Dr Stuart Lavery, consultant of reproductive medicine at University College Hospital in London, said: “People are understandably using this technology to try to get a greater understanding, and to try and pick up things as early as possible because it has such a profound impact on your life if you’re planning a pregnancy.”

However, “we might be running before we can walk,” he cautioned.

“We probably need a lot more data on the reliability, we need a lot more research… otherwise what happens is your levels of anxiety will just skyrocket,” he said.

“I have no doubt that more people will be using technology, an app-based approach or a wearable-based approach, to try and pick up these things. But I think it should come with quite a big health warning about how much we can rely on them for accuracy.”

When asked about the anxiety women reported feeling early in their pregnancy as a result of checking their ring data, Dr Chris Curry, Oura’s clinical director of women’s health, told BBC News: “With or without biometric tracking, pregnancy can be an uncertain time where many women, particularly those pregnant for the first time, are in the dark about the range of what’s normal.”

She added that if women feel overwhelmed, the company “encourages members to take a break from the app experience, whilst Oura Ring continues to collect data and gather insights”, adding: “The ring is a support tool, not a replacement for your care team.”

Ravika sadly did miscarry. She’s hoping to start trying to conceive again soon – and when she does, her experience has made her rethink wearing her tracker again.

“I didn’t really see myself as being an anxious person, but… I think going forward if it came to a point where I had an inkling that I was pregnant and my stats were low, as soon as that positive pregnancy test was there, I do think it would be the best thing for me to take the ring off.”

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Elena Hernández moved to the coca-growing region of Guaviare during the boom of the 1990s, lured by better pay.

“There was more money back then – you could see it everywhere,” she says. “I managed to save and buy a small house.”

But the coca industry also brought violence and insecurity. Armed groups fought for control, while the government tried to curb production through manual eradication, aerial fumigation and arrests.

These efforts cut off families’ incomes but failed to stem cultivation.

So when a nationwide substitution programme was introduced by the then government in 2017, Hernández was eager to sign up, joining around 100,000 families who were promised financial support in return for moving away from coca.

Each household was due to get 36m Colombian pesos ($11,000; £8,000), spread over a two-year period.

“The way it was presented to us, it seemed very promising for the development of our territory,” says Hernández.

The programme, known as the National Comprehensive Programme for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS), was born out of the 2016 peace deal between the government and Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, Farc.

In exchange for uprooting their coca plants, farmers would also get technical support, including from agronomists, and advice on soil management.

While substitution programmes had existed before, they remained limited in scale. PNIS was the most ambitious attempt to date – and at first appeared to be working.

In parts of southern Meta and Guaviare, coca fields were replaced by lemon trees, banana crops and small livestock farms. Many farmers, like Hernández, stayed away from coca.

Yet that does not mean they consider it a success.

“The government wasn’t very committed to us farmers. We were treated badly,” explains Hernández, pointing to problems that emerged early on.

Payments were delayed, and technical support frequently failed to materialise. Weak state presence in rural areas and poor coordination between agencies meant support often did not reach communities.

Momentum behind the programme weakened as political priorities shifted. Iván Duque, who became Colombia’s president in 2018, refocused the government’s approach on eradication and security strategies.

By the time current President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022, PNIS was behind schedule and struggling to reach communities.

But some farmers did report improvements. For Doralba Bejarano, from Puerto Rico in southern Meta, her situation improved as stalled support began to arrive.

“Before the programme we were terrified,” she says. “We had to hide the coca paste because the police, the military, would put us in jail.” Coca paste is a more concentrated form of coca used to produce cocaine, allowing growers to earn more than selling raw leaves.

Now, she says, she has peace of mind: “I go wherever I want. I have no reason to hide.”

She says many in her community are now receiving government support to promote and sell their non-coca crops and other foodstuffs.

China is reportedly tightening restrictions on AI companion chatbots as the country grapples with a shrinking population and record-low birthrate.

New rules that went into effect Wednesday prohibit chatbots from encouraging emotional dependence or forming virtual romantic or familial relationships with minors. Companies must also contact a guardian or emergency contact if a user faces a life-threatening crisis, according to the Cyberspace Administration of China.

The regulations have already prompted Alibaba and TikTok parent ByteDance to disable certain chatbot features, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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Chinese AI companies must also contact a guardian or emergency contact if a user faces a life-threatening crisis. (iStock / iStock)

Beijing is reportedly concerned that AI companions could discourage people from pursuing real-world relationships.

“They don’t like the idea of a large portion of their population being in deep emotional relationships with chatbots that could take them out of the marriage market,” Matt Sheehan, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Wall Street Journal.

Officials also fear addiction, dependency and other social problems, according to Sheehan.

“They want to encourage people to be in actual, real-world relationships,” Sheehan added. “Could we imagine a future where, three or four years from now, 15 million Chinese women say that their partner is a chatbot, and therefore they’re not having kids?”

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Beijing is reportedly concerned that AI companions could discourage people from pursuing real-world relationships. (iStock)

The new rules require AI companion chatbots to pass a government review before being released to the public. The government will also have more authority to shut down services they consider unsafe, the outlet reported.

China’s restrictions go further than similar laws in California and New York.

Those two states require chatbots to remind users that they are not human and direct people that are experiencing a crisis to support services.

The crackdown comes as China faces a worsening demographic crisis. The country’s population declined in 2025 for the fourth consecutive year, while its birthrate fell to a record low, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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China’s restrictions go further than similar laws in California and New York. (izusek/Getty Images)

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At the same time, Beijing is also seeking to expand its influence over the future of artificial intelligence worldwide.

At a major technology conference in Shanghai on Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping promoted open-source AI and pledged to help developing countries build their capabilities. Xi also warned that unequal access to AI could create “new historical injustices,” according to Reuters.

Reuters contributed to this report.