Population Matters-USA – working for a sustainable world

FemTech is a new word for me. It isn’t the name of a female robot, but rather describes technology for the needs of women’s reproductive health.

There are many types of FemTech. One of the earliest and most common form is various apps women use to keep track of menstrual periods. That information can be useful to help a woman know when she is most fertile and trying to conceive—or when she is least likely to conceive, if her goal is to avoid pregnancy. Unfortunately, that type of app is a good illustration of how technology can lead people astray. There are several potential problems with these simple apps.

Let’s look at the case of a woman who is trying to conceive, but her husband has a low sperm count. They have read that it is best if he saves up those precious sperm until she is ready to ovulate. She looks at her phone one morning and realizes that she is at her most fertile. Her husband is drinking his morning coffee, reading the newspaper and on his way to work. She runs up to him and says:

“Honey, today’s the day! Let’s do it!”

Under those circumstances, sex can become a chore instead of being fun. Furthermore, recently it has been found that it is more productive for a couple to have intercourse more frequently and not just when the wife is more fertile.

There are other problems for couples who are trying to avoid pregnancy. One is that the pregnancy rate is much higher than with most modern contraceptive methods. Another is problem is more pernicious: poor security. Some of the apps do not take adequate measures to keep women’s data secure. Thus, if a woman who lives in a state where abortion is illegal misses a period and might be pregnant, law enforcement might find out. Then, if she tries to go to another state to abort the pregnancy—or perhaps to just visit a friend—she can be tracked. This may seem too Orwellian to occur in the USA, but already laws have been proposed to prevent crossing a state border in order to obtain abortion care.

Natural Cycles is the only app that earned FDA approval for contraceptive purposes. It uses a combination of period information and the rise of a person’s temperature when ovulation occurs, so it is more accurate than period-tracking apps. It claims to be 93% effective with typical use—which means that as many as 7 out of 100 women will conceive in a year of using this app for birth control. This is pretty good compared to other natural family planning methods, which have a failure rate up to 25%.

FemTech gets more sophisticated than just a calendar and thermometer. High tech fertility tracking with finger rings that measure temperature and home tests for progesterone which can help tell when ovulation has occurred. There are even expensive kits that measure 4 different hormones for the same purpose. Another high tech device uses vaginal probe that notifies the user when her cervical mucus is ready to assist sperm on their journey.

For an unintended pregnancy, FemTcch can help women lower barriers to self-managed abortions. A chatbot named “Ally” uses artificial intelligence to do this. Ally provides information for safe abortions using pills. It is available in several languages and has been used by people in over 170 countries.

This is just a sample of FemTech; I’m sure that much more will be developed in the future. Unfortunately, new ways of invading our privacy will also proliferate.

©?Richard Grossman MD 2026

PS: After posting this essay I realized that the FDA has approved another app for contraception, “Clue”.

“Instead of speaking of a shortage of supply we could just as truly say that there is a longage of demand.”

Biologist Garrett Hardin

Our rain and snow come from the sky, however much of the water gets up there by transpiration from plants and trees. So many people appreciate Colorado that they move here, causing the built space (housed, roads etc.) displaces fields and trees. Therefore, there is less water making it up to the sky to form clouds.

However, that’s probably a minor reason for the 25+ year drought affecting western North America. This dearth of water isn’t only the worst drought of this century; it is the worst drought in 1200 years! No wonder it is called a megadrought. Furthermore, it’s not just affecting southwestern Colorado, but much of western North America and has expanded to cover much of the US.

Yes, there are periodic climatic variations that cause dry years, then wet years. El niño/la niña is one such variation, but it has been overwhelmed by another factor—climate heating.

Climate chaos has already caused many weird weather patterns in southwest Colorado this year. First we had summer in March, then we experienced winter in April. However, one thing is constant—it has been dry. In early March of this year the snowpack was at historic lows. Then record high temperatures later that month melted much of the snow that remained. If you look west to the La Plata Mountains, their silver plate has been worn off.

How much of this drought is due to climate chaos? Scientists have estimated that about half is anthropogenic. An article published in 2020 found that 46% of the megadrought could be accounted for by climactic heating. It has become hotter since then, so perhaps more than half is due to anthropogenic heating. My understanding is that the other half is due to the normal variation in precipitation.

There is less water is coming from the sky and less water on the surface—which is how a drought is usually defined. What about under the ground? There the water supply is hidden and more difficult to measure, of course. However, we know that some aquifers have been almost sucked dry. The Ogallala aquifer, for instance, has been tapped by so many wells for crop irrigation that in some places the water level has dropped 300 feet!

Satellite measurements have shown that the Earth’s surface has fallen many feet in areas such as southern Florida, largely because the underground water has been removed. Although we think of the Amazon as being the ultimate of wetness and high humidity, some trees are suffering from dryness, leading to overheating and their death. Amazonia has been called “the lungs of the Earth”, but if the drought worsens, those lungs may stop breathing.

The term “water crisis” has been used so often that readers are jaded. Furthermore, a “crisis” implies resolution is possible, but in some areas the drought is so severe that resolution seems impossible. Thus, a new term has been coined for these dire situations, “water bankruptcy”. It is defined as: “…human-water systems whose water use persistently exceeds hydrological carrying capacity [so] damages are irreparable….” Examples include parts of Mexico, Egypt and India.

Human activities have decreased precipitation, especially in the North American Southwest. In addition, excess numbers of people have exceeded the carrying capacity of fresh water supplies. One group of humanity is causing this drought by using fossil fuels, and another group of humanity is suffering from water bankruptcy. Fewer people would help with both problems.