Finding suggests need for education about tech's reliability
The use of fertility-tracking technology increased in some states after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade despite warnings that reproduction-related data might not be secure, a new study has found.
Data from surveys conducted in Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin showed that before the 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, over one-third of women in those states reported using apps or websites to track their menstrual cycles and sexual activity. In the year after the ruling, the proportion of survey participants using fertility trackers grew to almost half.
The survey samples consisted of different groups of people, so this result doesn’t rule out the possibility that some users did quit the apps to protect their personal data. The findings likely reflect an uptick in use of technologies aimed at improving women’s health – known as “Femtech” – in general, said lead author Emily Neiman, a clinical instructor of practice in the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University.
Read more in Ohio State News by clicking on this link.
