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period tech?

Note: I decided to make my curiosity-driven Wikipedia wormhole finally result in some kind of output. And...here it is tada! 



why?: I read a book about period advocacy by Nadya Okamoto, a young woman who's inspiring advocating for relief from period poverty. In the book she mentioned a range of ideas but one that caught my attention was her idea of a "smart pad" that could measure period blood use this data to give women accurate updates on their health. This blew my mind, and sparked a chain of curiosity that led me down a day of furious research to...a short post about period tech. Tada! 

  1. period apps: If you go to the App store and search up ‘period apps’  you will be faced with an avalanche of different apps. Some of the more popular ones are Flo and Clue. These apps track your period and period health, guarantee your privacy, and give you health recommendations. (Smaller facts about periods are actually often central to womens’ health, and can be a predictor of things such as diseases.) All of these apps were created in the past decade, but their numbers are indicators of their necessity and popularity. 


  1. period pants: Thanks to earlier breakthroughs in material science, period pants have been around for (a decade?) a few years at least. Boons for women with heavier periods, they prevent leaks and increase absorbing capabilities. Example products are Dear Kate and Wuka (these are some of the more high-end products on the market, but this mini-industry actually has a lot of merchandisers). Each of these brands boast their own uniqueness: comfortability, lack of bulkiness, fabric type, and leak protection capabilities. 


  1.  smart…menstrual cups??: We live in a ‘smart’ world: smart phones, smart watches, smart refrigerators??? I sincerely didn’t even know this actually existed until I did the research for this post. Although many other companies are starting to get into this technology as well, the LOONcup is the world’s first smart menstrual cup. It connects to an app on your phone, tracks the amount of blood in the cup and sends a notification to your phone when the cup needs to be changed. It also uses different aspects of the period blood itself to give you health recommendations.


  1. TENS tech: All of these innovations set aside, this one surprised me the most. Although it’s been around from the 70s, it's becoming more mainstream lately. An example of this is the Artemis bodysuit (I love their website layout), which is actually QUITE expensive ($240) as of now. It is coming later in 2023 itself, and uses TENS tech as its main selling point. 

  • TENS tech is a small machine that attaches to your body via sticky pad and generates small electrical pulses to stem period pain and relax your muscles by reducing pain signals going up your spine. 

TENS tech is also used in childbirth, but more medical research is still needed (and being done) on it. 



  • into the future (who? and how?) 


"I know Victoria’s secret, and girl you won’t believe it…she’s an old man that lives in Ohio making money off of girls like me, cashin’ in on body issues…Victoria was made up by a dude.” - Victoria’s Secret, Jax 

^^^I think this best represents the impacts of not having enough inclusion in the work force


Periods have always existed, and unless technology-creators become more haywire than they already are and reproductive systems change, they may always continue to exist. As more women join the workforce, especially in male-dominated fields such as TECH and POLICY we spot ways to improve lives for women that had not been thought of before. We bring a new perspective to the table. As women entrepreneurs rise, so does FemTECH (a new blossoming industry focused on women’s healthcare). Diversity and inclusion and acceptance create the innovations such as the ones in the post. I hope we, as future women joining the workforce, strive to innovate in this way. : ) 



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