Touching and Being in Touch with the Menstruating Body

Full text

Touching and Being in Touch with the Menstruating Body
Nadia Campo Woytuk
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
nadiacw@kth.se
Marianela Ciolfi Felice
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
ciolfi@kth.se
Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
mljso@kth.se
Madeline Balaam
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
balaam@kth.se
Figure 1. The Curious Cycles kit: (a) The poster, (b) the curious eye, (c) the blood bank, (d) prompts, (e) the reflection, (f) the heat pad, (g) the zine.
ABSTRACT
We describe a Research through Design project—Curious
Cycles—a collection of objects and interactions which encour-
age people to be in close contact with their menstruating body.
Throughout a full menstrual cycle, five participants used Curi-
ous Cycles to look at their bodies in unfamiliar ways and to
touch their bodily fluids, specifically, menstrual blood, saliva,
and cervical mucus. The act of touching and looking led to
the construction of new knowledge about the self and to a
nurturing appreciation for the changing body. Yet, participants
encountered and reflected upon frictions within themselves,
their home, and their social surroundings, which stem from
societal stigma and preconceptions about menstruation and
bodily fluids. We call for and show how interaction design can
engage with technologies that mediate self-touch as a first step
towards reconfiguring the way menstruating bodies are treated
in society.
Author Keywords
Menstrual cycles; research through design; menstruation;
feminist HCI; women’s health; touching
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or
classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed
for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation
on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored.
For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).
CHI’20, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
© 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-6708-0/20/04.. .$15.00
CCS Concepts
•Human-centered computing → Interaction design;
INTRODUCTION
We have designed Curious Cycles—a series of objects and
interactions—which invite people who menstruate
1
to experi-
ment with and explore their menstruating body (Fig. 1). These
include tools to collect, view and touch menstrual blood
2
, cer-
vical mucus and saliva (Fig. 1b and c), a mirror with LED
light to enable close inspection of the changing body (Fig. 1e),
and a heatable pad to place and feel on the body (Fig. 1f).
Throughout one menstrual cycle (approximately one month),
we invited five people who menstruate to touch, experiment
with, and reflect on their bodies using these objects.
This paper reports on the design of Curious Cycles, and our
analysis of participants’ use and reflections on these objects
and interactions. Our data analysis focuses in particular on the
participants’ experiences of touching and being in touch with
their bodies, including how touch is achieved, and the aesthet-
ics of touching the body. We show the importance of touch in
1
We use the expression "people who menstruate" when referring
to people who experience menstrual cycles. This is to emphasize
that this group is not homogeneous, that menstruation is not tied
to gender, and that some people do not menstruate while using hor-
monal contraceptives or due to menopause, stress, disease or after a
hysterectomy.
2
Trigger warning: this paper contains images that might be uncom-
fortable to people who are triggered by blood in general.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376471
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 1

helping participants to better understand their changing bod-
ies. We find that by touching the body participants were able
to construct new knowledge, reflect on their health, and fur-
ther develop compassion and appreciation for their body as it
changes. Based on the analysis, we argue that menstrual inter-
action design and technologies must go beyond self-tracking
to accommodate and encourage touching and being in touch.
MENSTRUATION IN INTERACTION DESIGN AND HCI
The menstrual cycle, which spans from the first day of men-
struation until the day before the next one, is a major indicator
of health and well-being [23, 4]. The menstrual cycle af-
fects the body in drastic ways, including differences in mental
health, body performance [73], skin, hair, taste and sight [34].
The accounts of people who menstruate are often ridiculed,
dismissed or trivialized [22, 62], leading to social and inter-
nalized stigma [43] with consequences impacting self-esteem,
body image, sexual health, and self-objectification [64]. Often
people who menstruate feel social pressure to conceal these
experiences, and look for ways to do so [58].
In recent years, menstruation has received increased public
attention [72] and political advocacy to open conversations,
end stigma and ensure accessible, safe menstrual products for
everyone [61, 63]. Simultaneously, a number of new tech-
nologies, products, and services have been designed to offer
better menstrual health experiences, e.g., the menstrual cycle
tracking app Clue [17], and the hormone-free birth control
app Natural Cycles [18]. As digital products for menstruation
have increased in popularity, so too has research in HCI on
menstrual hygiene products [51, 54], existing self-tracking
technologies [21] and future design proposals [26, 67].
However, the increased attention to menstrual experiences also
comes with certain tensions. It is common for the design of
menstrual technologies and FemTech products and services to
frame menstruation as something in need of fixing, a wrong in
menstruating bodies which might be remedied or controlled
through technology [15, 36, 66]. The research literature points
out that menstrual tracking applications build on assumptions
in their designs which are normative, and which cast aside
the pluralism of bodies and menstrual experiences [21, 36];
in addition, "conforming to societal norms of fitness, produc-
tivity, happiness, and appearance is framed as empowering"
[26]. Digital fertility tracking methods are also often restricted
to binary outputs, and designed for clinical and individual
interactions, disregarding the domestic and social layers of
women’s health [38]. To address the pluralism of bodies and
menstrual experiences, as argued by [35, 68] it is crucial to
move from only addressing the confined space of menstruation
to more holistic perspectives on the menstrual cycle. Simi-
larly, as we will argue, we need to carefully consider the role
that technologies play in the production of knowledge on the
menstrual cycle, and the responsibility or agency people who
menstruate have in creating situated knowledge on their own,
unique cycles. We address this challenge by exploring what it
might be like to design within close relation to the menstruat-
ing body, taking into account the knowledge created through
the substances and material changes occurring throughout the
menstrual cycle.
DESIGNING FOR INTIMATE BODILY KNOWLEDGE
Research on women’s health in HCI has explored experiences
of motherhood [6], breastfeeding [5, 19, 39], menopause [11,
37, 47, 70], pelvic fitness [3], menstruation [10, 15, 25, 27,
67], and abortion [52]. A key element of this work concerns
the production of situated and embodied knowledge [2], which
is a crucial factor towards advancing women’s health [1].
In researching intimate care in HCI, Almeida et al. have
argued that the majority of technologies and experiences de-
signed for women’s health are focused around the body rather
than directly engaging with it [2]. They argue that the avoid-
ance of the female body is connected to historical stigma and
taboos, partly because intimate care "involves parts of the
body that are hidden or involved in sexual functioning" [2].
Along the same lines, the feminist HCI framework [12] high-
lights pluralism, advocacy, participation and embodiment as
important values in interaction design and in the production
of knowledge. Labella, an augmented system supporting in-
timate bodily knowledge and pelvic fitness, is one example
of designing for embodiment as a form of knowledge con-
struction [3]. This mobile application encourages its user to
look at a representation of one’s vagina on the mobile screen
and ambiguously asks the user to explore intimate anatomy
through touching the screen. Future Flora [69] similarly pro-
motes embodied learning, this time through the design of a kit
to treat and prevent vaginal infections by harvesting healthy
bacteria and wearing these probiotics in one’s underwear.
Existing menstrual technologies provide a closer inspection
of the body through data-driven approaches that can enable
people who menstruate to develop new understandings of their
body [21]. Yet, we encounter few instances of menstrual tech-
nologies that encourage an embodied understanding of the
menstruating body and its fluids. Moreover, commercially
available smart menstrual products propose interactions which
seem to avoid touch altogether. Looncup [49] and my.Flow
[55] are both internet-connected menstrual management sys-
tems that sync to an app, notifying the user when their cup
or tampon is full, avoiding leakage and optimizing for as few
changes a day as possible. The interaction and learning then
take place through the phone screen; the actual touching of
the body and its fluids reduced to the minimum.
Touching as a Way of Knowing
In HCI, touch technologies often refer to touch-based interac-
tions with screens or digital material along with other forms of
haptic technologies. Here, we draw instead from a perspective
on touch described in feminist technoscience theories [7, 32,
60] which approach touch as the encounters between entities,
specifically focusing on the material, sensorial and affective
experience of touch.
Karen Barad [7] and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa [60] use the
literal and conceptual meaning of touch to theorize feminist
knowledge production and to blur the boundaries between sub-
ject and object. Touching as a concept for feminist knowledge
production is a response to Donna Haraway’s critique of the
"Godtrick"; a detached and disembodied vision from nowhere
as the dominant way of producing scientific knowledge [32].
In menstrual tracking technologies, self-knowledge is created
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 2

through algorithmic processes of the body [21], which merely
encourages one to observe the menstruating body through data
on the screen: a disembodied vision from nowhere. Instead of
producing knowledge by observing the world through vision,
Puig de la Bellacasa proposes touching as a material and af-
fective methodology. In contrast, menstrual technologies are
designed within a world where societal stigma influences peo-
ple who menstruate to conceal and avoid their menstruating
body—as expressed in recommendations for menstrual apps
to "be discreet by default or provide a neutral non-obvious
interface option" [21]—thus menstrual technologies are avoid-
ing the intimacy, care, and knowledge implied in touch as far
as possible. This is even the case when intimacy through touch
might improve the technologies’ reliability (e.g., combining
basal body temperature with cervical mucus observations [59,
40]). So, we might speculate: What can be known through
touching the menstruating body?
As touching produces knowledge through material relations,
the act of touching troubles distances between subjects and
objects. As Puig de la Bellacasa poetically puts it: "to touch is
to be touched" [60]. In the act of touching the menstruating
body, the menstruating body is also touching the one who is
touching. However, in the menstruating body, subject-object
relations are imbued with tension. Menstrual blood, for exam-
ple, has been characterized as abject: something that is neither
me nor recognizable as a thing [45]. Touching the menstruat-
ing body, thus, challenges ideas about where the body starts,
where it ends, and how it affects us. Might we consider de-
signing beyond the boundaries between the body and its fluids,
and design for what is in between? In [33], Haraway curiously
asks: "whom and what do I touch when I touch my dog?" In
our work on touching the menstruating body, we might, to-
gether with Haraway, ask: Whom and what do I touch when I
touch my menstrual blood, saliva, and cervical mucus? Barad
continues this speculation by arguing that "[a]ll touching en-
tails the infinite alterity, so that touching the other is touching
all others, including the "self", and touching the "self" entails
touching the strangers within" [7]. Following this argument,
touching entails the reciprocal act of being touched, opening
up opportunities for reflecting on one’s "self" and potentially
for creating new knowledge or meaning of this "self".
Drawing on these theories, we ask: How could knowledge-
and world-making processes be created through touching the
menstruating body? Through our design work and data analy-
sis, we contribute to previous design and research on menstrual
technologies by specifically attending to touching as a way of
intimately knowing the menstruating body.
CURIOUS CYCLES
Curious Cycles is a collection of objects designed to be inter-
acted with over the period of a month, the approximate length
of a menstrual cycle. They are designed to be used in the home,
with the intention of allowing participants to reflect on their
cycle as a whole, attending daily to any changes, as well as
providing a choice to engage with these questions individually
or with cohabitants, partners, or others. We took inspiration
from Gaver et. al’s cultural probes [28], since Curious Cy-
cles are intended to be evocative objects and activities that
play with ambiguity and unexpectedness. We view Curious
Cycles as also sharing some of the intentions of Wallace et
al.’s design probes, since they are intended to act as "tools
for design and understanding, including the understanding
and self-knowledge of the individuals themselves" [71]. With
Curious Cycles we hoped to trigger particular kinds of experi-
ences for participants, which we could then discuss with them.
Through these experiences and conversations, we intended to
probe on possibilities for future menstrual cycle technologies.
In the following section, we outline the outcome of designing
Curious Cycles, which followed a Research through Design
(RtD) approach [29, 44]. We provide a careful and detailed
description and analysis of Curious Cycles since these arti-
facts are central to our knowledge contribution, and may be
generative for other interaction design and HCI researchers
exploring similar spaces. The design work was initiated by
first-person experimentation [41] and traces of autobiograph-
ical exploration [57] by our team, internal workshops, and
knowledge exchanges with a medical professor specialized in
gynecological endocrinology and a fertility awareness expert.
The project took place in Stockholm, Sweden, and our re-
search team is composed of women (ages 26-37) from Europe,
North and South America. The Western European context of
the research, our cultural backgrounds, and our own diverse
experiences of menstruation have shaped the questions we ask
throughout this work, influenced by our own curiosity and
predisposition to being in touch with the menstruating body.
The Curious Cycles Kit
The kit consists of a physical and a digital part: a tote bag
holding physical objects, and an individual Instagram account.
The tote bag includes tangible objects (see Fig. 1), an A2
poster, five envelopes with drawing or writing prompts and
a zine with evocative imagery and text. The Curious Cycles
objects were designed from the beginning with the intention
of being deployed and gifted to participants.
Following the Poster Calendar
We designed an A2 size poster (see Fig. 1a and Fig. 2, left) as
a visual reminder and trigger for reflection, as well as a way
to guide participants through Curious Cycles. Similar to an
advent calendar, the poster has laser-cut flaps with messages
such as "Open before you think you’re ovulating" or "Open
on the first day of your period", revealing printed prompts
underneath. Although the average length of a menstrual cycle
is 28 days, this is only an average, and variations from cycle
to cycle are normal and healthy [24]. Therefore, on the poster,
the phases of the menstrual cycle are represented as wavy and
undefined clusters, in contrast to a discrete or linear calendar-
based representation, which might set expectations on when
the menstrual cycle’s phases occur. The size and format of the
poster suggest that it may be hung on a vertical surface and
displayed in the home. We anticipated that participants would,
therefore, think about whether to hang the poster, and where it
should be hung (in public, or in private, if at all).
Collecting Menstrual Blood
This part of the kit consists of a common household item, a
transparent glass container with a lid, and a more medical
or scientific-like object, an eyedropper/pipette that can be
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 3

Figure 2. Left: Opening a poster flap. Right: The curious eye microscope
attached to a smartphone, to observe a sample of menstrual blood dried
on a glass slide, with the help of a backlight from the reflection.
Figure 3. Left: observing the vulva with the reflection mirror and lamp.
Right: Feeling the heat pad on the area of the uterus/ovaries.
used to transfer the blood to the provided glass slides for
observation (Fig. 1c). The instructions encourage to "collect a
bit of your menstrual blood during your period", stating that
the method might differ depending on the hygiene product
used. They also specify the contents of menstrual blood and
clarify that it is harmless unless the person who menstruates
carries blood-borne illnesses. Therefore, this design does not
introduce any new risks other than the ones already present
during menstruation. This experience is purposely messy and
low-tech, as the act of retrieving, touching, and observing
menstrual blood might be an unfamiliar act in itself.
Observing under a Microscope
This experiment-like exploration makes use of an object called
the curious eye, a small microscope (140X augmentation)
attached to the rear camera of a smartphone. The microscope
consists of a 3D-printed case shaped like an eye with a small
glass sphere embedded into it, acting as a lens (see Fig. 1b and
Fig. 2, right). The instructions ask the participant to observe
three bodily fluids which are relevant menstrual cycle markers:
menstrual blood, cervical mucus, and saliva. During ovulation,
if sampled and allowed to dry on glass slides, cervical mucus
and saliva will form fern-like patterns observable under a
microscope [31, 38, 42]. The instructions prompt users to
observe the changes in these fluids with the curious eye, as
well as to observe changes in the texture of cervical mucus by
stretching it between their fingers, as this is also an indicator
of ovulation [13]. The poster prompts the repetition of these
experiments in different stages of the cycle.
Observing the Vulva
This experience centers around a handheld mirror with an LED
lamp that can be used as a backlight for observing microscope
samples (see Fig. 1e and Fig. 3, left). The instructions ask
users to use the mirror to look at themselves between their legs,
observing the outer anatomy of their vulva and briefly writing
about their experience. We expected that by observing their
reflection from uncommon and interesting angles, participants
might reflect on what values they attribute to their bodies, and
spur a sense of appreciation.
Exploring Heat
Building on work where explorations with heat have helped
heighten awareness of different parts of the body [65, 74], the
object central to this experience is a small fabric pad filled
with rice and lavender (see Fig. 1f and Fig. 3, right). The
pad retains heat when warmed up in a microwave or oven,
emitting a pleasant smell, and provides an interesting sensation
of weight. The instructions encourage moving the pad around
the body and noticing any sensations. After these explorations,
we suggest sketching or annotating a body map, which is a
paper with a blank silhouette of a body on it. Through this
experience, we wanted to acknowledge that the menstrual
cycle is often responsible for pain, discomfort and emotional
variations, and that when designing for menstrual cycles it is
important to not overlook or try to conceal these sensations.
Reflecting on paper
In a similar attempt to foster acknowledgment and acceptance
of the plurality of menstrual experiences, we included a draw-
ing activity asking participants to draw their metaphorical
menstrual "monster" or "creature". Monstrous, deviating from
the norm, noncompliant or irrational: in this exercise, we in-
tend to reclaim these negative values often associated with
people who menstruate, questioning the default way of being
as non-menstrual, static and unchanging. Other reflective ac-
tivities, delivered in envelopes (see Fig. 1d) include annotating
the experiences of one’s cycle on the outline of a circle, and
brief reflections on menstrual tracking apps.
Taking and Posting Pictures
One of the poster’s flaps includes login credentials for an in-
dividual, private Instagram account that participants can use
as a diary or blog, or to appropriate how they wish. Several
flaps ask to take pictures of specific objects and places, such as
menstrual hygiene products, or where the poster is hung. In ad-
dition, the instructions also invite participants to post pictures
on the Instagram account as they conduct the experiences.
DEPLOYING CURIOUS CYCLES
A call to participate in our study was posted online and dis-
tributed across the first author’s extended social circles. The
call targeted anyone living in Stockholm, Sweden, who men-
struated and who was not currently using hormonal contra-
ceptives. We were interested in the experiences of people not
using hormonal contraception as they may encounter more
noticeable changes in their bodies throughout the menstrual
cycle. We specified that volunteers should be willing to look
at and touch their menstrual blood, cervical mucus, and saliva,
and to make use of an Instagram account on their smartphone.
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 4

We reached out personally to both binary and non-binary peo-
ple; among these, one non-binary candidate decided to not take
part in the study and another did not fit the requirement about
hormonal contraception. The call received around twenty
interested people. Among other criteria, such as living situ-
ation and cultural background, we selected five participants
with the widest age range in order to include a rich variety of
experiences.
Five women, aged 22 to 37, participated in the study. They
were from one or several countries, including Canada, Ger-
many, Moldova, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Two par-
ticipants who were recruited simultaneously knew each other
prior to the study, and one participant was a recent mother. We
crafted five sets of Curious Cycles and delivered them in indi-
vidual meetings. In each meeting, the first author explained
the objects, indicated the approximate amount of time needed
for each activity, clarified that there were no right, wrong or
expected responses, and answered participants’ questions. We
informed participants that it was up to them to change the
privacy settings and (un)follow other Instagram accounts. Par-
ticipants were also told they could keep their kit. We obtained
participants’ written consent after specifying the motivation
for the study and its duration, the activities to be carried out,
any expected risks, the type of data collected (including the
voice recording of the interview, notes and drawings from
the paper-based activities and photographs, captions and com-
ments from the Instagram account) and its confidential nature.
Participants all agreed for this data to be used anonymously in
subsequent publications. Participants were also advised they
could withdraw their participation at any moment.
Our study began as soon as participants took their kit of Cu-
rious Cycles home, starting at different stages of each partic-
ipant’s menstrual cycle. Because of this, we asked them to
inform us when they considered that a full cycle had been com-
pleted. We set up individual semi-structured interviews with
the first author. These conversations lasted from 40 minutes
to 1 hour and 20 minutes and were conducted in English or
in the language preferred by the participant and also spoken
by the first author. The interviews took place in spaces sug-
gested by the participants, four in public settings and one in
the participant’s home. The first author recorded the audio
and took notes during the interviews, as well as pictures of the
paper-based reflective activities. We also collected screenshots
of the Instagram posts and comments. In preparation for the
analysis, the first author translated the non-English content
and anonymized all the data.
LIVING WITH CURIOUS CYCLES
The data collected through the deployment of Curious Cycles
was analyzed using thematic analysis [14]. Initially, the first
author familiarised herself with the data (interviews, Instagram
posts and writing and drawing exercises) and coded it. This
exploratory inductive thematic analysis across the full dataset
resulted in several themes that richly articulated participants’
reflections on their menstruating bodies. All authors then
reviewed the themes and associated data. Discussions amongst
all authors identified codes and themes relating to "touch" as
being of particular interest, since we considered it to offer
generative opportunities to the interaction design community.
To further develop our understanding of "touch" within the
data, we conducted a second deductive thematic analysis over
the full dataset. In what follows we show how participants
described their experiences of touching their bodies, the ways
in which they touched, and how touching helped to develop
greater knowledge and care for their ever-changing bodies.
Participant pseudonyms are used throughout.
Touching and Looking at the Menstruating Body
In this theme we present participants’ experiences of touching
their body and their fluids, making use of the Curious Cycles
kit, along with the reasons why touching might be interesting
to them. From the data, we have identified interactions of
touch, but also of looking: looking at the body attentively and
in close proximity, possibly as an invitation to further touch
[60]. We see a difference between superficially seeing the
body, or a representation of it, and actually looking, enabling
reflection. This deeper mode of looking is closely linked to the
act of touching, as we further develop throughout our analysis.
Ways of Touching
On the first days of their menstruation, the poster prompted
participants to collect samples of their menstrual blood. They
were not instructed on how to achieve this, but the Curious
Cycles kit contained a pipette and a small, lidded jar. Par-
ticipants Emma and Julia both described the task as familiar
and straightforward: they would empty the contents of the
menstrual cup into the jar, or transfer a sample from the cup
to a microscope slide, testing both with the pipette and with
their finger. Participants explained that they were comfortable
with touching because of their use of the cup (Emma, Julia) or
reusable sanitary pads (Maria), but that they might have not
been so comfortable before switching to these methods:
“I guess before I ever used the cup I was less familiar
with the different consistencies especially, but also with
the color [...]. I guess I would have been a little less
comfortable or aware if I hadn’t used the cup.” - Emma
“It would have been interesting for me to do that [touch
her blood], when I was uncomfortable (laughs), because
I don’t know if I would have done it.”- Maria
Maria explained that reusable pads were the best choice of
menstrual hygiene products for her, although it resulted in “so
much trouble” to use them every month. She explained that,
for the study, she could not obtain blood from her reusable
pads, so she attempted a different way:
“I couldn’t get blood from the pad, so I had to "tck tck"
[gestures putting a finger in and out the vagina] and it
was interesting because it was at the end of the period
but there was a lot of blood still, it was all bloody.” -
Maria
Laura also resorted to obtaining the blood with her fingers
when the use of tampons and period-absorbent underwear
failed for the task. Hannah expressed frustration when she was
not able to collect blood every day as she would have liked to,
and how she switched from trying to squeeze it from tampons
or swabbing a pad with her finger, to finally using the pipette:
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 5

Figure 4. Hannah’s pictures. Left: Touching cervical mucus. Right:
Collecting samples of menstrual blood.
“I really liked it, but it was so frustrating [...] because I
used the pipette to take blood, like... at the spot, like there,
yeah, because I just couldn’t manage to get it anywhere
else.” - Hannah
When using the heat pad, participants placed it on their skin
and felt its weight, recalling the feeling of how the heat
“spread out, like a circle” (Hannah), and made them feel so
comfortable they “didn’t want to go to work” (Laura). These
interactions can also be considered a way of touching, taking
place through the heat pad, as when Julia spoke about touching
the pad on her chest: “I felt my heart rate better [...] I enjoyed
it most where the blood veins were close to the surface.”
Participants approached the storage of the tools, their use,
and the resulting collected materials in different ways. Some
were stored away in the tote bag afterward (Emma), some
remained in the shared bathroom (Laura), on the washing
machine (Emma), or were moved to the bedroom:
“When it was cervical mucus or taking my blood it was
in the bathroom, but then I would usually put it on the
plates and take it back to my room because I have more
space, [...] I can sit on the floor [...] and also the light is
better.” - Julia
Some interactions took place in a private bathroom with no
windows (Maria), or on a tray that could be easily moved
around and hidden from guests (Hannah) (Fig. 6, right).
Reasons to Touch
One reason to touch was to understand the biological processes
taking place during the cycle and the overall health status:
“I usually pay attention to the color of the blood. That
tells me if I’m healthy or not, and if I have, like, low iron
levels, which I really noticed this time, because the first
day was kind of transparent, it was kind of pinkish, like
diluted [...].” - Maria
Mucus and saliva were exciting newfound markers during par-
ticipants’ cycles, signaling ovulation, as Emma explained: “I
had no idea about this [ferning in saliva] and I thought it was
SUPER interesting to do it, I really enjoyed it.” Participants
identified their approximate ovulation day by touching and
stretching the mucus textures between their fingers (Hannah,
Laura and Maria) and by successfully observing ferning pat-
terns in saliva (Julia and Emma). None of the participants
were familiar with the meanings of the changes in texture and
consistency of their cervical mucus, and the instruction to
touch facilitated that knowledge:
“I notice the mucus textures all the time, but I didn’t
associate it with this, I never connected it. That was very
informative for me, I really liked that part.”- Maria
After touching her cervical mucus, Hannah recalled that “it
would be interesting to take a fertility test now, to confirm
the mucus texture”, noting how it might be important to trian-
gulate her experimentation with another known test to better
understand the body’s discharge. When observing her blood
sample, Julia questioned what she saw, “like, what is the white
stuff? [...] you can’t really determine on what level you are”,
which also highlights how touching and looking might lead to
further questions about what exactly it is that one is touching.
However, touching in order to understand the body’s processes
and health status is not the only reason to touch. Maria also
expressed how understanding the cervical mucus textures did
not need to be just a means to pinpoint fertility: “I need to
know because it’s my body, that’s why I need to know” and to
understand “what’s going on” (Hannah).
Looking at the vulva supported by the mirror made participants
think about the reasons why they were looking, which, in this
case, was not for health concerns. Moreover, participants
reflected on why they had not been looking before, or even
how a sense of permission or instruction was necessary:
“It felt so interesting to be forced, in a way, to make
myself aware of things. Some of it was like, why don’t I
do that normally?” - Hannah
“I had never done it before [...] I thought, it’s obviously
easy, we can probably find mirrors around our home.” -
Laura
Participants recalled spending longer than expected looking
at the vulva (Maria) or even feeling the need to clip the hairs
surrounding it in order to get a better view, as Laura explained:
“There are areas you can’t see from any perspective, so you
don’t really know what they’re like. Sometimes it’s there,
under the hairs, and it’s there, but it’s not there (laughs).”
Therefore the motivation to look, which, in this case, led to
touch, was triggered by direct instruction, or because “time
goes by, and you think about doing it, but you don’t until you
have to” (Laura). Facilitated by the mirror, looking at and
touching the vulva turned from a learning-driven action into a
“this is what it looks like? really?” (Maria) action.
Being in Touch with the Menstruating Body
We describe how participants were touched by their interac-
tions with their menstrual cycles, including if and how the
participants changed their appreciation for their menstruating
body, becoming more aware, "in tune" or "in touch" with it.
Emma and Julia both managed to take pictures of ferning
patterns in their saliva (see Fig. 5, right). Emma reflected on
the pleasing experience of discovering these patterns:
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 6

Figure 5. Left: Instagram post and caption from Maria. Sample of dried
menstrual blood using the curious eye microscope. Right: Saliva obser-
vation and caption from Julia using the microscope, indicating fertility.
“I did it every day until I saw the ferning patterns, I
needed to see them. [...] I really enjoyed it because I had
no idea that the patterns would change [...] and I thought
it was actually really aesthetically beautiful as well [...]
and seeing how aesthetically pleasing it was, it also kind
of gave me this new appreciation for it.” - Emma
Touching the fluids, combined with looking, photographing,
curating, and posting pictures of them triggered reflections on
the aesthetics of these fluids, attributing values to something
that is normally discarded and considered waste. Maria cap-
tioned a picture of her blood under the microscope as “red
flowers, both beautiful and painful”, and Julia described it as
both “strange and fascinating”. Hannah’s frustration around
not being able to collect every day drove her to be more atten-
tive to the encounters with her blood. This made her feel like
her menstrual blood was suddenly precious and valuable:
“How I managed to take this blood sample [points to
picture] was like day three or something, I had it on my
paper, it’s so funny, because it got so precious, to collect
stuff (laughs) [...] and I ran to the bedroom and put it on
a clean slate so I could have it there, and then had it dry,
because I was like oh! this is a good thing!” - Hannah
When posting a picture of cervical mucus on her finger (see Fig.
4, left), Hannah remarked: “Why do I feel so weird about this?
[...] and who wants to see this?”, questioning if her social
circles would accept the picture if it had been on her personal
account. This also spurred reflections on the values she, and
the world, associate with these fluids, admitting that “it also
felt a bit liberating, and it looked very artistic”, indicating a
certain appreciation for the image.
When using the mirror to look at their vulva, participants
reflected on their expectations and the unfamiliar experience,
anticipating that appreciation takes time and practice:
“You don’t see it all the time, maybe if I saw it more I’d
feel like, oh, maybe it’s not that bad." - Maria
“I felt like the experience of using the mirror helped me
to sort of break down some barriers of [...] self-stigma
or internalized stigma. [...] We’re constantly told our
bodies are gross, unhygienic, and ugly and these things,
and this was something I think I really internalized. So
taking time to just look at yourself and say, yeah, this is
a normal way to look, it helps to be like, yeah, this is me
and that’s cool and that’s fine.” - Emma
The experiments inspired observations shed of presumptions,
which, with time, could foster self-acceptance and admiration
of the menstruating body. Laura wrote that she would continue
exploring with the mirror, and considered the object to be
"a gift", Hannah acknowledged the power of her vulva after
closely observing it, and Emma wrote about her feeling of
"being in touch" with herself after looking:
“I don’t think they’re pretty [vaginas], really, but it was
fascinating, that I made a human out of it [...] It’s super
powerful.” - Hannah
“It’s surprising how novel it is to be intimate with your-
self. To observe yourself when you’re vulnerable without
judgment, and perhaps even with admiration. Women
are taught to hate their bodies – that we’re gross. The
small act of looking at one’s own vulva without shame or
judgment defies this. It helps me defy it.” - Emma
The materials used in the designs enabled participants to be in
touch with their values towards their menstruating body. All
participants rejected cute, childish and girly aesthetic values in
association with their menstruation. Maria, Hannah, and Julia
criticized their current menstrual app for having "immature"
and "innocent" visuals. Participants also agreed that the hard
but warm feeling of the wood of the reflection was welcom-
ing to the intimate area. Emma reflected on her associations
between materials and a sense of being in control of her body:
“I’m picturing that pink fake fur type stuff, it would be
super cliche and I think it would make me feel kind of
stupid. [...] In the situation where you’re trying to look at
yourself for non-sexual reasons, then if you use some sort
of material that then makes you feel sexualized again, it’s
almost like the sexualization is out of your control [...] I
think we already feel that way a lot. [...] I guess I never
realized it before this conversation, but, the different ma-
terials can definitely make you feel like you have more of
that control or less of that control.” - Emma
The notion of "being in control" was used among participants
to express the ownership of their sensitive information, regard-
ing privacy concerns in their menstrual tracking apps, but also,
as Emma uses the term here, to have a decision over her values,
to not be forced to stigmatize or sexualize her own body.
As the study concluded, participants were asked to draw their
cycle as a circle, in an effort to recall the subtle noticing that
the objects had facilitated throughout the month. Hannah
described a change in how she perceived her cycle:
“This has been an eye-opener for me, really looking at
the cycle as a circle, as a whole, and not like, this is one
week every month.” - Hannah
Julia asked herself what her feelings towards her menstrual
cycle were, finding a metaphor to explain the balance between
her negative and positive menstrual experiences:
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 7

Figure 6. Left: Emma’s poster in her shared apartment. Right: Han-
nah’s kit on a tray that could easily be moved around the home.
“My feelings towards my menstruation could be com-
pared to those I have towards bees. I don’t enjoy being
around them but I appreciate the services they do. And
every time they come back I am glad that the world I
know still exists as in not being pregnant or still having
fruit on the trees.” - Julia
By seeing menstrual blood, mucus and saliva as precious
and valuable, rather than waste, and through the power of
looking and touching over time, participants strive for a sense
of aesthetic appreciation, admiration, of being "in touch" with
the changing body, along with being "in control" of the values
associated to this body.
Nurturing and Fueling Appreciation
While the sociocultural contexts of menstruation have been
discussed previously [20, 43, 45], our analysis draws attention
to how social factors came to play in participants’ experiences
of touching. In the first week of the study, four out of five
participants unexpectedly followed each others’ Instagram ac-
counts. They began to acknowledge and interact with each
other’s content, give each other tips on how to use the mi-
croscope, and collectively review and recommend menstrual
tracking apps. The social support was important to manage
difficulties with the tools provided in Curious Cycles and the
materials (capturing the ferning, in particular, is tricky), and
the “sense of community” (Julia) was highlighted. Through
an exchange of comments, Emma explained to Hannah how
she positioned her smartphone and the slide in the air to get a
better shot of her saliva, to which Hannah replied: “Will give
it a try! Thanks :)”, and Emma encouraged: “Hopefully it
goes well for you! I’ll keep an eye out for your results.”
Aside from advice on using the tools, Instagram was also used
to nurture appreciation of menstrual experiences. Hannah’s
picture depicting a bloodstain on her underwear helped Emma
feel more comfortable with her own experiences:
“The first time I posted a picture of my blood I felt weird,
but then I thought, oh why am I feeling this, it’s just blood.
[...] One girl posted bloody underwear and I was like
what! that’s so cool!” - Emma
All participants hung the poster (see Emma’s poster in Fig.
6, left), which spurred conversations on how the designed
objects lived in their homes, sometimes welcomed by cohabi-
tants (Emma, Julia, Hannah) but also sometimes not—causing
frictions to surface when crossing into shared spaces:
“I’m offended about this from my partner. He made faces
at me [when I was doing the experiments]. He said, "I
see it [the blood]". And I was like "yeah I know you see
it". And he said, "yeah but you know it bothers me a bit"
[...] If you get dizzy when you see blood... but this isn’t
the case. I asked him to make an effort.” - Laura
In response to her partner’s rejection of the touching and look-
ing experiences, Laura further fueled the appreciation of her
body by asking him to be part of the experiments: “I asked or
sort of forced him to help me use the microscope”; to test the
boundaries of their shared space: “I even provoked him a bit
by leaving the blood out”; and to discover to what extent her
social media circles would also accept these experiences: “I
posted a picture of the blood on Facebook asking "what is it?"
[...] But I was disappointed, nobody said anything.”
Finally, through being in touch with their menstruating body,
participants reflected on what it would take to nurture this
appreciation for the menstruating body into others, into society,
overcoming taboos and normative expectations:
“Before [when I was younger], I would judge other
women when they would stay home, like, I feel pain but
I still come! But I don’t know! I don’t know how much
pain she has. Even other women expect you to carry on
as normal [...] it’s not fair that I have to do the same
things even if I can’t.” - Maria
“It’s not just about menstruation, it’s about so much
more. It is very connected to being a functioning person,
which is very weird in a way, that you only have this one
purpose in society, to make a baby or reproduce in some
way, and it’s an expectation [...].” - Hannah
DISCUSSION
In designing Curious Cycles, we intended to invite people
who menstruate to be in close contact with their bodies: giving
technology the role of a mediator that allows people to produce
their own knowledge, rather than a layer through which people
gain knowledge about their menstruating body. As opposed
to dominant menstrual cycle technologies today that mainly
obtain data about the body through sensors or self-tracking, in
Curious Cycles, self-touch is a crucial part of exploring and
better understanding one’s body. In the following sections, we
discuss how through Curious Cycles, participants became in
touch with their menstruating body, slowly starting to build a
sense of appreciation for it, including its fluids. We consider
how intimate touch can be invited and mediated by technol-
ogy through designing with curiosity in mind and we open a
conversation with our community about what it might mean
to design with and for bodily fluids.
Inviting and Mediating Touch
Technologies of intimate care such as Labella [3] have shown
how situated embodied perception, where interactions happen
beyond the screen, is important to promote learning of hid-
den parts of the body. In Curious Cycles, we ask participants
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 8

to go a step further, explicitly inviting them to look at and
touch their own body, instead of a universal representation on
a mobile phone. In this case, the learning value is less focused
on an anatomical or medicalized reference of the vagina or a
calendar referencing the menstrual cycle, but on a close and
caring observation of the self. To look closely, or as Puig de la
Bellacasa phrases it: to look with "fingery eyes" [60], enables
a deeper mode of looking, a way of seeing-touching what we
encounter in the world, and in this case, when we encounter
the menstruating body. By looking through the microscope
and at the blurry and intimate images it produces, taken at
"an almost touching closeness" [60], participants observe their
body with what Marks describes as "a small caressing gaze"
[50]. Looking intently and closely can equate to touch, and
can facilitate a sense of being in touch with the body. Criti-
cally, our analysis suggests that what participants encountered
when touching developed a sense of caring appreciation for
the menstruating body. Rather than being gross and impure,
they found their bodies and their bodily fluids “messy” and
“dirty”, but “beautiful", “pleasing”, or even “beautiful and
painful”, or ”strange and fascinating”. This appreciation for
the menstruating body also seemed to extend from their own
to other menstruating bodies, as well as to fuel a desire to
change perceptions about them. Touching the self, the act of
self-touch, as we have shown through our analysis, is "touch-
ing the strangers within" [7], a way to learn and understand
the self, to be "in touch" with the self, and all menstruating
others.
However, to touch is not necessarily easy. In fact, much like
Labella [3], participants emphasized the need to be invited
(or given permission) to look and touch. This is surprising
since participants already had a certain closeness to their body,
as evidenced by their use of non-mainstream products such
as menstrual cups. The societal norms that raise people who
menstruate to express discomfort with their bodies, and feel
disgust when coming into contact with the messiness of the
menstruating body are strong and deeply held by many.
We have found that if you ask people to look, or to touch, they
will curiously follow. Menstrual technologies thus need to
provide an invitation to touch the body and its fluids. And,
precisely because the act of touching is unfamiliar and strange,
the design of this invitation and experience might involve
overcoming several initial boundaries, such as social taboos,
disgust and stigmatization of the fluids, or shame to look at
and touch intimate areas of the body. In Labella [3], humor
and awkwardness were interaction design devices used to
invite the person to look. In Curious Cycles we designed
rather to provoke a sense of curiosity. Playing with ambiguity
[30] and the unfamiliarity of the interactions afforded by the
tools, combined with colorful, playful, soft, and welcoming
materials, allowed participants to approach the objects shed
of preconceived values, such as sexualization or gendering of
these parts of their body.
Designing with and for Bodily Fluids
Our lasting sense from the data is that there is power in touch-
ing the body for oneself—both in terms of the emancipation
and appreciation that can be achieved by breaking this taboo,
but also in terms of the knowledge about the self which is
possible to develop as a result of this touching. Here such
knowledge extends from general health, supporting or reduc-
ing the chance of becoming pregnant, and noticing symptoms
of diseases or disorders. It would be tempting for menstrual
technologies to sanitize this touching, as commercial prod-
ucts such as Looncup [49] and my.Flow [55] already work
towards—measuring and analyzing the menstrual fluids for
their users. However, based on our data, this would sidestep
the benefits of touching. Instead, we argue that technology’s
place here is to invite, and to potentially mediate this touch,
not to be the "gatekeeper" to knowledge about the body.
We can draw from existing exemplars in recent literature to
imagine what such interactions might look like. For example,
while designed as a provocation around human-fungi relation-
ships, the Hand-Substrate Interface [48] embodies some of the
qualities we envisage in future menstrual technologies that pro-
mote touch of the body. Its design intends to promote an "art
of noticing" that allows the wearer, through mediated touch,
to learn more about the substrates within which mushrooms
are growing, developing an understanding of how different
levels of moisture support fungal growth. It is not a great leap
to imagine similar technologies that allow mediated touch of
the menstruating body, enabling the wearer to piece together
the viscosity, volume, and color of bodily discharge in their
menstrual cycle. What is promising about such approaches
is the potential to generate knowledge about particular envi-
ronmental conditions (whether in the forest or in the body)
that might also become accessible when not wearing such a
device.
Designing with and for interactions with bodily fluids and men-
strual blood requires careful ethical management to determine
how to incorporate design explorations with such materials not
only in the homes of participants, but also in other potential re-
search environments. Designing for touching menstrual blood,
cervical mucus and saliva of one’s own body is not dangerous
or toxic, and does not add any risks aside from the ones peo-
ple who menstruate already encounter with their cycles every
month. People are becoming more and more in contact with
their blood and mucus when using menstrual hygiene products,
in part due to the increase of menstrual cup usage, especially
in a European context [53]. In this work, we have gone a
step further than day to day encounters and asked participants
to notice and pay attention to these fluids that are a normal
part of the discharge of their bodies. This opens up questions
about treatment, storage, and disposal which must be attended
to by both the researchers and the participants. With at least
one participant, our study highlighted the stigma that can be
associated with menstrual blood and the menstruating body.
The participant’s partner did not want to see the menstrual
blood or be near collected samples. Curious Cycles—in ask-
ing her to collect, store and observe her fluids—supported the
participant in confronting her partner on this matter, enabling
her to directly challenge this stigma. Our designs provided
the opportunity to touch and collect, to perceive this discharge
as precious, and something which should be looked at and
might be considered as beautiful. Vitally, Curious Cycles pro-
vided a place within the home for these discharges, rather than
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 9

treating them as something that should be immediately thrown
away. Based on our data, we believe that future menstrual
technologies should help to directly challenge the stigma and
misunderstanding of, in particular, menstrual blood.
Despite these fluids being non-toxic and not dangerous, they
are bodily fluids and as such, must be treated with care. Re-
searchers must consider that menstrual blood contains venous
blood, which may carry blood-borne infections and diseases,
including sexually transmitted ones. Thus, interaction design
needs to develop processes and practices which enable us to
experiment and design with these materials safely. To achieve
this, we should take inspiration from emerging practices such
as [46] who examine how to transition an HCI studio into
a BSL-1 (biosafety level 1) facility using low-cost tools, to
develop DIY bio protocols. Similarly, we can be informed by
current DIY approaches to gynecology, such as [16] and seek
to design methods and tools that resist institutionalized views
of menstruation, allowing the conversations and knowledge
production about menstrual cycles to happen also in the home.
An Ecology for Menstrual Experiences
As seen in previous work [27, 38, 67], menstrual cycles are
not isolated and individual experiences, and menstrual tech-
nologies increasingly mirror this consideration. For example,
menstrual tracking apps like Clue allow for sharing data, rec-
ognizing its potential to support social bonding [17]. In line
with [56], our data includes positive reflections on existing
self-tracking practices, illustrating that touch and self-tracking
could coexist and contribute to the generation of bodily knowl-
edge. Our work opens the path for interactions that could
include self-tracking, e.g., in explorations of cervical fluid.
In Curious Cycles, the objects and interactions exist in an ecol-
ogy [12] among other menstrual products, artifacts, and people
in shared environments, which directly influences the ways
in which participants touch and look. By being physically
present and taking up space, the Curious Cycles kit required
management and shed light on the existing tensions of shar-
ing or hiding menstrual experiences. At times, participants
protected themselves from possible shame or stigma in their
homes by hiding the objects and the experimentation, e.g., by
choosing to use private, potentially lockable spaces such as a
bathroom, or moving objects out of sight when visitors arrived.
However, at other times, they made their experiences visible,
provoking and testing the limits of their social surroundings.
We note similar choices in relation to the sharing (or not) of
digital content. The participants in our study improvised a
social context to support their learning to touch and to be in
touch with their body, by choosing to follow one another on In-
stagram. As one might expect, they liked each other’s images
and left comments on their posts, which, in turn, encouraged
continued experimentation, posting content they would have
not released to their normal social circles, and inspired further
rethinking preconceptions about the menstruating body. This
combination of physical and digital sheltering and display of
content relating to menstrual experiences is not surprising, but
serves to highlight how ecologies for menstrual experiences
need to be considered in the design of menstrual technologies;
that is, how menstrual technologies become part of an ecology
of artifacts in a person’s home and everyday life, which is also
inhabited by other social actors.
We argue that menstrual technologies should accommodate
for discreetness [21] and camouflaging, similar to the design
of sex toys [8], but also be designed for "showing off" when
wanted. They should display material choices and aesthetic
qualities that carefully consider what they communicate about
the body (e.g., sexualized, medicalized), which are sensitive
to cultural context. For example, the participants rejected
gendered, pink or infantile aesthetics, while in other contexts,
those qualities might be preferred in order to overcome cultural
taboos [9]. The bare material qualities suggested by partici-
pants, such as wood or concrete, were in line with findings
in [21] about users of menstrual tracking apps considering
"femininity a more negative design trait."
Finally, menstrual technologies should consider the relation-
ship with the menstruating body as it changes over life. Of
particular interest are key reproductive transitions, such as
menarche and menopause, where people must adapt to a new
body, identity, and social roles, often in a context of taboo
and stigma. Our data does not account for the specific experi-
ences of hormonal contraceptive users, young menstruators or
people going through menopause, but we are engaging with
these populations in dedicated research projects, seeking to
incorporate their voices.
CONCLUSION
In Curious Cycles we highlight the exploration of bodily fluids,
opening opportunities for the design of body-centric technolo-
gies to include this part of the body. Through an RtD approach,
we found ourselves questioning the encounters and cuts be-
tween the body and its fluids, raising questions such as: Where
does my body end and where does “the other” begin? Design-
ing for the body need not stop at the skin, but consider the
inbetweenness; imagining these fluids as an extension of the
body, where it is difficult to discretely discern the inside from
the out.
In a future envisioned with novel medical and health applica-
tions, such as smart menstrual technologies in constant con-
nection and production of a swarming buzz of data, we must
not forget the material, sensorial, and affective experiences of
menstruating bodies that will be engulfed by these systems
and devices. Our work shows that by seeking the active in-
volvement of people who menstruate with their own bodies,
designers can build menstrual technologies that care for and
appreciate menstruating bodies as they are and as people them-
selves choose them to be. Through touching and being in
touch with the menstruating body we invite people who men-
struate to nurture and fuel intimate appreciation and bodily
knowledge, opening opportunities for those in the surround-
ings to also become in touch with these bodies, and, in turn,
to reconfigure the societal discourse of menstruating bodies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank our study participants for sharing their experiences
with us, the Soma Design team at KTH, Emmi Parviainen
and the MIDDLA lab. This work was partially funded by the
Swedish Research Council project 2017-05133.
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 10

REFERENCES
[1] 2019. UN Women - United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women. (2019).
https://www.unwomen.org/en
[2] Teresa Almeida, Rob Comber, and Madeline Balaam.
2016a. HCI and Intimate Care as an Agenda for Change
in Women’s Health. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems -
CHI ’16. ACM Press, Santa Clara, California, USA,
2599–2611. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858187
[3]
Teresa Almeida, Rob Comber, Gavin Wood, Dean Saraf,
and Madeline Balaam. 2016b. On Looking at the Vagina
through Labella. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems -
CHI ’16. ACM Press, Santa Clara, California, USA,
1810–1821. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858119
[4] American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on
Adolescence, American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists, and Committee on Adolescent Health
Care. 2006. Menstruation in Girls and Adolescents:
Using the Menstrual Cycle as a Vital Sign.
PEDIATRICS 118, 5 (Nov. 2006), 2245–2250. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-2481
[5] Madeline Balaam, Rob Comber, Ed Jenkins, Selina
Sutton, and Andrew Garbett. 2015. FeedFinder: A
Location-Mapping Mobile Application for
Breastfeeding Women. In Proceedings of the 33rd
Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems - CHI ’15. ACM Press, Seoul,
Republic of Korea, 1709–1718. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702328
[6] Madeline Balaam, Judy Robertson, Geraldine
Fitzpatrick, Rebecca Say, Gillian Hayes, Melissa
Mazmanian, and Belinda Parmar. 2013. Motherhood
and HCI. In CHI ’13 Extended Abstracts on Human
Factors in Computing Systems on - CHI EA ’13. ACM
Press, Paris, France, 3215. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2468356.2479650
[7] K. Barad. 2012. On Touching–The Inhuman That
Therefore I Am. differences 23, 3 (Jan. 2012), 206–223.
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/10407391-1892943
[8] Jeffrey Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell. 2011. Pleasure
is your birthright: digitally enabled designer sex toys as
a case of third-wave HCI. In Proceedings of the 2011
annual conference on Human factors in computing
systems - CHI ’11. ACM Press, Vancouver, BC, Canada,
257. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1978979
[9] Jeffrey Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell. 2018. “My
Peaceful Vagina Revolution:” A Theory of a Design:
From Usability to Enjoyment. 77–91. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3- 319-68213- 6_6
[10] Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, and Lone
Koefoed Hansen. 2015. Immodest Proposals: Research
Through Design and Knowledge. In Proceedings of the
33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems - CHI ’15. ACM Press, Seoul,
Republic of Korea, 2093–2102. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702400
[11]
Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, Amanda Lazar, and
Norman Makoto Su. 2019. (Re-)Framing Menopause
Experiences for HCI and Design. In Proceedings of the
2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems - CHI ’19. ACM Press, Glasgow, Scotland Uk,
1–13. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300345
[12] Shaowen Bardzell. 2010. Feminist HCI: taking stock
and outlining an agenda for design. In Proceedings of
the 28th international conference on Human factors in
computing systems - CHI ’10. ACM Press, Atlanta,
Georgia, USA, 1301. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753521
[13]
Jamie L. Bigelow, David B. Dunson, Joseph B. Stanford,
René Ecochard, Christian Gnoth, and Bernardo
Colombo. 2004. Mucus observations in the fertile
window: a better predictor of conception than timing of
intercourse. Human Reproduction (Oxford, England) 19,
4 (April 2004), 889–892. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deh173
[14] Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke. 2006. Using
thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in
Psychology 3, 2 (Jan. 2006), 77–101. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
[15] Nadia Campo Woytuk, Linette Nilsson, and Mingxing
Liu. 2019. Your Period Rules: Design Implications for
Period-Positive Technologies. In Extended Abstracts of
the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems - CHI EA ’19. ACM Press, Glasgow,
Scotland Uk, 1–6. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3312888
[16] Ewen Chardronnet. 2015. GynePunk, the cyborg
witches of DIY gynecology : Makery. (June 2015).
http://www.makery.info/en/2015/06/30/gynepunk-les-
sorcieres-cyborg- de-la- gynecologie-diy/
[17] Clue. 2019. Period and Ovulation Tracker for iPhone
and Android. (2019). https://helloclue.com
[18] Natural Cycles. 2019. The First Birth Control App |
Hormone-Free Birth Control | Natural Cycles. (2019).
https://www.naturalcycles.com/,https:
//www.naturalcycles.com/
[19] Catherine D’Ignazio, Alexis Hope, Becky Michelson,
Robyn Churchill, and Ethan Zuckerman. 2016. A
Feminist HCI Approach to Designing Postpartum
Technologies: "When I first saw a breast pump I was
wondering if it was a joke". In Proceedings of the 2016
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems - CHI ’16. ACM Press, Santa Clara, California,
USA, 2612–2622. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858460
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 11

[20] Mary Douglas. 2005. Purity and danger: an analysis of
concept of pollution and taboo. Routledge, London ;
New York. OCLC: ocm50333732.
[21] Daniel A. Epstein, Nicole B. Lee, Jennifer H. Kang,
Elena Agapie, Jessica Schroeder, Laura R. Pina, James
Fogarty, Julie A. Kientz, and Sean Munson. 2017.
Examining Menstrual Tracking to Inform the Design of
Personal Informatics Tools. In Proceedings of the 2017
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems - CHI ’17. ACM Press, Denver, Colorado, USA,
6876–6888. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025635
[22] Breanne Fahs. 2016. Out for blood: essays on
menstruation and resistance. State University of New
York Press, Albany.
[23] Miranda Farage. 2006. "The Vulva: Anatomy,
physiology and pathology" Edts. M.A. Farage and H I
Maibach. Informa Publisher-2006.
[24] Richard J. Fehring, Mary Schneider, and Kathleen
Raviele. 2006. Variability in the Phases of the Menstrual
Cycle. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal
Nursing 35, 3 (May 2006), 376–384. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2006.00051.x
[25] Margaret Flemings, Shanzay Kazmi, Rachel Pak, and
Orit Shaer. 2018. Crimson Wave: Shedding Light on
Menstrual Health. In Proceedings of the Twelfth
International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and
Embodied Interaction - TEI ’18. ACM Press, Stockholm,
Sweden, 343–348. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3173225.3173292
[26] Sarah Fox, Noura Howell, Richmond Wong, and
Franchesca Spektor. 2019. Vivewell: Speculating
Near-Future Menstrual Tracking through Current Data
Practices. In Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing
Interactive Systems Conference - DIS ’19. ACM Press,
San Diego, CA, USA, 541–552. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3322276.3323695
[27]
Sarah E. Fox, Rafael M.L. Silva, and Daniela K. Rosner.
2018. Beyond the Prototype: Maintenance, Collective
Responsibility, and Public IoT. In Proceedings of the
2018 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2018
- DIS ’18. ACM Press, Hong Kong, China, 21–32. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3196709.3196710
[28] Bill Gaver, Tony Dunne, and Elena Pacenti. 1999.
Design: Cultural probes. interactions 6, 1 (Jan. 1999),
21–29. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/291224.291235
[29] William Gaver. 2012. What should we expect from
research through design?. In Proceedings of the 2012
ACM annual conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems - CHI ’12. ACM Press, Austin,
Texas, USA, 937. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2207676.2208538
[30] William W. Gaver, Jacob Beaver, and Steve Benford.
2003. Ambiguity As a Resource for Design. In
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’03). ACM, New
York, NY, USA, 233–240. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/642611.642653 event-place: Ft.
Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
[31] M. Guida, M. Barbato, P. Bruno, G. Lauro, and C.
Lampariello. 1993. Salivary ferning and the menstrual
cycle in women. Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics &
Gynecology 20, 1 (1993), 48–54.
[32] Donna Haraway. 1988. Situated Knowledges: The
Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of
Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies 14, 3 (1988), 575.
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3178066
[33]
Donna Haraway. 2008. When species meet. Number 3 in
Posthumanities. University of Minnesota Press,
Minneapolis. OCLC: ocn156975211.
[34]
RI Henkin. 1974. Sensory changes during the menstrual
cycle. (1974).
[35] Sarah Homewood. 2018a. Designing for the Changing
Body: A Feminist Exploration of Self-Tracking
Technologies. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems -
CHI ’18. ACM Press, Montreal QC, Canada, 1–4. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3173031
[36] Sarah Homewood. 2018b. Reframing Design Problems
Within Women’s Health. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.337
[37] Sarah Homewood. 2019. Inaction as a Design Decision:
Reflections on Not Designing Self-Tracking Tools for
Menopause. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems -
CHI EA ’19. ACM Press, Glasgow, Scotland Uk, 1–12.
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3310430
[38] Sarah Homewood, Harvey Bewley, and Laurens Boer.
2019. Ovum: Designing for Fertility Tracking as a
Shared and Domestic Experience. In Proceedings of the
2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference -
DIS ’19. ACM Press, San Diego, CA, USA, 553–565.
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3322276.3323692
[39] Alexis Hope, Catherine D’Ignazio, Josephine Hoy,
Rebecca Michelson, Jennifer Roberts, Kate Krontiris,
and Ethan Zuckerman. 2019. Hackathons as
Participatory Design: Iterating Feminist Utopias. In
Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’19. ACM Press,
Glasgow, Scotland Uk, 1–14. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300291
[40] Peter Händel and Johan Wahlström. 2019. Digital
contraceptives based on basal body temperature
measurements. Biomedical Signal Processing and
Control 52 (July 2019), 141–151. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2019.04.019
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 12

[41]
Kristina Höök, Baptiste Caramiaux, Cumhur Erkut, Jodi
Forlizzi, Nassrin Hajinejad, Michael Haller, Caroline
Hummels, Katherine Isbister, Martin Jonsson, George
Khut, Lian Loke, Danielle Lottridge, Patrizia Marti,
Edward Melcer, Florian Müller, Marianne Petersen,
Thecla Schiphorst, Elena Segura, Anna Ståhl, Dag
Svanæs, Jakob Tholander, and Helena Tobiasson. 2018.
Embracing First-Person Perspectives in Soma-Based
Design. Informatics 5, 1 (Feb. 2018), 8. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/informatics5010008
[42] Vaclav Insler, Herzel Melmed, Itzhak Eichenbrenner,
David M. Serr, and Bruno Lunenfeld. 1972. The
Cervical Score: A Simple Semiquantitative Method for
Monitoring of the Menstrual Cycle. International
Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 10, 6 (Nov. 1972),
223–228. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1879-3479.1972.tb00857.x
[43] Ingrid Johnston-Robledo and Joan C. Chrisler. 2013.
The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as Social Stigma.
Sex Roles 68, 1-2 (Jan. 2013), 9–18. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011- 0052-z
[44] Ilpo Kalevi Koskinen. 2012. Design research through
practice from the lab, field, and showroom. Morgan
Kaufmann/Elsevier, Waltham, MA. OCLC:
1030358463.
[45] Julia Kristeva. 1982. Powers of horror: an essay on
abjection. Columbia University Press, New York.
[46] Stacey Kuznetsov, Cassandra Barrett, Piyum Fernando,
and Kat Fowler. 2018. Antibiotic-Responsive Bioart:
Exploring DIYbio as a Design Studio Practice. In
Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’18. ACM Press,
Montreal QC, Canada, 1–14. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174037
[47] Amanda Lazar, Norman Makoto Su, Jeffrey Bardzell,
and Shaowen Bardzell. 2019. Parting the Red Sea:
Sociotechnical Systems and Lived Experiences of
Menopause. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference
on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’19.
ACM Press, Glasgow, Scotland Uk, 1–16. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300710
[48] Jen Liu, Daragh Byrne, and Laura Devendorf. 2018.
Design for Collaborative Survival: An Inquiry into
Human-Fungi Relationships. In Proceedings of the 2018
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems - CHI ’18. ACM Press, Montreal QC, Canada,
1–13. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173614
[49] LOONCUP. 2015. The world’s first SMART menstrual
cup. (2015).
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/700989404/
looncup-the- worlds-first- smart-menstrual-cup
[50] Laura U Marks. 2002. Touch: sensuous theory and
multisensory media. University of Minnesota Press,
Minneapolis.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttv5n8 OCLC:
299511580.
[51]
Joselyn McDonald, Siyan Zhao, Jen Liu, and Michael L.
Rivera. 2018. MaxiFab: Applied Fabrication to Advance
Period Technologies. In Proceedings of the 19th
International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on
Computers and Accessibility - DIS ’18. ACM Press,
Hong Kong, China, 13–19. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3197391.3205405
[52]
Lydia Michie, Madeline Balaam, John McCarthy, Timur
Osadchiy, and Kellie Morrissey. 2018. From Her Story,
to Our Story: Digital Storytelling as Public Engagement
around Abortion Rights Advocacy in Ireland. In
Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’18. ACM Press,
Montreal QC, Canada, 1–15. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173931
[53] Gabrielle Moss. 2019. The Complicated & Fascinating
History Behind The Sudden Rise Of Reusable Menstrual
Products. (April 2019). https://www.bustle.com/p/why-
are-menstrual- cups-so- popular-reusable-period-
products-are- having-a- definitive-moment-17120105
[54] Manideepa Mukherjee. 2019. Challenges and
opportunities of textile based smart sanitary napkin
design. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM International
Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous
Computing and Proceedings of the 2019 ACM
International Symposium on Wearable Computers -
UbiComp/ISWC ’19. ACM Press, London, United
Kingdom, 1044–1046. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3341162.3349572
[55] my.Flow. 2019. my.Flow. (2019).
http://www.trackmyflow.com/
[56] Dawn Nafus and Jamie Sherman. 2014. This One Does
Not Go Up To Eleven: The Quantified Self Movement
as an Alternative Big Data Practice. International
Journal of Communication 8 (2014), 11.
[57] Carman Neustaedter and Phoebe Sengers. 2012.
Autobiographical design in HCI research: designing and
learning through use-it-yourself. In Proceedings of the
Designing Interactive Systems Conference on - DIS ’12.
ACM Press, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom,
514. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2317956.2318034
[58] Norma O’Flynn. 2006. Menstrual symptoms: the
importance of social factors in women’s experiences.
The British Journal of General Practice 56, 533 (Dec.
2006), 950–957.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1934056/
[59] S. R. Pallone and G. R. Bergus. 2009. Fertility
Awareness-Based Methods: Another Option for Family
Planning. The Journal of the American Board of Family
Medicine 22, 2 (March 2009), 147–157. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3122/jabfm.2009.02.080038
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 13

[60] María Puig de la Bellacasa. 2009. Touching
technologies, touching visions. The reclaiming of
sensorial experience and the politics of speculative
thinking. Subjectivity 28, 1 (Sept. 2009), 297–315. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.17
[61] Chella Quint. 2019. From embodied shame to
reclaiming the stain: Reflections on a career in
menstrual activism. The Sociological Review 67, 4 (July
2019), 927–942. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038026119854275
[62] Lauren Rosewarne. 2012. Periods in pop culture:
menstruation in film and television. Lexington Books,
Lanham, Md.
[63] Camilla Mørk Røstvik. 2018. Blood in the Shower: A
Visual History of Menstruation and Clean Bodies. Visual
Culture & Gender 13 (Sept. 2018), 54–63.
http://vcg.emitto.net/index.php/vcg/article/view/114
[64] Amy Slater and Marika Tiggemann. 2012. Time Since
Menarche and Sport Participation as Predictors of
Self-Objectification: A Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent Girls. Sex Roles 67, 9-10 (Nov. 2012),
571–581. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012- 0200-0
[65] Anna Ståhl, Martin Jonsson, Johanna Mercurio, Anna
Karlsson, Kristina Höök, and Eva-Carin Banka Johnson.
2016. The Soma Mat and Breathing Light. In
Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended
Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems -
CHI EA ’16. ACM Press, San Jose, California, USA,
305–308. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2851581.2889464
[66] Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard. 2018. Staying with the
Trouble through Design: Critical-feminist Design of
Intimate Technology. Ph.D. Aarhus University. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/aul.289.203
[67] Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard and Lone Koefoed
Hansen. 2016. PeriodShare: A Bloody Design Fiction.
In Proceedings of the 9th Nordic Conference on
Human-Computer Interaction - NordiCHI ’16. ACM
Press, Gothenburg, Sweden, 1–6. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2971485.2996748
[68] Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard and Lone Koefoed
Hansen. 2018. Intimate Futures: Staying with the
Trouble of Digital Personal Assistants through Design
Fiction. In Proceedings of the 2018 on Designing
Interactive Systems Conference 2018 - DIS ’18. ACM
Press, Hong Kong, China, 869–880. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3196709.3196766
[69] Giulia Tomasello. 2019. Future Flora. (2019).
http://gitomasello.com/future-flora
[70] Agatha Tutia, Kelda Baljon, Lan Vu, and Daniela K.
Rosner. 2019. HCI and Menopause: Designing With and
Around the Aging Body. In Extended Abstracts of the
2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems - CHI EA ’19. ACM Press, Glasgow, Scotland
Uk, 1–8. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3299066
[71] Jayne Wallace, John McCarthy, Peter C. Wright, and
Patrick Olivier. 2013. Making design probes work. In
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’13. ACM Press,
Paris, France, 3441. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2466473
[72]
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf. 2017. Periods gone public: making
a stand for menstrual equity. OCLC: 1002303038.
[73]
Lisbeth Wikström-Frisén. 2016. Training and hormones
in physically active women : with and without oral
contraceptive use. (2016).
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-124842
[74] Charles Windlin, Pedro Sanches, Vasiliki Tsaknaki,
Pavel Karpashevich, Madeline Balaam, and Kristina
Höök. 2019. Soma Bits: Mediating technology to
orchestrate bodily experiences. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7855799.v1
CHI 2020 Paper
CHI 2020, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA
Paper 344
Page 14