Fertility and period tracker-use rises since Dobbs decision, in Ohio and elsewhere
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Researchers with the Ohio State University were part of a study that's found an increase in the use of fertility and period trackers despite public concerns about information privacy and reproductive rights regulations.
The study, released in the journal Contraception this month, used survey samples of people who used technology known as 'Femtech,' or apps and technology 'aimed at improving women's health' with features like fertility tracking and period calendars.
'While there are still uncertainties about privacy policies related to period tracking, the findings may have a broader implication: the need for users to consider whether they can trust technology to accurately predict or prevent pregnancy,' said Emily Neiman, clinical instructor of practice in the OSU College of Nursing, and lead author of the study.
Researchers used data from the Survey of Women, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago (formerly the National Opinion Research Center). For nearly a decade, the survey has been conducted to track reproductive health access, contraceptive use and abortion prevalence for women ages 18 to 44 in nine states: Ohio, Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wisconsin, according to NORC.
'The Survey of Women questionnaire has evolved to capture how the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization have impacted reproductive health care access, delivery and reproductive health outcomes,' the research center stated on its web page.
The Dobbs decision was the ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide.
Survey data gets disseminated to 'evaluation teams' at Ohio State, the Guttmacher Institute, East Tennessee State, and the University of Maryland.
The most recent Ohio State study using information from the survey used Ohio, Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey, and Wisconsin data to compare the use of period or fertility-tracking technology and the reasons for use before and after the Dobbs ruling in June 2022.
Neiman said the study began after public fears arose that personal data from period and fertility trackers could be 'used against them.' Those fears led to calls in Ohio and elsewhere for users to delete the apps and their information from them.
'It doesn't seem like people heeded the advice to stop using fertility trackers, and there could be a number of reasons for that,' Neiman said. 'Potentially, more people are using tracking to recognize a pregnancy as early as possible so they have the most options or so they can seek prenatal care early, but there may be fewer people planning pregnancy now that there are these restrictions around abortion.'
In Ohio, abortion is legal up to fetal viability as a result of a state constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2023 protecting reproductive rights, including abortion.
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Researchers found that frequency of use for the technology 'increased overall and in all states but Wisconsin, where the prevalence was unchanged.'
The study found that 37.4% of women in the five states used the technologies before the Dobbs decision, and 45.2% used it after.
In Ohio, the study showed 34.2% of survey participants used apps before Dobbs, and that number rose to 44% after the decision.
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation national survey, since 2019 almost one-third of people who are able to get pregnant used an internet or smartphone-based technology to keep track of menstrual cycles or fertility.
But the details of what is tracked vary from app to app, and whether or not it's a paid service or a free one, researchers at Ohio State found. That includes the accuracy of the information, according to the study.
'While users may benefit from these technologies, their use may cause harm if user-entered data or predictions are incorrect,' the study stated. 'Additionally, sharing personal health details with period- or fertility-tracking technologies may carry risk, including the potential for privacy violations and data-sharing or selling.'
The study noted that not only did the Dobbs decision occur during the time period being researched, but 'a large rise in the adoption of mobile health technologies due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting decreased access to in-person care and increased access to and reliance on telemedicine' also may have contributed to the significant rise in period and fertility-tracking use.
With the growth in popularity of these apps, Neiman said users should work to 'understand potential limitations of app fertility predictions' and for physicians to 'broach the subject of Femtech use in conversations with patients.'
'As providers and public health professionals, we could be doing a better job of educating around the reliability of the information they're getting from these technologies to help people who are trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies,' Neiman said.
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