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Comment by SmellyGeekBoy | Hacker News Reader

I find it interesting that this should appear on the front page at the same time as the other post about the stigma of menstruation in India. The fact that this data is considered "extremely personal" just goes to show that it's a subject that's also highly stigmatized here in the west. In TFA they even compare it to medical history!

~50% of the adult population menstruates. I don't get what the big deal is.

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> ~50% of the adult population menstruates. I don't get what the big deal is.

100% of us poop. Would you care for the world to know about the quantity and quality of your movements? How about urinate? Sneeze? Ejaculate? Just because something is ubiquitous doesn't mean we don't want to keep it private.

More like 30%. Fewer still track their periods, and the details of how they are timed, as well as entry into or exit from the pool of people who do, can be an indicator of much more sensitive information than the simple fact of being a woman who falls in a certain age range.

The fact of the matter is, this data isn't just comparable to medical history; it is medical history.

Well, wanting to predict ovulations probably means the user is trying to conceive. An unscrupulous employer might want to know that, and try to replace that employee.

Maybe you've heard of The Rhythm Method? Some people track it to avoid conception.

Also, some women have health issues involving their reproductive tract, like PCOS, fibroids or even just PMS. Data can help them better understand and manage their symptoms.

If they're using the rhythm method, their employer is still likely to want to fire them because of impending pregnancy - it has a 24% annual failure rate with typical use.

https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/unintendedpregnancy/p...

My point is that firing them should be illegal because you can't actually know the purpose they intend it for. You also aren't supposed to fire women for trying to get pregnant. You certainly shouldn't fire them for using unreliable birth control. Nothing is infallible, except outright removing her reproductive organs. Even if they are using the rhythm method, you don't actually know that they aren't using it in conjunction with some other form of protection. It's not uncommon to use two less reliable methods together to bolster the efficacy.

"Not supposed to" and "don't" are vastly different things, nor is an employer looking to discriminate illegally necessarily going to care if they fire a few false positives.

You'd just start seeing your performance evaluations come back with "needs improvement". Little mistakes or violations of policies that were previously ignored result in write-ups. Six months later, you're laid off with a couple other folks, with a hole in your income that makes it hard to hire a lawyer on a long-shot legal suit.

People get fired for being pregnant daily. As long as their boss doesn't do something abjectly idiotic like sending an email saying "you're fired because you're trying to get pregnant", there's very little recourse.

Point taken.

Or avoid conceiving!!!!

All of my girlfriends have had period-tracking apps and we had no intention to conceive. I don't know how menstruation works but I assume it's something you have to be ready for, so you better keep your tabs on it.

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