Menopause apps: personal health tracking, empowerment and epistemic injustice

Objective

The majority of work in FemTech has focused on menstrual tracking apps but menopause apps are growing in popularity potentially offering greater empowerment for peri and post-menopausal women. Surprisingly little is known about women's actual experiences of using these apps, and how they relate to the epistemic injustice often experienced in relation to menopause. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the role menopause apps play in women's experience of empowerment and epistemic injustice.

Methods

We collected qualitative data, through an online reflection exercise and interviews, from 29 peri and post-menopausal women in the United Kingdom who had experience of using menopause apps.

Findings

The analysis identified two themes (1) Acquiring more knowledge on menopause and (2) Apps as a tool for communication. Women used apps to find out more about menopause symptoms and to track their personal health data. ‘Armed’ with evidence, the apps were used as a tool to combat epistemic injustice often experienced by women in healthcare settings. Women felt empowered by using the apps with an increased sense of confidence and knowledge about their own menopause experience.

Conclusions

Our findings add to the discussions around empowerment in women's health and the potential role of digital technology in supporting knowledge and decision-making. The findings also shine a light on the current debate around the medicalisation of menopause and suggest that understanding how healthcare professionals engage with menopause apps will be important in developing a more holistic picture of FemTech in healthcare.