Cycle-Tracking Technology Post-Dobbs

• In Event: Post-Dobbs Precarity: Feminist Technoscience and Reproductive Justice

Abstract

Cycle-tracking apps have risen in popularity as a form of birth control in the digital age, with millions of users worldwide. The practice and expanded implementation have profound implications post-Dobbs as we continue to encounter issues with digital privacy. This paper explores the marketing, function, efficacy, and implications of cycle-tracking technology in the Evie Ring and Oura Ring, which use the Natural Cycles app. Cycle-tracking is presented as a more “natural” alternative to hormonal birth control but may be linked to the re-articulation of traditional gender ideology and entrenchment of neoliberal individualized responsibility.

Presenter

• Katherine Roos, Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, The Ohio State University