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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Thank you for not taking any offense to my frustrated tone, as it was indeed just that, frustration. Having questions and posting them here is completely understandable, and for what it’s worth, I’d rather people ask than just never get an answer.

    Though you are allowed to have your own opinion and come to your own conclusions, I think the fact you stated that you think using the apps was a bad idea even before now, and that doctors have been helping people long before apps, demonstrates that either I was not clear enough, or you were unable to appreciate the lived experience of people affected by their periods.

    Doctors regularly misunderstand, misdiagnose, and outright ignore period related medical issues. I’m not sure where you live, but even in a country with the best healthcare in the world, it’s literally impossible for doctors to provide the personalized information that apps can. I’m not saying that apps therefore must be used and are better than doctors, but I, a woman with periods, am telling you that my app has been more helpful than my doctor as far as managing my cycle goes. You don’t have to believe me, or you can say that you don’t think anything is worth the trade off in data for you as an individual, but people using these apps would obviously disagree. And not just because they don’t know they’re being tracked. We’re all being tracked to a certain extent and we decide what we’re willing to put up with in exchange. If you don’t think you’d share your data for that convenience, fine, but people share data for other conveniences all the time. It’s just extremely unfortunate that this data has now become so contentious.



  • I think it was probably a good move to stop using Samsung health. Hopefully you’re getting the features you need elsewhere or are staying healthy without it.

    I think you are seeing some of that energy as it relates to these apps, hence the OOP, but for practicality sake, and maybe out of naivety, most women are not/don’t need to be as concerned as Jews in 1930s Germany. Most of the harm that will be done will be in removing access to future care and likely mainly to start in red states. If apps become a huge source of the issue, I think you’ll see a larger shift, but I imagine most of those cases would not need app data as a main source of evidence. You’ll see women dying of miscarriages more and more. And abortion will be more difficult to access, but I think there would have to be more cases where period app data was specifically used to convict before much changes. I think it’s difficult to accurately convey how important accurate tracking/predictions can be for some people, and how unwilling they would be to give that up. Especially if they are not in a situation where they are likely to get pregnant. The difference between telling your doctor your period is regular vs using an app is that your doctor is just not capable of giving up to the minute personalized information the way an app can. If people’s doctors were personally knocking on their door reminding them to take their medication twice a day and then giving them reminders that Wednesdays their symptoms are worse so maybe don’t plan a full body gym workout, they’d probably be less likely to withhold the information from their doctor, so I don’t really see the two as being directly comparable. Though, I generally agree with the sentiment that it’s bad idea to trust anyone with your data, especially health data or data that can be used to support a criminal case against you.


  • Appreciate the reply. I guess I see how conceptually that makes sense, but in practice I don’t see it helping someone actually accused of anything. If a woman in a red state is brought up on charges and her app data backs that up and the excuse given is “I was lying when I added that I was pregnant” I don’t see that really making a difference. I guess it technically makes it more plausible, but I’m not sure it’s moving the needle as much as would be needed in that case.

    If my doc asked me what my diet was like I would try to give accurate info but if I needed to input my latest meal every time I sent a text, my phone would think I only ate ice cream. I guess I struggle to think of an app where I would give accurate data if given the option so I just assumed people would lie if asked honestly for it. I still am not sure most apps would do better if they were more transparent, but that probably speaks more to the scamminess and predatory nature of apps than anything else. There would be more paid only apps for sure.


  • I think people mistakenly believe it will make it harder to identify/charge women who have miscarriages/abortions. Your comment is 100% accurate though and although it’s nice to see men expressing what they view as solidarity by downloading these apps, ultimately it will have no effect and just mess with data being used for public good. Really wish whichever CEO started this trend to get more downloads for their app gets found out, because I can’t imagine who else would suggest people download an app thats main claim to fame is “respects privacy so little it can send you to jail” lol.


  • Legit only comment so far to not just say “PAPER EXISTS1!1!1!1!” So props for that.

    Can I ask how polluting the data will help? Most apps that don’t care about privacy can probably identify people with zero issues. I bet people are giving these apps location data etc.

    I don’t know what you mean by good data comes with proper consent. Like, ideally all data was offered with proper consent, but how does that make data better or worse? If anything, data given without consent is likely to be more wholistic/unedited since they were not given time to redact/remove info. If someone stole my phone and took all my data, they would have “better data” than had I been informed this would happen and given time to wipe my phone.



  • Hi! Lots of people in this comment section who clearly don’t have periods, but yea they do offer something more. That’s why they’re used. It really feels like a bunch of presumably men are here in the comments to remind women that paper exists? Yea, we know. Other than these all being easily searchable questions, allow me to say we use them for many reasons including: Convenience - you almost always have your phone on hand. Do you really want to keep a dedicated period journal on your person at all times? Predictions - despite what you may believe, periods are not all regular. Some can skip months at a time. Most apps have a bunch of data sets they use to predict things even if your data isn’t complete Integrations - does my journal automatically cross reference my symptoms and alert me that it noticed that eating apples makes my headaches worse? No, and the level of analysis being done would need both an inhuman amount of time and resources to do by hand

    Women are not “listening to an app for medical advice” so much as using apps predictive algorithm. The app has access to much more data than we do individually and it can be extremely helpful for women with irregular or extreme periods.

    Is it great opsec? No. Sometimes things trump (lol) opsec. I still will advise against anyone (man or woman) downloading and using these apps if they have alternatives. The apple health app seems like a privacy focused one, but I can’t stress enough how none of that matters anyway. The courts and public opinion will be stacked against women in these positions, so any app data that can be used will be, and any lack of app data will just be used to make the case anyway. Keep as much data as you can as private as you can, regardless. People adding false data to the does nothing.


  • I don’t know if you’re someone who’s not had to deal with menstrual cycles, but that’s not really helpful advice. Apps provide a lot of useful information and often integrate with other health data to offer better predictions and general insights. Many cycles are not “oh, it’s the 15th, here we go”. Many can be affected or predicted by mood/diet/symptoms. That’s a lot for a person to keep track of. My app will sometimes predict up to a 3 day shift and be completely accurate. I have looked at the graphs and sometimes you can point to a specific symptom and say, oh that must be what it used for that prediction, but sometimes you can’t. Get stressed every year around the holidays to the point where it changes your cycle? Your app will remember that. One less thing for your stressed mind to worry about. Additionally, even if they were super regular to the day, having an app to send a reminder, “hey! Get ready tomorrow” can be helpful to make sure you have any supplies you may need.

    Also, we use apps for things we don’t need to all the time. And generally, it’s for the same reason: apps are easier and more accessible. Since you mentioned a journal, there are plenty of apps out there that replace journals themselves. They are used for several reasons, but one would imagine using an app is easier because it’s not an extra item you have to have on you and can potentially lose or forget to bring, it’s always on you so the resistance barrier is smaller, it might even have search functionality.

    Do I think people should be randomly downloading these apps? No, it really doesn’t do anything at all. But blaming people for using conveniences because the government is trying to take away their rights is really missing the mark. It might be good opsec, but it’s dismissive at the least and not really solving the actual problem.


  • I get where you’re coming from, and I sympathize with what is sometimes referred to as “low information voters” (though I don’t know how I personally feel about that term), but it’s important to point out that they are not NO information voters. They have heard at least some of what Trump has to say, and are willing to overlook blatant racism/fascism/misogyny/homophobia for what they think will be lower costs (or another either equally empty promise or overtly harmful promise). I am not by any means well off, but if someone said they could decrease my costs if I assented to rounding up X group, I would not take that deal. They have. They might not know the extent to which he will do others harm, but they are willing to take the deal because they do not think it will harm them directly. Hence the leopard/face jokes. They might be doing “honest work”, but that does not make them good people (though “some, I assume, are good people”).

    I have family that voted for Trump who would be classed as “low info” and they only know he’s “gonna put god back in schools”. They don’t go out of their way to physically injure people different from them, but it’s clear that not only do they not care about those people, they want to force them to conform or leave. Imho, that’s not indicative of a good person. In fact, it’s often indicative of a bad person. Say what you want about “different values” or how dems are more open minded or whatever the studies show, at a certain point, conservatism makes you a bad person.

    Sure, we can debate about where that line is, but the further back you want to “conserve” the worse you are in my experience. Wanna go back to the 90s? Probably economically motivated, but willing to throw the lgbt+ community under the bus. 70s? Them and women are not important to you. 50s? Just blatantly racist at this point. Anything before that and they might as well want to bring back ownership of people. At the end of the day what are they trying to conserve? Their own power. They just differ in who they’re willing to trample to take it back.



  • Lmao at your last line. Yea, in another comment this AM I mentioned that they need to never run this kind of campaign again. If they do, it better be for the most generic white guy to ever exist. I know they will continue to run it because ratchet theory works in their favor regardless of what they say, but it’s just so disheartening. When they refused to let people speak at the convention I knew it was over for them. What a terrible joke. I feel insulted that I had to vote and pretend to care just to have them do less than I did. Hope we all make it through ok.


  • So help me, I’m tired of seeing this take. You can’t have it both ways. If you think Americans (dems specifically) are too racist/sexist for a black female president, then running her IS a mistake. Either you think it’s ok to run a candidate you know will likely lose but it’s worth it to say a black female ran, or you think they had reason to believe she would win. If #1, then that’s tacit support of Trump, if #2 you think the best poli sci/stats people in America were too dumb to figure out people are too sexist/racist.

    I know dem voters that are racist (seeing a POC=lock your doors). They voted Harris. I know Rs that are racist (too racist to write here). They voted Trump. If the dems ran a better campaign, Kamala would have won. If they knew they were gonna run this campaign and were concerned the tiny minority of dem racists/sexists would be a problem, they should have run a white man. The take that America is racist but Kamala did all she could and the platform was great and we don’t regret running her is the problem with democrats. They did something wrong because they lost. If they wanna blame racism/sexism, fine, but then they have to take accountability for having a black woman run as the only choice. If we’re saying that’s the reason I don’t wanna see them run this kind of campaign for another woman or POC. Give us our rights. I don’t care what the person who does that looks like.

    Sorry for the rant. I’m sure we agree on most issues, I’m just absolutely livid. I’m beyond consolation. My best friend just had a miscarriage and was given medical care that Rs are trying to make illegal. She would have died without it. She’s still trying to convince. If this happens again in trumps America, I don’t know what her outcome would be. It feels hopeless when people just point at voters. Dems can’t change America, but they can change their platform. I hope they learn and do better, but that’s been my hope for too long. I’m losing faith.