The casual homophobia of my period tracking app

I have PCOS, which means my cycles are incredibly irregular. I’ve gone years without a period and months when I’ve had 2 in 4 weeks. As you might assume, this makes figuring out when I’m going to have my period a bit difficult. I started tracking my cycles last year when I got off birth control for, as my gyno called it, a “medicine vacation” for 6 months.

As a scientist (Jk, I’m an English teacher), I like to collect data about my own health just to see what’s going on, so I decide to track my period using new fangled tech. My friend suggested I download the Flo app, which also keeps track of your various symptoms and helps you identify patterns in them (for a price.) I was very happy with the interface, especially as an alumnus of the school of Buzzfeed, the survey feature and the helpful explainer videos really appealed to me.

What didn’t appeal to me, however, were the assumptions that riddle the app. There were no options to pick the gender of your partner, the app just defaults to a biological woman who is having penetrative sex with a men. If my period was a few days late, Flo would suggest I take a pregnancy test, despite the fact that it’s been nearly a decade since I was last near a penis in this context and I am in a committed relationship with a woman. 

There is also the partner function, which allows you to share your insights with your sexual partner. In the copy for this function, the app uses “he” for everything, declaring that you can “let him know when your sex drive is high,” which I think is info my girlfriend might also want, and “explain your period in a way he’ll understand,” which strikes me as both infantilizing to men and also treating women like our bodies are mysterious artifacts that need study guides to appreciate.

I get it, I’m sure 90% of the apps users are women in relationships with men who can impregnate them and who my or may not be interested in knowing their risk of said impregnating taking place. As I said, as a scientist (English teacher) I can appreciate the amount of data about my own fertility windows even if it’s just theoretical. But there should be an option for us queers with fertility issues to check off.

If I’m to trust you with the consistency of my vaginal discharge and what it might mean for my uterus, you should know the correct gender of my partner, if only so you’, Flo, will stop freaking out that I might be pregnant. I’m not, I promise.