Female Health Tracking, Hair Loss & Period Poverty

Female Health + Tech

Fitbit takes a stab at female health (Cnet News): Earlier this year Fitbit made a move in the right direction by including female health tracking as part of of their app’s general wellness tracking capabilities. However, not too surprisingly, Fitbit is receiving backlash over its female health tracking features. Learning from other menstrual tracking apps, it’s clear that period tracking is not always straightforward like clockwork. Fitbit makes some simple mistakes (setting a max 10 period, no multiple symptom reporting, etc.) This article questions whether this is a result of a lack of female product managers on the product team at Fitbit.

Female Hair Loss -Androgenic Alopecia (The Cut) - Artist Maya Gering created a beautiful animation film about her experience with androgenic alopecia and how this condition is completely hidden from the public eye. I'd never thought about the importance of female hair in the context of society's standard for female beauty, and this short film was certainly eye-opening.

Period Poverty (The Drum): I came across this interesting article from The Drum regarding a social enterprise Hey Girl UK that printed cut out sanitary pads in the paper to bring awareness to the issue of period poverty (1 in 10 girls in the UK can't afford sanity products). Although there are now cheaper alternatives such as mooncups, this issue is rarely talked about. I also follow Free the Tampons, whose goal is to make feminine products freely accessible in every restroom in the states.