The new iPhone sex tracker's glaring oversight

You’ve heard the news. It seems Apple Inc. has stepped outside, seen that women are, in fact, using iPhones in 2015, and decided to remedy the absence of reproductive health metrics from its otherwise-inclusive HealthKit. This long-awaited reproductive health tab includes metrics to track things such as menstruation, basal body temperature, and—as early screenshots obtained by CNN Money reveal—sexual activity. Wait, sexual activity? Yes, sexual activity! iPhone users will now be able to keep track of every single time they have sex and whether or not protection was used in each encounter.

This sounds great. Since the reproductive health tab also tracks menstruation and ovulation, sex data should help dispel pregnancy concerns (or lead to a desired pregnancy) for female users. But wait, what about the men? Males don’t ovulate, they don’t menstruate, and they definitely don’t get pregnant—but they do, allegedly, have sex.

So why, then, is the sexual activity tracker tucked away in a tab that’s exclusively for women? Yes, technically, sex fits the reproductive health label. But unlike the other metrics in the tab, sexual activity is something both women and men experience. Why not put it in the Fitness tab, or give sex a tab all its own?

Placing a sex and protection tracker in a feature that tracks women’s reproductive health data insinuates that pregnancy is the only reason we should be tracking our sexual encounters (overlooking sexually transmitted infections), and places the burden of protection on women—all of which reinforces the problematic way Americans already think about protection in bed.

Males don’t ovulate, they don’t menstruate, and they definitely don’t get pregnant—but they do, allegedly, have sex.

When asked if contraception and protection is disproportionately seen as a women’s issue, Lisa Campo-Engelstein, a professor with Albany Medical College, told Fusion, “in the U.S., yes, for sure.” In other countries (and throughout American history) where men are the head of the house, Campo-Engelstein said contraceptive decisions are typically left to the male partner. But lately, as women have more birth-control options to choose from, we’ve seen that power (and burden) shift.

“Historically, contraceptive use was seen as more of a man’s responsibility, because there weren’t more options for women, and women weren’t seen as being rational enough to make decisions,” Campo-Engelstein told Fusion. But now women have about 11 options when it comes to contraception, and those options fall along a varied spectrum. There are temporary solutions, like male and female condoms; hormonal birth control pills; LARCS, like IUDs and implants; as well as permanent options, like hysterectomies.

Men, however, only have two choices for safeguarding their penises: temporary condoms (which aren’t incredibly effective at preventing pregnancy because they’re often used incorrectly), and the pretty permanent option of a vasectomy (which, of course, doesn’t protect against STIs).

“With all these new options for women, [contraception] is definitely gendered,” Campo-Engelstein said. As she explained, that’s bad for women. But it’s also bad for men. Contraception and protection work best when they’re mutually agreed upon between partners. While pregnancy concerns are pretty female-specific, STIs aren’t a gender-exclusive threat. Men should be tracking their sex (and use of protection) just as much as women. After all, male condoms are a pretty popular form of contraception, and (along with rarely used female condoms) they’re the only options that protect against infection and disease.

With this metric tucked into a feature that some men have already distanced themselves from, are male users going to feel this data point is their responsibility? Sure, there’s a myriad of other sex tracker apps available to iPhone users. And you could always revert to more archaic methods of tracking who you have sex with and when, like pen and paper, notches on a bed post, or etching in stone. But there’s something subtly shaming about having to press, “Sorry, nope, didn’t use protection” when entering data, which the app prompts you to do each time you record a ~sexual event~. And so, without targeted coaxing and coaching, the app could very well increase the burden on women.

Without targeted coaxing and coaching, the app could very well increase the contraceptive burden on women.

It’s great that Apple has heard the public’s concerns about leaving women out of the native Health app, and responded by finally acknowledging a metric women are already downloading apps to track. It’s also great that users will have the option to chart their sex lives in their smartphones. It also even makes sense that Apple developers might associate sexual activity tracking and protection responsibility with women. That’s what most of the country is doing! But reinforcing the idea that women are the ones who should be doing the monitoring is problematic.

My vote? Put the sex tracker in the Fitness tab—sex counts as exercise, right?

Hannah Smothers is a reporter for Fusion’s Sex & Life section, a Texpat, and a former homecoming princess.