the newest Oura ring by clicking here!]

If you’re wanting a more natural way of avoiding pregnancy or conceiving, I could not recommend the Natural Cycles app enough! It’s a great alternative to hormonal birth control and relies solely on your body temperature to track your cycle. I have had it for 4 years and love it! [Get 20% off Natural Cycles App Here!]

natural pregnancy tips — We’re so excited to meet our newest baby this February!

My Oura Ring Knew I Was Pregnant Before a Pregnancy Test Did