Define Gender in the profile more accurately

[OxfordComa]

Please include "Non Binary/Gender Queer" in your profile gender options.

Gender is not binary (biological sex or identity) and only offering "Female" or "Male" options alienates and invalidates part of your customer base (me included). Using biology to define gender as only male or female also excludes trans people. 

Here is a great resource for better understanding gender: https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/understanding-gender/. Your information is outdated at best but can be yet another way NB/GQ people are marginalized by institutions and companies. We exist! 

I would also like to include that you should perhaps do some company wide training on how to engage with GQ/NB/Trans customers, because telling us that it's just biology is as mentioned, inaccurate and very alienating. It's pride month. Please do better.

Moderator Edit: Updated label

[JustEva]

I can't believe this has been up for 4 years and nothing has been done to improve this feature. Shame on you, FitBit, this is unbelievably transphobic.

[BenLeggiero_Yes]

As a person whose sex on my birth certificate and driver license is "X", I cannot accurately report my sex in this app.

Fitbit support has been extraordinarily rude to me about this: https://twitter.com/BenLeggiero/status/1388135484568735746?s=20

[PJThePrinxess]

Spoiler

This. Is. Ri-absolutely-f***ing-diculous... This SHOULD have been fixed already. The fact that it has not, is absurd. I myself are non-binary. And while I personally do not suffer from that much dysphoria, I know MANY people who do. 4 f***ing years, and this has not been fixed? WHY?! HUH?! WHY?! I expect this to be fixed soon... If not, I may have to think about switching to a different company or something... That is so disappointing FitBit... I'm very disappointed in you... 🤦🏽‍:female_sign:🤦🏽‍:male_sign:🤦🏽‍:female_sign:🤦🏽‍:male_sign:🤦🏽‍:female_sign:

[baz.they]

When setting up a profile, you ask for sex. You make no account for gender, which is a social construct that focuses on what's "between your ears" rather than what's "between your legs" (which doesn't help intersex folks!). Transgender individuals are often greatly affected by language and gender pronouns before, during, and after their transition.

[baz.they]

Oooh, REALLY annoying that you don't include the "This suggestion is needed because:" section, so I copypasted it here so everyone can see it. Bad form, Fitbit.

You don't consider people who are biologically neither male NOR female (intersex) nor the needs of your trans users (e.g., trans men can still have menstrual cycles & bear children, but the app assumes all men don't need period tracking & everyone else is a woman who does!). That + not allowing gender in profile setup = causes psychological damage.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @baz.they, thanks for sharing this suggestion about being able to define your gender in the Fitbit app with us. This idea was already requested in the Feature Suggestions board, so I’ve moved your post here. This will help us to keep the forums organized and make sure the suggestions don't get confused, or split a popular vote. Click on the thumbs-up to show your support.

[LemonDoggo]

On sign up either add an "other" gender, remove the gender choice or dont make it required, or possibly break it down into the actually relevant information like "do you have periods?" "what is your primary sex hormone? testosterone, oestrogen, N/A" "what is your assigned sex at birth? male, female, intersex"

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @LemonDoggo, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to define 'Gender' in the profile more accurately. I've moved it into a similar request. I think that a lot of users would like to have this option on their Fitbit devices.You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs.

Thank you again for your participation in the Feature Suggestions Forums. 

[ChVe]

Bruh, Fitbit's Twitter customer support responded to my question about why this wasn't implemented yet by pointing to THIS THREAD which had been languishing, unimplemented, for THREE YEARS, and oh BY THE WAY, features discussed on this board are UNOFFICIAL and not meant to be reviewed by FitBit (read the terms of use). Basically **ahem** right off FitBit, get this **ahem** figured out and add a **ahem**ed Other gender option, like, yesterday. At this point you're looking pretty dumb. And your Twitter folks are looking like **ahem**.

[baz.they]

Replying real quick -- they're gonna take your post down if you try to call
them out 🙄🙄🙄

[WrenArcher]

In personal information, including gender as well as sex. Having options male, female, non-binary, and custom. Adding an intersex option in sex for people neither biologically male/female. Cardio fitness says your level for “women” or “men.” Removing this or saying “AFAB/AMAB” or something like. Make FitBit more inclusive!

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @WrenArcher, thanks for explaining why you would like to more options than male, female to make Fitbit more inclusive. I've moved it into a similar request. I think that a lot of users would like to have this option on their Fitbit devices.You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs.

Thank you again for your participation in the Feature Suggestions Forums.

[BenLeggiero_Yes]

As an intersex person I feel I need to chime in on that previous comment.

Changing the existing options to AMAB/AFAB will not work for me, as those only describe how my obstetrician saw me the moment I was born, but doesn't at all reflect my body and my chemistry today.

If what you want to know is my hormone levels, ask that. If you want to know my fat distribution, ask that. If you want to know if I'm pregnant or nursing, ask that. Et cetera

[Seighin]

Please - as someone who stood in front of the bathrooms in kindergarten and did not know which one I should use, this is really important and affirming. I hate picking one or the other. It is not just a matter of biology, or rather it is, in the brain not what is between one's legs.

Please do better, FitBit. You are so awesome in so many other ways. 

[Boomshroom]

I may have been born male, but it's hard to definitively say what sex I am when I also possess estrogen and female anatomy. As a health and fitness service, it should be FitBit's duty to provide as accurate of information as they can, and to request any information necessary to do that. Any one whose body or identity doesn't cleanly fall into either male or female will recieve incorrect information regardless of which option they choose.

[MichaelAdamski]

I think that this is still correct since I am sure that there are only two sexes from the point of view of biology: a man and a woman. But I also believe that gender equality must be in today's society, so I raise this topic in my essays, examples of which you can find here https://papersowl.com/examples/gender-equality/. Gender equality is when people of all genders have equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities. It prevents violence against women and girls. It's essential for economic prosperity. Societies that value women and men as equal are safer and healthier. Gender equality is a human right.

[WrenArcher]

@MichaelAdamski I totally agree on the gender equality aspect. However, there are more than two sexes from the point of biology. Intersex people do exist. Additionally, even if they didn’t, trans people taking hormones alters secondary sex characteristics, and surgery can alter primary sex characteristics, making a simple male or female option inaccurate even if sex was binary. 

[mit_rekab]

Hence male female and other, male for XY female for XX and other for xxy,
xxx, xyy and yes xyz. Also those identifying as different from their
natural birth gender or taking hormones would ideally chose other. A few
beligerants will rebel and chose wrong. But it would make the data cleaner.

[BenLeggiero_Yes]

@MichaelAdamski @mit_rekab 

Biological sex is much more confusing than we were taught in gradeschool, and in real life involves so much more than X vs Y, or male vs female.

Here's a handy chart that helps explain the reality of human biological sex on a very surface level, without going into the deep details that actual biologists need to know: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/beyond-xx-and-xy-the-extraordinary-complexity-of-sex-dete... 

[SunsetRunner]

As a non-binary genderfluid assigned male at birth transgender human being, we can fully attest to the fact that hormone therapy treatment and other gender-affirming procedures we've researched very much move the biometric "needles" differently in different people. We want to add our voice to those who support this feature suggestion. When we clicked on the data, we were presented with the familiar silhouettes and the words male and female, and our heart sank. 

[Aspen-Drake]

I see that community members have been talking about this for years and fitbit has not done much to fix it.

I am a new user and I'm disappointed- it's almost 2022 and FitBit is not *at least* using gender neutral language everywhere possible, and it's still strictly binary AND conflating sex with gender?!

As a nonbinary person I don't need an app misgendering me by telling me facts about "women my age." As someone mentioned already, this app is supposed to make me feel good, but instead it makes me feel gender dysphoria.  Why would I pay for that?

I'm planning to cancel Premium before my trial is over as I don't need that. Besides, when I start using hormones, Fitbit apparently becomes essentially useless to me. 

Do the work. You're losing customers by not following the actual updated science OR the cultural/social shift in use of language. 

[PlantyThing]

I very much agree. This is already feeling really frustrating as a non-binary person. Like even if they really want to get info on my assigned sex at birth (which doesn't actually give much info about my current body, because I could be on HRT), I wish you could at least further specify your gender, or have the option to turn off gendered language on the app altogether. Reading stuff like "here's how you compare to other women" is super frustrating, as I am not a woman. 

[mit_rekab]

Odd isn’t it I find it frustrating that the here’s how you compare to other men is sent when I know that nowadays that’s likely to include people that are not men but have chosen that. At least have, other for those that are not sure or want to be different from the way they were born physically. Keep the data clean.

Sent from my iPad

[WrenArcher]

At this point I just set my sex to male, even though I was AFAB and am not on T. I was sick of the app calling me a woman every time I checked my sleep stats. There's honestly only a few changes I've noticed and I don't care too much. I get gendered correctly for the average ranges of time spent in each sleep stage but the average doesn't seem to change when I change my sex in the app. For my cardio fitness score, sex does seem to affect my stats, but I can just always change it back momentarily to female if I want, since that's probably more accurate for stats even if it's completely inaccurate as a word.

[WrenArcher]

Didn't know how to edit my comment above, I accidentally posted before I was finished writing. I'm fortunate that this solution works for me since I'm male, but many people aren't male or female. It's got to be even more unfair and frustrated to them.