The High Stakes of Tracking Menstruation

Abstract

Cycle tracking applications (CTAs) have emerged as a rapidly proliferating health technology within the femtech market. Apps intervene in a context of limited access to menstrual health information, menstrual stigma, and a dearth of medical research on menstrual health. In the Global North, users often turn to CTAs after struggling to access relevant information, care, or diagnoses for menstruation-related conditions in conventional medical settings. CTAs promise to address this critical knowledge gap. Yet, CTAs are not medical technologies in the traditional sense. Rather, they operate in the context of data capitalism: they transform personal health information into data points to be collected, analysed, and sold. This poses significant risks for users. Despite some concerns over data security and privacy, users often do not regard menstrual tracking data as personal or intimate. People vastly underestimate the commercial value of menstrual data and the extent to which it can provide insights into their political preferences, health issues, or reproductive choices. Stakeholders in the areas of menstrual or reproductive health similarly lack understanding of the risks and harms CTA data collection engenders. This report from Dr Stefanie Felsberger and the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy explains what cycle tracking apps are and why people use them, what data they collect, and who accesses it. Taking a data justice approach, this report maps out what is at stake for individuals and society in the Global North when menstrual data is collected and sold at scale. The aim is to inform both individuals using apps, along with stakeholders from civil society organisations, policy makers, and industry.