Digitalization and Datafication:Everyday Management of Menstrual Period

The range of self-tracking digital technologies is very wide: mobile apps available to download; wearable technologies – Google Glass, Fitbit – that can be worn as bracelets or clipped onto clothes; sensors that can be embedded not only in the device for recording biometrics information (i.e. body temperature, hearth rate, blood glucose, etc.), but also in the smart city in order to monitor air pollution, traffic, energy consumption and so on. Self-tracking technologies allow users to track and transform into data – statistical analysis and graphical representations – daily information, practices and activities: calories intake, workout exercises, weight, mood, cigarettes or drink intake, financial expenses, social interaction, social media activities, sleeping hours, chronic diseases, health of urban environment, sexual and reproductive health, etc. The paper is constructed around two main questions: (1) how do self-tracking technologies intra-act with the embodiment of Self? (2) How does expert medical knowledge, inscribed in self-tracking technologies, perform body and personal bodily knowledge. Therefore, after an overview of theoretical framework, the second section provides an exploratory empirical analysis of the period tracker apps’ uses. Thus, the empirical part focuses on the women entanglement in the management of cycle through self-tracking apps that are aimed to map and transform into data daily symptoms and mood in order to visualize correlations and predict fertile windows, PMS and future menstrual periods.