Her cycle, its logic: Information practices and gendered governance in MCT apps
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47989/ir31iConf64188Keywords:
Menstrual cycle tracking (MCT) apps, FemTech, Gendered governance, Information practices, Information justiceAbstract
Introduction. This study examines menstrual cycle tracking (MCT) apps as information systems that organise bodily knowledge, highlighting tensions of empowerment, discipline and information justice.
Method. Data included 1,300 Douyin comments mined on 10 June 2025 and 15 semi-structured interviews conducted from June to August 2025. Comments were clustered, modelled and sentiment-analysed; interviews were anonymised and coded through directed content analysis.
Analysis. Quantitative techniques identified thematic patterns and sentiment distributions in user comments, while qualitative coding yielded axial categories: technological dependence, data discipline, fragile trust, privacy illusion, gendered presumptions and everyday resistance.
Results. Apps enhanced bodily awareness but reinforced algorithmic optimisation, reproductive defaults and commercial opacity. Users moved between reliance and resistance, experiencing empowerment and regulation simultaneously.
Conclusion(s). MCT apps illustrate how information systems discipline under the guise of care. Justice-oriented practices such as participatory design, transparent governance and inclusive infrastructures are needed to reframe FemTech as a space of equity and information fairness.
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