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". 

[AlexandraFitbit]

Nice suggestion, thanks for sharing @RebekahR. We look forward to hearing what other community members think.

[McJoynt]

Please consider changing the name of the female health tracker to something more gender neutral to be more inclusive of the range of people and identities who use your fitness trackers. Not everyone who has a uterus and menstruates identifies as female. 

[AranelS]

In addition to the very good points already raised (not all females menstruate and not all people who menstruate are female), the euphemism "female health" is just silly. If you're old enough to be menstruating, you're old enough to use the proper term.

If "menstrual health tracking" is too many characters to fit, "period tracking" would be acceptable. It is then obvious who it is for and what it does: It tracks periods, and it's for people who want to track periods. Easy. Simple. Clear.

[Calathea77]

"Cycle tracking" would also work. "Female health" really dismayed me, as it is so disrespectful of trans and non-binary people. 

[SammyNB]

I think that's not inclusive at all. I'm nonbinary myself and I feel very uncomfortable to be stuck under the woman umbrella.

As was said here already, the people using your products are not all cisgender.

It's 2018. Trans-inclusive language is out there and super easy to integrate. Please do something about it.

[ganurse]

Loving this FEMALE HEALTH TRACKING option but I don't have a uterus (partial hysterectomy) so I don't bleed during my "period" AND I can't get pregnant.

What I do use it for is to track my horomonal cycle around my "period" time and adjust my workouts & nutrition accordingly. 

I would LOVE more symptoms to track like...mood, cravings, & sleep quality 

[AlexB1]

Another nonbinary user. Please rename to "menstrual health tracker" or "cycle tracker".

More broadly, please allow me to choose a non-binary gender in my profile, even if it means that some features (which are presumably based on gendered statistics) aren't available to me. I can live with that.

Please also separate fertility tracking from menstrual cycle tracking, and do not assume that "sex" means "sex between a cis man and a cis woman".  The terms "protected/unprotected sex" are commonly used in menstrual/fertility trackers in a heteronormative way, linking them to fertility/pregnancy. It's no more relevant to me (a queer who doesn't have sex with cis men) to track that stuff in a menstrual tracker than it would be to track whether I shook hands with someone who had the flu. It's just not relevant to my cycle, and the presence of it in the app (without being able to turn it off along with fertility tracking) is offputting.

[Lynnanine]

I tend to think "female health tracking" is okay because biological females are the ones this feature is clearly meant for--biological females are the ones with cycles needing tracking. I could see where "cycle tracking" might be confusing as it's in a fitness app where cycle could have multiple meanings. "Menstrual tracking" might make more sense, however.

A feature to track temperature would be great--there's a smart thermometer that looks for BBT called TempDrop. If there was a feature to track BBT and had auto-syncing with TempDrop, that would be fantastic!

[Lovestofly]

I totally agree. I am a young woman who lost my ovaries as a result of breast cancer. I am still female. There is much more involved with female health than menstruating, however as far as I can see menstruation is the only thing that this tracking refers to. Postmenopausal women, transexual women, and women with health issues that do not menstruate are all still female.   Let's try being a bit more inclusive Fitbit!!!

[clnease]

Another vote to change the name menstrual tracker or health tracker with the option to personalize to your own details.

Also- get ror of, or allow us to change the color of the tracker, because Pink??? 

[Chinookwind]

If you want tips on how to do this, partner up with Clue, which you already have a relationship with. It is nice to have the option to track my cycle, but the app doesn't do anything else to track my "femaleness," so it would be great to name it something more specific about what it does track.

[ChloeRozo]

Agree!! I'm part of a huge group that has women, men and neither, all with different cycle health and I'd love for us all to feel comfortable. 

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@RebekahR wrote:

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". 

---

[SamHam]

Transgender man here (meaning FTM) I'm pre-T so I still have a cycle and would like to use this section of the app but (and I know this will sound silly and snowflakey to some cis folk) I wouldn't want to see the word "female health" on my app all the time as a constant reminder of that fact. I also second that not all women, cis-women included, have cycles. Many women don't have uteruses (again, including cis-women) or have reached menopause or for some other reason don't have a cycle, yet are perfectly healthy. There is a lot of stigma for women who don't have cycles as if it makes them less of a woman and calling it female health reinforces that. I don't think there is a reason to keep it as "female health" if there are better more accurate terms to use .( the app I currently use is Clue and it's more gender neutral and more importantly shares it's info with researchers. It would be a good model to base a new version of this feature on!)

[Dreyla]

Yes!!!! Please,lets have this renamed. The company already lets you add period tracking even if your profile doesn't say female or male. Take the next step an allow various gender spectrums to log their health.

Especially since it might provide a great resource 'compared to other ftm/mtf/nonbianary/genderfluid people your *insert level*  is _______' I would love this so much, please fitbit.

[SmirkyToast]

I agree wholeheartedly with this suggestion to rename the tracker to be more inclusive. It's a great feature but the name could definitely use an update. 

[zoso]

I wholeheartedly support this recommendation. To reiterate what has already been said here, the term "Female Health" is an unnecessary and damaging euphemism.

Unnecessary because "period tracking", "cycle tracking" and "menstrual tracking" are all accurate descriptors of what this feature actually does.

Damaging because:

1. It is exclusionary, either by mis-gendering those who menstruate and are not female, or by suggesting all females menstruate.

2. It is reductive - "Female Health" should not be reduced to menstration and fertility

3. It reinforces stigma by continuing to use euphemisms for menstruation rather than talk honestly about a natural process.

[Digital_Pants]

Yes, please change the name of this feature - not all of us who use this feature are female. Call it one of the following:
A) health tracker (since everyone might want to log headaches, bloating, heartburn, itching, and other common health symptoms you could add, including custom ones; and just include period tracking and all other features with it - so simply those who don't have periods don't enter that info). 
B) Reproductive health 
C) Menstrual health 
D) Sexual health 
E) Period tracker

[samdinucci]

yeah seeing "female health" every day is really off-putting since I'm non-binary. I also think we should have the option to choose gender along with sex.

[clnease]

❤️ I would love this option.
Choose Gender or even none at all.

[zuko91_]

All for this! Came to this forum to put forward a post exactly the same as this after emailing FitBit direct. Looking forward to them hearing what we've got to say and taking progressive steps forward.

[zuko91_]

Also beyond the name, the marketing needs to not be so women-centric! At the moment it's incredibly female focused and all about empowering "ladies"!!!! Would definitely love to see this dialled back and the entire gender spectrum empowered and not afraid to talk about menstruation. Break the stigma and say hello to inclusivity while we are at it!!

[zuko91_]

Latest email re this issue:

"To clarify — your case is already being handled by Fitbit's highest tier of support and was first brought to our attention last week.

The social team we work closely with is aware of this, but may not be able to provide a fix in the immediate future. We'll continue to monitor the situation, and keep our social team informed of the impact to you and other users. We understand that this isn't the immediate resolution you're hoping for, but rest assured we're working on changes to improve this feature.

We appreciate your patience. Let us know if we can assist you with anything else in the meantime."

[brinstar]

I agree with this suggestion. Please change the name of this feature to one that is more inclusive of the range of people who need to track their cycles.

[Kwranney]

I just sent a suggestion directly, and they sent me here. I agree with the comments above to rename it something other than female anything, but for a different reason.

Why is this kind of tracking/logging only applicable to females at all? When I see protected and unprotected sex, I think STDs not family planning. As a sexually active woman myself, I’m frustrated that we’re not looking to the “non-females” to track sexual activity that might become relevant later down the road - either to a subsequent partner or after a diagnosis.

After reading the comments above, seems this could be organized in cyclical tracking, sexual health and family planning. And make it completely gender neutral because all three of those might be worth tracking for anyone in the Fitbit family.

[Kwranney]

Oh! And options for tracking symptoms could be under all three sections since folks are interested in tracking cyclical symptoms/feelings, sexual health symptoms (from yeast infections to STDs), and family planning symptoms.