Design: Tianna Greham
Our Year in Cycles 2025
How we bled, felt, loved and lived over the last 12 months
Menstrual health affects over half the population, yet cultural taboo has left generations without the knowledge or support they deserve. Our Year In Cycles helps change that.
Based on hundreds of millions of cycles tracked worldwide by Clue members*, this annual snapshot reveals the real rhythms behind our moods, orgasms, sleep, and stress – plus the 280 million days we collectively spent bleeding in 2025 (the equivalent of nearly 767,000 years of periods). You read that right.
This isn't about sensationalizing periods. It's about normalizing them. Your cycle isn't just about bleeding – it shapes everything.
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8 global insights from Our Year In Cycles
1. New Year’s Day 2025: Peak for sex and fantasies 🎆
New Year’s Day came in hot. It was the single most popular day of 2025 for high sex drive, sex, orgasms and fantasies. Looks like many of us kicked off the year with a bang (literally).
Whether it’s the psychological clean-slate effect, post-party closeness or just having a rare moment of rest and privacy, the data show that January 1st isn’t just for resolutions.
On the flip side, September 10th was the year’s ‘not tonight’ moment, as the day we tracked the lowest libido.
2. Pleasure isn’t tracked as often as sex
We tracked 34 million sex sessions and just 4.4 million orgasms. Pleasure is still under-tracked and under-discussed compared with sex, revealing how deeply the pleasure gap is embedded in culture. 🇵🇭 The Philippines topped the “most sex” and “most orgasms” lists.
3. Gen Z leads the pleasure revolution
Half of all tracked orgasms in 2025 came from 18-24 year olds, making Gen Z the most vocal when it comes to pleasure ✨
The pleasure breakdown:
Gen Z tracked 58% of all masturbation entries
They tracked masturbation 20% more often
And fantasies 40% more often that other age groups
Millennials (25-34 year olds) lead the way with sex toy action
Young adults are rewriting the script, turning pleasure stigma into pleasure literacy.
4. Period pain data: 44.6 million days of cramps tracked globally
We tracked a staggering 44.6 million days of cramps – the equivalent of 122,000 years of pain if one person felt it all. Ouch 😣
How we tracked pain:
Cramps (35%)
Breast tenderness (12%)
Lower back pain (11%)
Headaches (10%)
Almost one in five cramps (19%) were rated severe.
The takeaway? Period pain isn’t minor. It’s massively under-recognised and it’s time the world treated it with the seriousness it deserves.
5. Period products: Pads still dominate at 63%
Despite the hype around reusable period products, 2025 was still the year of the pad 🩸
Period products we’re using:
Pads (63%)
Tampons (14%)
Panty liners (14%)
Menstrual cups (5%)
Period underwear (4%)
It looks like real-life period habits aren’t changing as fast as the headlines, with most people sticking with what feels safe, familiar and reliable.
6. Mental health and hormones: Mood patterns across 2025
Mood swings topped the charts, accounting for almost a fifth (17%) of all tracked feelings. The emotional low point of the year was revealed as November 6th 2024, when we recorded our saddest, angriest and most stressed moods.
Our week in feelings:
Monday: Most sad feelings tracked
Tuesday: Most likely to exercise
Wednesday: Most likely to feel exhausted
Thursday: Most stressful day
Saturday: Most energized, happy and creative ✨
Sunday: Most popular day for sex
7. Sleep quality and menstrual cycles: 38% wake up tired
Spoiler alert: most of us aren't getting the rest we need.
What our sleep looked like:
Woke up tired (38%)
Struggled to fall asleep (15%)
Slept restlessly (14%)
Experienced vivid dreams (10%)
Are hormones, stress and modern life a recipe for a global sleep deficit? Looks like it 😴
8. We’re proactive about our reproductive health 💪
Nearly a quarter of a million OBGYN appointments were recorded throughout the year, with 18-34 year olds making up 84% of all appointments.
If you're in this age group, you're also 70% more likely to track STI check ups than other demographics - a strong sign that stigma is breaking and sexual health checks are becoming more routine.
Dr Charis Chambers, The Period Doctor and Chief Medical Officer at Clue shares her view, “When millions of people track their cycles, we gain a clearer picture of how hormones influence sleep, mood, energy, sex and pain. Our Year in Cycles isn’t just about periods, it’s about connecting the dots between our bodies and the experiences that are so often dismissed or stigmatised. Severe cramps, mood shifts, low energy and disrupted sleep are deeply common and valid. By representing real people with real data, we can help reduce shame and stigma around the menstrual health conversation.”
From the highs of orgasms and creativity to the lows of cramps and sleepless nights, the data turns millions of personal experiences into a collective story. By making the invisible visible, we can normalize the conversation, and understand and celebrate our bodies – every single day of the year.
*Aggregate data from Clue users over 18 worldwide. This annual analysis reveals collective patterns while protecting individual privacy. We combine millions of pseudonymized data points to show what's happening across our community. No single person can be identified from these aggregated insights.
