Emm smart period cup - what do you think?

[Parsleyforme]

Not sure if this has been talked about but I’ve just heard of the Emm smart cup. It’s a period cup that syncs via bluetooth to give insights on your cycle and flow.

I thought the best feature would be that it could alert you when it needs emptying, but it only syncs when it’s outside the body.
I feel the lack of being able to sterilise it, having a battery inside me near my uterus/eggs, and that it only really tracks things I already automatically notice (date and length of period, amount times the cup is emptied) means it’s kind of pointless. Plus it’s £250!!

I scoffed when I saw the product because I don’t think most of us want to hack our cervix using plastic and electronics to turn basic “cycle data into clinical-level insights”. But I’m wondering if maybe others would find it genuinely useful?

I’ve never properly sterilised my mooncup in years of using it and I’ve had no problems. I just leave it in direct sunlight for a bit and it’s fine. That said, I don’t think I’d pay £250 for this.

My mooncup has markings on it so I can monitor how much blood flow I’ve had and I can’t see what other data would be helpful really.

Crazy.

Well I’m not sure how important sterilisation really is as fingers, penises, tampons etc. aren’t sterile.

That’s what I thought, you remove the cup anyway so you can visually see what’s in it. At first I assumed it was measuring hormones in the blood or something but it’s basically just filling in a standard period tracker app

Agree, OP.
Doesn’t seem worthwhile at the moment.

if it was able to tell you when it needed emptying, plus the amount of blood and thickness, (viscosity??) etc, changes over time, I would have been interested In that data.

Not a chance. I don't need clinical level data on my menstruation, but it will be valuable to someone I'm sure, to track women's menstruation. To sell them more things. To get them used to being monitored.

They’ll use the data for something whilst making you pay for the privilege.

How random. You can just see these things with your eyes surely. This sounds like a ‘helpful’ design from a man.

Fucking hell I thought parking apps were the worst it could get

Yes unfortunately I did think that the data might be used/sold. The website says that you can use your own data to advocate for your health if you think you have things like endometriosis. But shouldn’t self reporting be enough without having to show graphs and PDFs 😒

I was actually surprised to see that it was created by a woman because it seems like such a “tech bro” product

Totally. Hasn't this sort of data theft already happened with the Flow app? Then they made abortion and travelling for abortion illegal in some US States. Doesn't take a genius to see it would be possible for people to know you're pregnant if you're uploading your period data to the cloud. And if something which controls women is possible you know there's a man who will do it and make money off it too.

It was the 'Flo' app

Yes I think info about data security should be front and centre on the website as so many people are concerned about it. The only thing I saw is that the cup only syncs when it’s outside the body for privacy. As though people will try scanning women to see if they’re on their period, but don’t know why they would.

In England they confiscate and inspect your phone if they suspect an illegal abortion so whether you use a cloud or just your standard calendar they can use it against you - although obviously here abortion is legal until a certain point