Empowering Women to Take Control over their Reproductive Health

In today’s world, women’s reproductive lives are highly medicalised. From the start of the menstrual periods to the transition to menopause, from sexual behaviour to pregnancies and childbirth, women’s reproductive lives are not in their hands. Any deviation from ‘the norm’ has tended to be seen as a biological problem, a disorder or a pathology that requires medical attention. Without adequate knowledge, women are not able to find their own solutions to these kinds of issues.  This means they are left to depend entirely on doctors and other medical authorities, which may lead to anxiety, feelings of guilt and even unnecessary treatment.

To help women take control of their own bodies, BioWink GmbH has built a period tracker app called Clue. Clue allows women to track their menstrual cycles themselves.  In this project, Dr Alvergne will work with BioWink GmbH to provide information to women through Clue.  She will bring together insights from anthropological and biological research to show how a woman’s life context (generational, social, cultural, biological) shapes the expression and experience of PMS.  It is hoped that this new information will show women that deviating from ‘the norm’ and having a ‘syndrome’ do not really capture what women experience before their periods.

The research will also compare different methods of recruitment of participants into research projects, including the use of apps like Clue.  This part of the project will address questions like, what kind of research do Clue users want and what is the best way to engage with them.