By: Maria Share 

For years, cycle tracking apps have promised clarity. Log your period. Track your symptoms. Watch the predictions roll in.

For many women, the experience has been anything but clarifying.

Maggie Lusk knows this firsthand. After experiencing serious health issues related to a hormonal device, she found herself searching for answers that traditional care and consumer apps could not fully provide. Symptoms were treated separately. Patterns were hard to spot. And the tools meant to help often felt too generic to reflect what was actually happening in her body.

Rather than accept that as normal, Lusk did something else. She started collecting her own data.

She tracked her cycle, symptoms, sleep, stress, nutrition, and daily habits, then explored how machine learning could be used to look for connections across all of it. What she noticed was not a single breakthrough moment, but a gradual shift. When the data was viewed together, patterns began to emerge. Certain lifestyle factors consistently aligned with how she felt at different points in her cycle.

That process changed how she understood her health. It also sparked an idea that would eventually become Saela Sync, a New York–based women’s health technology startup focused on proactive cycle intelligence.

Moving Beyond the Calendar

Most cycle-tracking apps rely on averages and calendar-based predictions. They assume that bodies follow predictable timelines and that logging enough data will eventually tell the story.

Saela Sync is built on a different premise. Instead of simply recording what has already happened, the platform is designed to help women understand how their bodies respond to everyday life. Sleep. Stress. Food. Work demands. Travel. These factors do not exist separately from hormones, yet they are rarely analyzed together.

Lusk’s goal was to design a system that reflects that reality.

Saela Sync uses machine learning to analyze user-approved lifestyle and cycle data to identify patterns over time. The emphasis is not on perfection or rigid predictions, but on insight. The kind that helps someone plan their week, anticipate energy shifts, or recognize when something feels off.

The beta version of the app launches on November 17, with a public release planned for December 3. Early users will help shape usability and feature development ahead of the wider rollout, including a redesigned interface intended for the public launch.

Why Privacy Is Central, Not Optional

Women’s health data has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, particularly when it comes to reproductive information. Headlines about data sharing and legal challenges have made many users question what happens to their information once it is logged.

For Lusk, this concern is both personal and structural.

From the beginning, Saela Sync was designed to operate without selling or sharing user data. The platform prioritizes transparency, consent, and user control. Machine learning models improve only with approved inputs, and data is treated as belonging to the individual, not the company.

This approach shapes everything from product design to long-term strategy. Privacy is not framed as a feature upgrade or a marketing promise. It is part of the foundation.

A Founder’s Perspective, Grounded in Experience

Lusk’s background helps explain her approach. She studied economics and public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later worked in digital strategy and financial innovation at KPMG and Deloitte. Her work focused on complex systems where trust, accuracy, and responsible data use mattered.

Those experiences informed how she thinks about health technology. She understands both the power of data and the risks of mishandling it.

Saela Sync reflects that balance. It sits at the intersection of women’s health, technology, and autonomy, without leaning into extremes. The platform does not claim to replace medical care or offer diagnoses. Instead, it aims to give women clearer information so they can make more informed decisions about their own bodies.

Redefining What Support Looks Like

One of the challenges in women’s health is that symptoms are often normalized or dismissed. Fatigue. Mood changes. Pain. Irregular cycles. Many women are told these experiences are just part of life.

Lusk does not frame Saela Sync as a solution to everything. What she is building is a tool for awareness. A way to see patterns that might otherwise be overlooked. A system that treats the body as dynamic rather than static.

Future phases of the platform are expected to integrate direct hormone data, expanding its ability to align insights with biological signals. That evolution reflects a long-term vision of cycle intelligence as something that grows with the user, rather than locking them into a fixed model.

The Bigger Picture

Saela Sync arrives at a moment when conversations around women’s health, privacy, and technology are increasingly interconnected. More women are asking not just whether a product works, but how it works and who it serves.

Lusk’s approach is intentionally measured. The beta phase is designed for listening and refinement. Early feedback will shape what comes next.

For women who have felt underserved by existing tools, that restraint may be part of the appeal. Saela Sync is not trying to gamify health or reduce it to streaks and reminders. It is focused on understanding.

As the platform moves from beta to public launch, its success will likely depend on whether women see themselves reflected in the design. Not as averages. Not as data points for sale. But as individuals whose health is shaped by real life, every day.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Saela Sync is a health technology platform designed to assist women in understanding their cycles by analyzing data such as lifestyle habits, stress, nutrition, and sleep. While the app uses machine learning to identify patterns in the user’s data, it is not intended to replace professional medical care, provide diagnoses, or offer medical treatment. Always consult with a healthcare provider for any medical concerns. For more information on how your data is used and protected, please refer to Saela Sync’s privacy policy.