Period Tracker

Adding in another voice to the plea. It was brought to my attention today the Health Mate app does not have the ability to log/track/predict menstrual cycles after looking into better ways of securing and analyzing my personal health data from the Apple Health app. My data is mine, and mine alone, and not to be used or sold for purposes outside my knowledge or approval. Apple, Google, any other random app out there don't believe in that. But what I have come to learn over the last year with Withings is the security and respect of my personal data. I thank you for that! But...why is the most fundamental aspect of the daily lives of females NOT included in the Health Mate app? This is definitely the one metric women have been tracking throughout history, more so than the number of steps taken in a day or the number of calories eaten and burned. Metrics from the menstrual cycle are vital on so many different levels. Whether a woman is young or a middle-aged, trying to get pregnant or not, or even preparing herself for the immense range of side effects women experience, these are metrics that should have been given first consideration when designing the Health Mate app. Unfortunately, it has taken 3 years of begging from women all over the globe and Withings still has not responded? I'm a bit confused here.

Listen, this is not rocket science. All we are asking for is simplicity. When did our period start? Oh, today? Well, let me just mark this on the calendar. Did it continue for however many days? Why yes! So I'll just check off these days on the calendar. And obviously it ended at some point, so I won't check any more days off the calendar. Done! Oh and hey, is it possible to get an estimation based off historical data when my next period will start? Yes? Cool! Done, and done!

I have a Garmin Forerunner. I use it for marathon and triathalon training. Is it a great fitness watch? Abso-friggin-lutely. But is it something I want to wear every day and sleep with? No. That's why I love BOTH of my Withings Steel HR watches. They are visually beautiful to wear every day, making a statement in a professional setting. The watch is easy to go from professional to casual with the many interchangeable bands. It's really comfy to wear in bed, not getting tangled up in my hair or my sheets, nor scratching me in my sleep. And it definitely takes a beating. The data collected is valuable and helpful, particularly with the Health Mate app providing easy to read visuals. But menstrual cycle tracking needs to be included.

For the love of all things holy and beautiful in this world, please please please update the Health Mate app to include menstrual cycle tracking! For God's sake Withings, if you can get FDA approval for a watch that monitors blood oxygen levels you sure as hell can do this! Money talks, and if you get on this and promote it as much as you do the ScanWatch you'll get more WOMEN buying your product. Simple as that.

Perfect reply - it reflects my feeling on this too. I'm currently (finally...) reading Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez and it's reignited my rage about this. I'm thinking about getting in touch with the CEO directly , or maybe one of the female board members since Customer Service/the development team don't seem to be listening (in spite of our "interesting feedback"). Frustrating.

Funny, I was just in the middle of a websearch on the the executive office and board members. I'm not on social media, so apps like Twitter, FB and IG I avoid like the plague, but good old fashion letters and phone calls still do the trick.

I was thinking of activating a free Linkedin Premium trial for this purpose alone ;) The Chief Marketing Officer used to be a woman (I checked last time I was feeling enraged), but it looks like she's no longer with them. The Chief Medical Officer is though....!

This is interesting...

"The hot new metric to track in 2022: Sweaty feet"

On Friday, January 7th, Withings debuted their new BodyScan scale at CES 2022. And apparently, one of the metrics in this new scale is "testing the ability of your feet to sweat [and how it] can contribute to the picture of your overall health", according to the article.

It appears Withings find the metric of foot sweat a better metric in determining our overall health than the menstrual cycle.

Not sure how to take this one. I think no matter how loud we get in our pleas for wanting the ability to track our menstrual cycles, Withings will never listen.

Feel free to comment on this one too!

https://support.withings.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4416161923473-Are-your-development-team-or-decisions-makers-really-that-sexist-

Update...

Messages via LinkedIn have been sent to Mr's Carreel, Letombe, Fontes, and Saadi. The link to this particular thread was included to direct them to the issue, making it simple and easy for them. My suggestion is to start voicing well written, quantifiable concerns here. Think about the following when writing:

- What makes a menstrual cycle tracker different from a pregnancy tracker?

- Menstrual cycle apps are a dime a dozen these days on any mobile app store, so why would including one in the Withings Health Mate app make a difference?

- What are the most important things about menstrual cycle tracking?

I think we can all agree this is not something that we expect to see on our Withings watches, but more in the online and mobile apps themselves where we get to input the data, and the data can be applied to all other health aspects being collected via the Withings devices.

This is great, thanks for taking action!

I think fundamentally the difference between a pregnancy tracker and menstrual cycle tracker is probably the focus on reproduction vs understanding your overall health. For example, it would be neat to have the data to understand how your sleep quality varies throughout your cycle, or your activity levels, and this would be possible if Withings would include a period tracker in the app and make that data exportable like everything else. This was my main point in this forum post: https://support.withings.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4411570339729-Menstrual-cycle

Some popular menstrual cycle apps are notorious for privacy risks and sharing data (e.g. https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/13/22229303/flo-period-tracking-app-privacy-health-data-facebook-google). A more subjective point is the unnecessarily pink and fluffy layout that these kind of apps tend to, which is frankly just weird. Also, there's just no reason to not include a fundamental, very easily trackable health variable in a health app, that should be a no-brainer.

@Armelle, I am a software developer, and please understand that the phrase "I will forward it to our developers" and "they take it seriously" is frankly insulting after three years. Forward it to your CPO/CTO/CEO, and get us an official buy in and public commitment to this feature. This isn't a misunderstanding on your part, it has been three years. This isn't a complex feature that would break your database schemas. This is a project that I could do as a homework assignment in college. This is willful disregard for your customers who are getting quite pissed, and who are only too happy to recommend to all that will listen to not go into withings platform.

Why are women not being listened to. The first post on this thread is 3 years ago. I was very happy with my watch until I wanted to log my cycle. This makes me feel feel that withings does not care about women. This is a health app ...... Which can not track our health 😡

Welcome to the club of angry people @laura :) I remain hopeful with each update that a period tracker will appear. I always say to people who ask me about Withings that I love it, except for the lack of period tracker. I know a few people now who haven't got a Withings SOLELY due to the lack of this feature. It's surely quite a quick win for them. I am mystified. 

I feels like utter lack of respect.

I just set up my HR Steel and immediately realized the lack of attention to menstrual cycle tracking, which is undeniably important to consider in the overall health and wellbeing of any human who menstruates. I think this speaks volumes of their target population and priorities especially since even after 3 years of this forum post nothing has changed. I am considering returning this product and going back to Fitbit. The other competitive brands have included this feature so it is obviously not a big undertaking. What a shame smh

Hi all! Just wanted to provide update. I reached out to a number of C-Suite executives and the head developer of the HealthMate app via LinkedIn. I received general responses along the lines of "We hear you. We take your request seriously. We're working on it." Well, to be honest I've given up on Withings. For years I have owned a Garmin Forerunner 735XT that I have used solely for training. I never realized until very recently that the Garmin Connect app has an extensive menstruation/pregnancy/menopausal addition to their app. I started using it and am quite impressed. I've been a big fan and supporter of Withings for over 4 years now. I own two different SteelHR watches and a varied collection of bands from silicone to leather to fit all types of occasions in my life. I have always had a SteelHR on my wrist, except for maybe when I'm in the shower. I was content with the simplicity of the SteelHR and the HealthMates app, because really all the training stuff was through my Forerunner. And then a few months ago I started noticing certain operational glitches with my SteelHR and the connection to the HealthMates app - notifications not working, watches loosing connection to the app and having to be reconnected multiple times throughout the day, data collection/transition to the app not occurring. My fiance has also been experiencing the same issues and frustrations. Looking at everything, we decided with a heavy heart to walk away from Withings and join the Garmin ecosystem. I'm not one to make direct recommendations to anyone, so I will not make any grandiose statements about Garmin or any other smartwatch manufacturer. What I will say is that for a long laundry list of items, the Garmin ecosystem has worked for me and my personal needs. I honestly don't know what is going on with Withings and it's a bit heartbreaking to have become this disappointed in a product I wholeheartedly supported. But I need to do what I need to do for me. Unfortunately, it's not Withings. My suggestion and recommendation to anyone who has been following this thread or sees it in the future (if Withings doesn't take it down like they did other postings I made in the past), is to quantify exactly what you are looking for in a smartwatch and corresponding app, do your research on the manufacturer's websites (not social media, YouTube or some blog), learn everything you can about their privacy policies and data collection, and don't be afraid to spend a few extra bucks for quality and security. I wish the best of luck to everyone out there looking for a menstrual/pregnancy tracker out there that personally suits their needs.

I have started to research other options too. The lack of a period tracker is just bizarre. That and the fact that it doesn't take intensity or heart rate into account for exercise tracking is just insane to me. I love the look of this watch but it is increasingly style over substance. Withings: add a period tracker!