Change "Female Health Tracking" to "Menstrual Health Tracking"

[RebekahR]

The label "Female Health Tracking" is inaccurate, and the label "Menstrual Health Tracking" or something similar would be more appropriate. This is because not all females have periods and not everyone who has periods is female. Calling it "Female Health Tracking" erases the identity of and excludes people who are transgender by implying that mensuration is something that happens to only females and all females. 

Furthermore, using the word female instead of menstruation only reinforces the social stigma around periods. Many people are afraid to talk about mensuration openly, it is perceived as embarrassing, unclean, and should be hidden. By not using the direct words that describe this natural human function and masking them with more comfortable words like female, it just adds to the notion that periods are a taboo subject and should not be discussed in public. 

This label may seem like a small and insignificant detail. It is true that the function would be the same no matter what its called. However, a name can hold a lot of power. And the name "Female Health Tracking" is transgender-exclusive and contributes to a stigma around periods, which is why it should be changed to "Menstrual Health Tracking". 

[LisaM35]

Agree with comments above that the name needs to be changed to be inclusive.  Also, there needs to be a setting to turn this feature on or off in personal settings.  Not all people who menstruate want it tracked.  Fitbit should not assume that because you marked female that you want menstruation tracking. 

[Ancamna]

I am a female who doesn't menstruate because I have an IUD and it's changed my cycles considerably.  I want this app to reflect that my hormones and vaginal discharge still change on a relatively monthly cycle, I want to track things that will make me more or less prone to yeast or bacterial vaginosis infections, but I don't want the app to assume I'm going to bleed every month.  Female is a scientific word defining sex, not gender.  All people who menstruate are female, but not all females menstruate.  I think that calling it a menstruation tracker only works if you're only intending for it to track menstruation, which is mostly what it does now.  However, actually improving the app so that it tracks hormonal cycles that aren't fully linked to bleeding would make it better (for instance, the app knows that I have an IUD, but that doesn't seem to affect it's algorithms at all, which makes it almost useless to me).  And by making the app better, it would be about female health tracking.  

[brinstar]

The issue with "female" is that using binary gender terms to describe health tracking features is a bad user experience.

Sex is just as biologically/scientifically variable as gender, so the statement "all people who menstruate are female" is false.

Can the app just NOT apply antiquated and outdated notions of binary gender to the names of features?

[clnease]

No- not all who menstruate are female, they may have a uterus that
functions and sheds, but doesn't make them female.

[LizFitbit]

Hi everyone, thanks for sharing this suggestion. We appreciate all of the input we receive from our customers, but do not currently have plans to change the name of Female Health Tracking. You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs. For now, we will leave this suggestion open for votes (and closed to comments) so that we can continue to track community demand over time. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us and we will let you know if anything changes.

[AlaynaH]

Make it gender neutral by calling the setting 'Menstrual and Fertility Health Tracker' - not just women have periods, get pregnant, track fertility. It's 2019 and you should be more inclusive with your product that millions of people use

[SantiR]

Hi @AlaynaH, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us, this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here as it is not currently planned.

[cardh]

I know there is a post suggesting this already but I searched through the community policies and FAQ and didn't see anything saying that double-posting wasn't allowed so I am double-posting because that discussion had been closed.

Using "female" instead of "menstrual" or another term like "cycle" to name this feature is not inclusive. There are cis women who don't menstruate. There are cis women who used to menstruate but don't anymore. There are trans women who don't menstruate. There are trans men and nonbinary people who do menstruate.

While it's great that those who have not classified themselves as "female" on Fitbit can still use this feature, I can't imagine it's very comfortable to use a "female" feature when you're not... "female".

The term "female" is honestly kind of outdated in this context and not very useful. Scientifically, we consider male to mean producing sperm and female to mean producing eggs (or something along these lines). But socially, "female" typically refers to women and "male" typically refers to men. So, the term doesn't really make sense in this context. 

Also, it's not very descriptive. What aspects of "female" health are we tracking here? It doesn't make sense. Since it is specifically a menstrual tracking feature, why don't you call it that?

The only reason I can come up with that you wouldn't change this would be that this is a transphobic, uninclusive, and scientifically uninformed company. Now I don't know much about product development (or even if product development is the right term for this), but it seems like a fairly easy change. And, even if it only makes a few people infinitely more comfortable using your products, why wouldn't you make that change? 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @cardh, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us, as you mentioned this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here as it is not currently planned. Thanks for your understanding, I hope to see you around.

[MxBeeVice]

Please change the name to something more inclusive for trans and nonbinary users. Not everyone who menstruates identifies as female, and not everyone who identifies as female menstruates. Calling it Female Health Tracking causes dysphoria. Cycle Tracking, Period Tracking, Menstrual Tracking, etc are all much better. 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @MxBeeVice, thanks for taking the time to share why you would like to see this change on the Fitbit app. This feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your post here. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

I hope to see you around.

[Camrose]

Not all females have periods, and not all people who have periods are female.

It is a long overdue issue that needs to be updated to recognize and stop excluding other genders. Please give attention to this huge problem. I am nonbinary, but I have periods and will continue to use the Clue app until this gets changed. 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Camrose, thanks for taking the time to share why you would like to see this option on the Fitbit app. This feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your post here. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

I hope to see you around.

[JuanFitbit]

Hi @RebekahR  and thanks for sharing this suggestion, which has received votes from other community members. I’m happy to let you know that this suggestion has been picked up internally at Fitbit and is being considered by our team. This suggestion will either remain ‘Under Consideration’ until released, or else move to ‘Not Currently Planned’ if it’s not viable right now. Further updates will be posted here.

Please remember that if a suggestion is chosen for development, it can take some time before updates are available or a release is finalized, so thanks in advance for your patience. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs. Fans can continue to vote for this feature suggestion while it is under consideration.

[GrackleWing]

I completely agree, the term needs to be changed. It's unwelcoming and makes people uncomfortable.

They should also change the language they use while talking about periods. Just say "people" instead of "women." It's such a simple change but it would make trans peoples' experiences so much better.

[Lou442]

I'm trans and I cant use that app in my fitbit charge 3 because it makes me dysphoric. It would be good and useful for me to track this but I always have this problem of constantly being called "female" when trying to use an app to do that, so I gave up on it a long time ago. When I saw that term on my fitbit I was kind of dismayed that this is still the inaccurate euphemism such big companies are using...

[Brittti]

Very glad to find this topic and the fact that someone suggested the name change - incredibly disappointing to see that it was suggested in 2018 (!!!) and is STILL called Female Health Tracking. Fitbit needs to step up their game - it's not a big change for them to make at all but it will massively improve inclusivity of their app. 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to see change "Female Health Tracking" to "Menstrual Health Tracking". I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has been updated as "Under Consideration". I hope to see you around.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi everyone, and thanks for sharing this suggestion. We’re very happy to let you know that this has been released on the Fitbit app. You will see this information on the Fitbit app when you update to app version 3.30.

@RebekahR, in recognition of your excellent suggestion, each of your votes will now count as 5 votes – you have the power! Thank you for sharing this idea, and thanks to everyone who voted and commented for your enthusiasm which has now materialized for everyone’s benefit. We hope you all enjoy this new addition to the Fitbit product or service!

[clnease]

You still don't get it.
The title in fitbit says menstrual health tracker - but it still has
everything inside addressing females and female health - even the non
essential humanoids are representing female.
Drop the term and likenesses for female - it's unnecessary.

[blickblocks]

Hi, it's 2020 and menstrual tracking is still tied to the choosing of a woman icon during setup. Can you please be inclusive of transgender of intersex individuals?