Research in Human-Computer Interaction has begun to examine women's midlife health and their experiences with menopause. This research has found that menopause has a geography---it is shaped by the places in which it is experienced, from homes to workplaces. In this paper, we further explore this idea in two ways. One is how the intertwining of these places shapes implications for health technologies. Additionally, we examine menopause and technology in cultural contexts beyond the Global North. We present a study of women’s experiences with menopause in urban Pakistan, drawing on surveys and interviews incorporating visual prompts, as well as supplementary interviews with physicians. Using feminist theories of geography and labor, we analyze how space, place, and labor shape women's experiences of menopause. We draw on our findings to surface implications for technology design that work towards more supportive environments that enable women's well-being and meaningful choice in care-seeking.
Post-Roe, people capable of pregnancy face fragmented reproductive privacy landscapes in the United States (U.S.), with risks spanning legal, digital, and interpersonal domains. These conditions demand new forms of privacy guidance. We analyzed 212 reproductive health zines—a DIY, subversive, and collectively produced media genre—to understand how they communicate reproductive health information. Zines foreground embodied, first-person narratives interwoven with historical context, medical guidance, and activist messaging. We argue their use of subversive or alternative medical knowledge enhanced credibility in contexts of low institutional trust. While some zines offer digital privacy strategies, many focus on avoiding institutional exposure altogether. These emotionally resonant, context-sensitive accounts illustrate threat models attuned to entangled risks of interpersonal betrayal, legal precarity, and surveillance. We conclude with design implications for how zines might better support people navigating reproductive risk through what we call narrative threat modeling—a situated practice that communicates privacy strategies through story, tone, and form rather than technical instructions or prescriptive checklists.
Young Saudi women (YSW) face increasing mental health challenges, often hidden behind social barriers and stigma. While digital support has been investigated in Western contexts to offer discreet alternatives, its application in Saudi Arabia remains understudied, particularly in addressing unique cultural needs. To address this gap, we conducted remote interviews with 20 YSW to explore their lived experiences and challenges with existing Arabic apps, followed by remote co-design workshops with 38 YSW to explore design preferences. Using thematic analysis, our findings reveal that many apps rely on surface-level translation and fail to align with users’ cultural values, limiting their adoption. Concerns about incomplete anonymity, fear of being discovered, and a lack of guidance further challenged their use. Participants also framed online privacy as a collective moral value, rather than an individual concern. We discuss these sociocultural sensitivities and propose design considerations for future design targeting Saudi and broader Arab audiences.
We present a qualitative interview study that examines what happens when things do not go as planned with digital contraception. Through an analysis of 27 interviews with ongoing users of digital contraception at the time of the study, we convey participants’ accounts of their experiences regarding unplanned pregnancies or use of emergency contraception to avoid an unplanned pregnancy. Our analysis considers participants' sense-making processes, and notably how they attended to questions of risk and responsibility. Finally, we depict how these participants came to continue using digital contraception after these experiences. Our study connects to ongoing conversations on technological failures in personal informatics and safety-critical systems. We emphasise that failure and success should not be used as a binary classification of long-term users' relationships with self-tracking technology, which are intimate and critical. Rather, the sustained relation with an intimate technology is composed by several `failures' which are interpreted, acted upon, and, ultimately, overcome.
Self-tracking of pregnancy-related data offers expectant individuals a variety of benefits, from monitoring health and identifying risks to emotional support and fostering a connection with the baby. Despite these benefits, the adoption of digital tracking tools remains limited, and the tools themselves do not always reflect the needs of individuals. To better understand self-tracking practices and experiences, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 expectant parents, 12 midwives, and three obstetricians. Thematic analysis revealed that self-tracking improves understanding of pregnancy, promotes emotional stability, and results in valuable pregnancy artifacts, but may also increase anxiety. Additionally, technology-driven tracking could be problematic, necessitating expert interpretation of data. Our findings suggest directions for the design of future pregnancy technologies that foster trust, reduce anxiety, and better support the emotional and physical needs of pregnant individuals.
Intimate health remains a taboo subject across many cultural contexts globally, limiting opportunities for open discussion and support. HCI research has established that religious and cultural identities and values shape discussions on intimate health, yet these dimensions are rarely embedded in the design of digital health platforms. In this paper, we adopt an Islamic Feminist lens to design a virtual environment to foster conversations about intimate health among Arab Muslim women. We conducted nineteen interviews, followed by four focus groups on an avatar-based platform (Gather.town) modeled on the majlis---a traditional Arab gathering space. While interviews revealed significant barriers to discussing intimate health, focus groups demonstrated how anonymous, avatar-based interactions in a familiar and comfortable setting can support open discussions. Our research thus advances HCI research on safe digital spaces for sensitive health conversations, and offers actionable strategies for embedding feminist, culturally, and religiously resonant design into digital health platforms.