#biology is a terf

[coochiequeens]

If a menstruation app wants to help women avoid headaches maybe they shouldn’t let men use the app.

An app created to help women track their menstrual cycles is under fire after it was revealed biological males were using private chat functions within the app to communicate with women on intimate matters.

Flo is a popular period tracking app that allows women to track their menstrual cycle allowing them to predict their next period, track their fertility, and to better understand their reproductive health. Though it is ranked the #7 most popular health app in the Apple Store, Flo is now sparking backlash after it was learned males who identify as “women” are being welcomed to use the app.

On January 12, a feminist account on Twitter kicked off the upset, calling attention to the fact she had witnessed self-described “trans women” using the app’s forums to communicate with female users about menstruation. 

Flo responded to the user saying: “We aim to support everyone with periods – regardless of gender.”

Despite Flo’s tweet that the app is suitable for “anyone with periods,” screenshots from the apps message boards, known as secret chats, began to circulate showing the app was being used by biological males who were communicating directly with the female users.

On Twitter, women began to rally under Flo’s posts, asserting that males do not have periods and thus should not be accepted on the application where women are discussing intimate details of their reproductive healthcare. Some insisted they would uninstall the app, disappointed with Flo’s response.

“That’s me uninstalling Flo App then. Can’t use an app that gaslights women into thinking men can have periods,” one Twitter user responded. 

“Right. And since males don’t have periods they have no business being in chats with women who do,” stated another.

Faith commentator and influencer Allie Beth Stuckeysimilarly called attention to the ordeal, reporting to her more than 390,000 followers that Flo was allowing men to take part in chats with women discussing intimate healthcare. Stuckey posted screenshots showing she had been blocked by the app’s official social media page after them “‘trans women’ don’t have periods. Women do.”

But Stuckey was just one of dozens of women Flo quickly blocked for issuing criticism of their “all genders get periods” mantra. Reduxx discovered our social media account was preemptively blocked by Flo despite never having interacted with it.

Screenshots rapidly began to circulate from women showing they had been blocked by Flo after pointing out that males do not have a uterus, and thus, do not experience menstruation. 

“Flo App blocked me, a woman who uses their app for my period tracking and fertility, for asking why they allow men on their period app. They allow ‘transwomen’ in their chats,” said one user. 

Reduxx has obtained further screenshots from Flo’s “secret chats” which show men discussing their “periods” and bathroom access with female users.

In some conversations held in the “secret chats,” trans-identified males discussed the possibility of getting uterus transplants. In one post seen by Reduxx, a trans-identified female offered up her womb to a male who was expressing a desire to have a baby.

A common theme amongst the trans-identified males using the app is the insistence they experience the symptoms of menstruation, including “cramps.”

But, according to the National Health Service of England and Wales, the “cramping” commonly associated with menstrual pain is the contraction of the muscular wall of the uterus.

“When the wall of the womb contracts, it compresses the blood vessels lining your womb. This temporarily cuts off the blood supply – and oxygen supply – to your womb. Without oxygen, the tissues in your womb release chemicals that trigger pain,” explains the medical authority.

The revelation that Flo welcomes males onto their app comes at a time where there has been a pointed uptick of males on social media platforms like TikTok claiming they experience “periods” or period-like symptoms as a result of taking cross-sex hormones. Many women have taken issue with this calling it a mockery, appropriation, and fetishization. 

Despite males not having a womb, it has become commonplace on social media for trans-identified males to report having accessed healthcare services to relieve them of their uterine cramping.

According to Flo’s terms of use, “Flo Secret Chats is a special feature of the App that allows users to communicate with each other on a set of different topics related to women’s health and wellbeing.” In the secret chat rules it states that users as young as 13 years old are allowed to participate in the chat community, potentially 

This is not the first time Flo has received backlash in 2021 a lawsuit was filed against the organisation alleging they were disclosing their users intimate data to third-parties. 

Flo Health allegedly violated users’ privacy by disclosing their information to third parties through software development kits incorporated into its app, despite the company’s privacy policies and “public assurances” that it would not share data, stated the complaint.

By Shay Woulahan Shay is a writer and social media content creator for Reduxx. She is a proud lesbian activist and feminist who lives in Northern Ireland with her partner and their four-legged, fluffy friends.

[inkskinned]

you have to go to work so you can pay for your doctor, who is not taking your insurance right now, and if you say i can't afford the doctor's you are told - get a better job. it is very sad that you are unwell, yes, but maybe you should have thought about that before not having a better job.

(where is the better job? who is giving out these better jobs? you are sick, you are hurting - how the hell are you supposed to be well enough for this better job?)

but you go to the doctor because you had the nerve to be hurt or sick or whatever else. and they tell you that it is because you have anxiety. you try your best. you are a self-advocate. you've done the reading (which sometimes pisses them off worse, honestly). you say it is actually adding to my anxiety, it is effecting my quality of life. so they say that you are fat. they say that all young people have this happen to them, isn't it a medical marvel! they say that you should eat more vegetables. they say that you probably just need to lose a little more weight, and that you are faking it for attention.

(what attention could this doctor possibly give? what validation? that's their fucking job, isn't it?)

there is always a hypochondriac, right. someone always tells you about a hypochondriac. or someone who is unnecessarily aggressive during the worst days of their life. or someone looking "for a quick fix". or some idiot who wasn't educated about how to properly care for themselves who just abandons their treatment. and again, the hypochondriac, the overly-cautious hysteric. these people don't deserve to be treated like humans (right), and since you might be one of these people, you also don't get treated like a human. because those people can really fuck with the system, you now have to pay for it. and besides. you're actually probably faking it.

(more often than not, you find a 2:1 ratio of these stories. for every "hypochondriac", there are 2 people who knew something was wrong, and yet nobody could fucking find it. the story often ends with pointless suffering. the story often ends with and now it's too late, and it's going to kill me.)

you are actually just making excuses. someone else got that procedure or that diagnosis and he's fine, you should be fine too. someone else said they watched a documentary about other inspirational people with your exact same condition, maybe you should be inspirational, too. you're just too morbid. your pain and your experience is probably just not statistically concerning. it is all self-reported anyway, and you're just being a baby.

(once, while sitting down in the middle of making coffee, you had the sudden, horrible thought - i could kill myself to make the pain stop. you had to call your best friend after that. had to pet your dog. had to cry about it in the shower. you won't, but that moment - god, fuck. the pain just goes on and on.)

you know someone who went in for routine surgery and said i still feel everything. they told her to just relax. it took her kicking and screaming before they figured out she wasn't lying - the anesthetic drip hadn't been working. you know someone who went in for severe migraines who was told drink water and lose weight. you know someone who was actively bleeding out and throwing up in the ER and was told you're just having a bad period.

in the ER there are always these little posters saying things like "don't wait! get checked today!" and you think about how often you do wait. how often the days spool out. you once waited a full week before seeing the doctor for what you thought was a sprained wrist. it had actually been broken - they had to rebreak it to set it.

but you go into the doctor. the problem you're having is immediate. the person behind the counter frowns and says we're not taking your insurance. you will be paying for this out-of-pocket.

they send you home with tylenol and a little health packet about weight loss or anxiety or attention deficit. on the front it has your birthday and diagnosis. you think about crying, and the words swim. it might as well say go fuck yourself. it might as well say you're a fucking idiot. it might as well say light your money on fire and lie down in it. and the entire fucking time - the problem persists.

it's okay. it's okay, it's just another thing, you think. it's just another thing i have to learn to live with.

[radicaluterus]

[silver4tongue]

Whenever I, a woman from a country where feticide prevails and they kill you in the womb for having xx chromosomes, watch libfems and TRAs write long ass paragraphs about how sex/gender are very complicated and indistuingishable; I wonder how our oppressors are always able to tell

And how, coincidentally, across all cultures and continents, the same demographic (males) has systematically oppressed one particular demographic (females) for eons. Without error.

Just goes on to show how liberal feminists would rather cater to their tim audience than grow a spine and acknowledge that our experience as women is sex based.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Terfs really pull the “you’re not a real scientist if you don’t agree with me exactly” card at the drop of a hat huh

[wiwaxia-official]

[faelapis]

the more "intellectual" terfs have tried to claim for a while that they toootally support intersex people. that it's only ever trans people who "use" intersex people... but now my whole feed is them immediately transvestigating an intersex woman for participating in sports, calling her a "man." would be funny if it wasn't so horrifying.

[theineated]

Radfems: we want to dismantle gender roles

Also radfems: males are whores by their biological construction

[copper-tones]

i found a terf post (edit: @politically-unstable ) with 4 screenshots of posts, no urls. but like, these were validating. it helped confirm that i was probably feeling some period pain. so much for spreading misonfo.

anyways i found the 4 posts. fun experience, would recommend.

ps. if their posts don’t get a collective 600 notes, you’re letting the transphobes win

[doomdoomofdoom]

Every now and again I wonder if maybe all trans people face roughly the same amount of bigotry and one just gets more attention, but then i have to read terf posts and.

wow.

obviously every group of trans identities faces their own struggles and unique oppression but there's this incredibly vitriolic kind of hatred reserved for transfems and its sickening.

[deebrisbyfish]

Soooo, I generally DON'T get political or divisive in the strip... buuuuttt... it's PRIDE and, like with last week’s strip, I am kinda burnt out with seeing the same asinine arguments online over and over. Why do I have to defend my legal right to exist with people who learned biology from "Kindergarten Cop"?

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

Isn't it weird that amongst all mammals, females make up a major part of the population and the males compete with each other to attract female attention. Almost all animals have long courting rituals and mating calls. Male animals tend to be colourful and decorate themselves to ensue sex appeal due to which they are hunted more than their female counterparts leading to an even lower sex ratio. It's funny that the opposite is true for humans. In today's world, the sex ratio skews towards men. It's against nature, against evolution, against our future and against us women.

[arson-09]

the whole Imane Khelif situation is so stupid. Im praying she has a good support system and for her mental health. no one deserves to go through this and these absolute ghouls of human beings who are saying these awful things about her and trans people will be the ones to burn in hell if it exists.

pissing their pants over a woman with higher testosterone levels while a whole rapist is playing in the volleyball games i think we need to rethink priorities.

[radicaluterus]

!!!!!!

[lesbianlanval]

so sad that you deny your womanhood. there is no shame in being a woman there’s no need to reject it. woman isn’t a feeling it’s a reality and there’s nothing wrong with embracing it. you can’t identify out of womanhood. i’m sorry men made you feel like you had take on a non binary identity in order to be seen as a person.

I’m a butch dyke and I’m sorry that you can’t find humanity in that you egregious fucking cunt

[sephirajo]

lol there's a terf in imane khelif's tag all fucking surprised at the racism and misunderstanding of sex in the terf community.

like kiddo, child, sweet summer lass... if you don't like the smell of shit STAY OUT OF THE BARN.