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Apple promised an expansive health app, so why can't I track menstruation?

Apple promised an expansive health app, so why can't I track menstruation?

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Apple’s HealthKit can help you keep track of your blood alcohol content. If you’re still growing, it’ll track your height. And if you have an inhaler, it'll help you track how often you use it. You can even use it to input your sodium intake, because "with Health, you can monitor all of your metrics that you’re most interested in," said Apple Software executive Craig Federighi back in June. And yet, of all the crazy stuff you can do with the Health app, Apple somehow managed to omit a woman’s menstrual cycle.

In short, if you’re a human who menstruates and owns an iPhone, you’re shit out of luck.

"We've seen a lot of conversation in our user community and on Twitter wondering why period tracking isn't part of it right away," said Lisa Kennelly, Marketing Community Manager for Clue, a popular period and fertility tracking iOS app, in an email to The Verge. Thanks to smartphones, period and fertility tracking apps have become part of many women's lives. "It's a Quantified Self practice that a vast number of women do," Kennelly said. But "maybe it's not as well known about yet on the tech and development side of things. We're trying to change that!"

If you’re a human who menstruates, you’re shit out of luck

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Apple’s first diversity report did show that the company is mostly white and male. So it’s likely that menstrual cycles just aren’t a concern for a majority of the company’s employees. But that shouldn't be an excuse. Apple undoubtedly spoke to a number of physicians when it created its app — the company has boasted of its partnership with the Mayo Clinic, for instance — and it still failed to include what is arguably one of the most basic metrics of human existence.

The fact that it's a women's issue isn't grounds for dismissal

After all, women have kept track of their periods for centuries. Today, people who menstruate still make note of their period as a fertility or contraceptive method. And regardless of a woman’s feelings toward pregnancy, it’s not uncommon for a doctor to ask about flow and regularity. That makes a lot of sense: menstruation is a health issue.

The fact that it's also a women's issue isn't grounds for dismissal.

"Once reproductive health is part of Healthkit, we would love to integrate with it," Kennelly said. That integration would include metrics like average cycle length, average period length, pains, symptoms, and ovulation day. Already, she said, the company has developed an app update that, pending Apple’s approval, will integrate with Healthkit via Clue’s basal body temperature tracking feature. But those other health metrics? They’ll have to wait.

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Credit: Clue

When it comes right down to it, most smartphone-carrying women want an app that will notify them before they end up with a blood stain on their jeans. That alone is nothing short of revolutionary. And although apps that can do that already exist (check out Clue and Period Tracker), having all your health metrics in a single app — perhaps one named "Health" — seems pretty standard.

So, is it really too much to ask to that Apple treat women, and their health, with as much care as they've treated humanity’s sodium intake?