There is a crisis of information surrounding the female body. Poor sex education during childhood and adolescence keeps us in the dark about our anatomy, hormones and sexual health. Fashion, beauty and social media skew our idea of what our bodies “ought” to look like. There is no wonder women and those assigned female at birth feel such an enormous disconnect from our bodies. Having a uterus is a constant question of “Is this normal?” And most fatally, “Is my pain valid?”
Doctors have no idea what to do with us. My experience, among countless others’, of going to the GP with a concern even remotely gynaecological in nature inevitably ends with the dreaded “have you ever tried the pill?”
With a batting hand and a “hush, woman, hush,” we are chucked on years-long waitlists for invasive procedures without pain relief. Hormonal contraception is blindly and freely prescribed as a cover-all solution for our issues time and time again. Female patients are forced to go private in order to access care, and those who can’t afford to do so are often left in agony or distress waiting for a solution that doesn’t even guarantee success.
When we try to inform ourselves through online research, the majority of the (already very scarce) articles and reliable sources of information covering women’s health end with “we don’t know for sure.”
So where can we turn to for our information?
As someone who struggles with PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder), about which very little is known, I am very much affected by my cycle. I have to fastidiously keep track of my period so I can predict when I’m about to enter the “dark days” (the luteal phase) and regularly keep a mood journal in order to track my hormones. One way I do this is through period tracking apps, which I have done since I was 14.
Flo, Clue and Glow are the three big names that most women I know will have at least one of on their phones. These apps all follow a similar format: they all enable you to log your period and give you handy notifications that tell you when you’re ovulating or about to menstruate. The calendars kept by these apps act as a backlog of your cycles which can provide important medical evidence.
One thing I was delighted to see beginning to pop up a few years ago in my app was the introduction of a resources page, with articles covering topics such as “Types of discharge and what they mean” or “Birth control and weight gain.” Important topics that are still considered taboo. For some people, their period tracker might be the only place they’re able to access this sort of information.
So imagine my disappointment when I first clicked on an article and it asked me to pay for a subscription.
Everyone who uses a period app will know the feeling: “Finally! An explanation as to why my body does that thing!” and then “Oh…”
I was even more shocked to see that most of the app’s analysis about my cycles was also blocked by a paywall. As someone who has had to rely on cycle-syncing my lifestyle in order to retain the tiniest bit of sanity, a tool such as that could be critical for maintaining control over my own body.
There’s a reason it feels like such a betrayal: period apps are marketed to us as an informative tool to make our lives easier, as well as a safe space in which we can freely explore our questions about our bodies. Requesting a subscription payment from users only further alienates vulnerable people and perpetuates a culture of taboo.
While it seems like a trivial issue on the surface, the paywalling of period apps contributes to a greater monopoly over menstrual health, and global health in general. Keeping regular people uninformed about their bodies guarantees them paying for access to what they think might give them that information: whether that be through private healthcare, or through a subscription to a resources page. It means that the policing and controlling of women’s bodies can remain normalised and female pain can remain profitable. When will it end?
Another article you may enjoy: https://thebadgeronline.com/2025/08/how-to-be-proud-of-your-degree-when-the-rest-of-the-world-isnt/
