Smartphones are too big to fit women’s hands comfortably. Virtual reality headsets, billed as the future of gaming and workplace training, are too large for women’s heads. Google’s speech recognition software struggles to understand women speaking. These biases are frustrating in everyday life, but they quickly become dangerous when they filter into technology designed to improve our health.
But from fitness trackers to smart watches, devices designed to help us live happier, healthier lives still rely on data that is biased towards men. And it’s not a new issue.
Treadmills, for example, often use calorie counters skewed towards men’s weight, while fitness trackers can be wildly inaccurate because a woman’s resting heart beat changes throughout her menstrual cycle. No recognition of this may push women to over-exert themselves in an attempt to correct it.
This bad data can give women a warped view of reality: technology is trying to tell them how they are performing but the results are wildly inaccurate because it assumes they are men.
For fitness and health companies looking to grow their businesses, it’s a huge missed opportunity to tap into an industry that could be worth up to $50 billion (£38.8bn) by 2025. But the big players have a lot of work to do. It wasn’t until 2018 that Fitbit introduced a period tracking function. Apple didn’t do so until earlier this year.
The current major players in the femtech industry - period apps - have demonstrated that it is profitable to target women and gather their data. The Android and iOS app stores have dozens of period tracking apps, the majority of which still centre around wanting to get pregnant (or avoiding it entirely).
Among this wave of period app companies, there is an obvious gap. They have so far ignored the fact that hormone cycles also cause women’s bodies to function differently throughout the month. A study by University College London demonstrated that women’s menstrual cycle directly impacts upon their training and performance.
Where most have failed, others are now trying to succeed. Founded in 2017, San Francisco-based WILD.AI lets women track other aspects of their physiology in order to create a personalised training programme. Instead of focusing on periods, which only affect women during a specific part of their lives, the app, which is currently in closed testing, takes into account women of all ages and backgrounds.
“Looking at how you can optimise nutrition, sleep and extension of muscles, that’s the key to driving women,” says founder Hélène Guillaume. “You would have incredible improvements in health as well.”
She says that women could perform much better if given the right tools for the job. She uses the example of Eliud Kipchoge, who recently became the first man to run a marathon in under two hours. Every aspect of his performance was considered and perfected, and he managed to break a limit – if women had additional consideration for their needs, they could streamline their abilities too.
Tracking issues that have previously been ignored could be the solution to a multitude of other health issues faced by women. In the UK up to 40 per cent of women experience incontinence in their lives as a result of having children, or because of menopause or ageing. In 2018 the disposable incontinence products market was worth $9.5bn, and it is estimated it will rise to $15bn by 2025.
Yet the industry has changed little in the past 50 years and it is desperate for new ideas, says Julia Vanzanten, co-founder of Lifesense, a company that created smart underwear to stop urine loss. While in other countries women are given physiotherapy to restore their pelvic floor after childbirth, in the UK many just accept it.
“Women that I’ve spoken to say that the way they manage it was to stop doing the thing that they love doing, like running,” says Vanzanten. “That mentality is wrong actually, because the way to solve it is to stop doing something you like, rather than actually solving the problem of the loss.”
Menopause is another area that remains off limits for technology firms. Period tracking apps are fine for those who have them, but for those whose menstrual cycles are ending they’re not particularly helpful. Many can track menopause symptons, but often leave out issues such as hot flushes, which are a key element that women would benefit from tracking.
“The technology used in clinical studies is recording a diary. It works but it’s not this-century technology,” says Mary Kerr, CEO of KaNDy Therapeutics, which is in the process of creating a new compound for menopausal women.
Less well known apps are specifically designed to track symptoms of menopause so that women can work out how their bodies are changing. On My Luna, women can track when hot flushes occur and for how long, along with wellbeing, mood and food intake. Another service, Clio provides meal plans and audio courses to help manage wellbeing.
These new companies show that there are so many opportunities to use technology to help women in areas where they have traditionally been ignored.
“If you’re innovating for women, it’s absolutely critical that you have women supporting and driving that innovation,” says Jazz Rehal, who works on innovation at RB, a healthcare company.
But it’s important that it is done right. AI has the potential to be a game-changer, but previous uses of it have been found to be sexist and racist. Tracking tools and wearables can help with health conditions, but only if all aspects of female physiology are considered - and only if women are involved in designing it.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
