How period trackers have changed girl culture • Hacker News Board

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#41

Post by onion2k » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:40 PM UTC

eveningcoffee wrote: post #8

As the app mentioned is free, I would deduce that they try to turn the data about their users cycle into a monetary value. Is there research how certain periods of the cycle would affect women shopping behaviour (or behaviour in general)? I am asking this to understand how much value is in such information. Perhaps there are other aspects I am overlooking?

As the app mentioned is free, I would deduce that they try to turn the data about their users cycle into a monetary value.

There are good reasons why people might want to make this sort of app beyond selling the data. There's a huge potential for health care service providers - if women don't need prescription drugs or appointments to see their doctor, and any other medical issues are resolved more easily because there isn't the problem of the drugs interacting with the pill, then that represents a vast saving in the cost of supplying services.

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#42

Post by StavrosK » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:40 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #12

tomp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely. Personally, I don't recall ever witnessing this stigma, apart from the general disinterest in this topic. Having said that, I don't understand the current movement of glorifying and promoting menstruation (e.g. [1], [2]). Sure, it's natural, but it's also rather yucky - just like shitting and pissing. But I'd still appreciate if I don't see photos of shit, menstruation, or sperm on my Facebook. [1…

I am from Brazil, I had never heard of a taboo in the open, but after I started to have long term girlfriends, all of them tried to not use the word "menses" in Portuguese, from methods that I think are stupid (writing only "m" instead) to the outright infuriating (using ambiguous and hard to understand euphemisms), it annoyed me a lot, and I argued with all of them about it, never worked, they never explained that b…

Yeah, in Greece they also say "I'm indisposed", and it's a generally-known euphemism for "I'm on my period", but you never really know if they're on their period or if they're ill.

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#43

Post by cperciva » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:41 PM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #17

StavrosK wrote: post #3

I never understood the stigma behind a completely natural and necessary process that half of all people have.

I understand what you're trying to say about patriarchy, and it's a problem, but that said... I and 100% of people have a few completely natural and necessary processes that we go through on a pretty much daily basis that are so stigmatized they have a special room in our houses dedicated to making sure we can do them in private. I'm talking about defecating and urinating. Can you imagine if--once a month, like clock…

The colouring of faeces is due to the breakdown of heme, but faeces should not contain any nontrivial quantity of intact dead red blood cells.

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#44

Post by blub » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:42 PM UTC

eveningcoffee wrote: post #8

As the app mentioned is free, I would deduce that they try to turn the data about their users cycle into a monetary value. Is there research how certain periods of the cycle would affect women shopping behaviour (or behaviour in general)? I am asking this to understand how much value is in such information. Perhaps there are other aspects I am overlooking?

I looked at their (Clue's) privacy policy a while ago: basically you have the option of not creating an account, and they claim that everything is stored locally and not sent anywhere in that case.

I think it's a German/EU company, so they should have some restrictions on what they do with this data.

Maybe someone can take a closer look...

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#45

Post by StavrosK » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:42 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #34

speeder wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am from Brazil, I had never heard of a taboo in the open, but after I started to have long term girlfriends, all of them tried to not use the word "menses" in Portuguese, from methods that I think are stupid (writing only "m" instead) to the outright infuriating (using ambiguous and hard to understand euphemisms), it annoyed me a lot, and I argued with all of them about it, never worked, they never explained that b…

Isn't that about the same as people saying "I'm going to the toilet for number 2" instead of "I'm going to the toilet to shit"?

It's more like saying "I'm going to the back" in the amount of ambiguity in the phrase. Saying "number two" is clear in its meaning.

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#46

Post by rndmind » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:42 PM UTC

xyzzyz wrote: post #9

StavrosK wrote: post #3

I never understood the stigma behind a completely natural and necessary process that half of all people have.

It's not unlike the stigma behind a completely natural and necessary process that almost all of people have, which is defecation. Operationally speaking, the two are very similar. So, why is there a stigma behind defecation?

Almost all people? I am sure you mean all people.

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#47

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:42 PM UTC

golergka wrote: post #27

yumptonpa wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think it's a good think that the majority of women were resorting to a drug to cope with a normal healthy body function? I think it's good if more women are able to cope without the drugs.

I think that the pill is supposed to "cope" with potential unwanted pregnancy, not with periods.

[deleted]

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#48

Post by StavrosK » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:43 PM UTC

yumptonpa wrote: post #31

golergka wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the pill is supposed to "cope" with potential unwanted pregnancy, not with periods.

> Many said their menstrual problems were greatly reduced, and of course there was a completely reliable schedule that came with it.

Are you saying that problems are normal and healthy?

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#49

Post by xyzzyz » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:44 PM UTC

braythwayt wrote: post #20

xyzzyz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not unlike the stigma behind a completely natural and necessary process that almost all of people have, which is defecation. Operationally speaking, the two are very similar. So, why is there a stigma behind defecation?

I don’t know about operational speaking, but epedemiologically speaking, the two are very different. One of them is associated with e. coli, a lethal bacterium that even in modern times and developed nations kills people on a regular basis, e.g. Walkerton, Ontario, where seven people were killed by improperly treated drinking water in 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_E._coli_outbreak It’s easy to see why…

I'm not a native speaker, so forgive me for not expressing myself clearly enough, but isn't urination also considered to be defecation, or does defecation in English refers only to the "number two"? I'm asking, because urine is mostly sterile.

However, my point was that while there are a lot of obvious differences, defecation is similar enough to menstruation, such that it's not surprising that stigma is also similar.

Re: How period trackers have changed girl culture

#50

Post by facepalm » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 1:44 PM UTC

Is it really such an issue in the US? I find that hard to believe. I can imagine it is not a popular subject, just like other subjects of hygiene. But that is not the same as being stigmatized.