Traditionally damage has been studied based on the Stored Energy approach by including an internal variable or independently to predict failure life as epitomised by Miner's rule. However, relating the property changes in rubber to fatigue life remains an open question. Hence, a systematic experimental procedure was implemented to study the fatigue-induced property variation in natural rubber compounds. The experiments were aimed at understanding damage induced mechanical property variations, and to explore whether they can be used for damage evolution law. As per the evolution law used in continuum damage mechanics, the constitutive equation includes an internal variable, which alters the stress-strain relationship. The experimental results do not indicate a monotonous decay of stiffness with fatigue life. Partial recovery of stiffness was observed at intermediate stages of fatigue life - a phenomenon that continuum damage mechanics cannot capture. When a failure based damage law was used to depict hyperelastic behaviour through finite element analysis, the simulation results were not in consonance with the experimental results. On the other hand, the variation in elongation at break and strain energy density at break demonstrated a unique correlation to the cyclic strain and fraction of life consumed. Unlike the conventional perception of damage strain energy arising from stored energy available for deformation, it is asserted that the damage accumulates at the cost of ultimate properties. © 2019