Florida Student Athletes Are Now Being Asked To Track Their Menstrual Cycles Online

Each year, student athletes across the country must be cleared to participate in sports by getting their annual physical from a doctor.

However, many school districts in Florida have sparked outrage following a change to their yearly routine.

Historically, annual physicals were recorded on a paper form with an optional section that asks students about their periods. Now, however, Florida Times-Union reported Florida's student athletes will be required to fill out the form online.

This means that information about the students previously kept secure at a school level is now reported digitally through a third party.

In the days following the Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade, people were urged to stop using period-tracking apps and to delete related reproductive health information from third party platforms in fear data collected through the trackers could be used against them in states where abortion is illegal.

In Florida, both parents and doctors are concerned and wonder why the information is being collected in the first place.

Information gathered on the form includes age of first menstruation, date of most recent period, timing of menstrual cycle, number of periods in the past year and the longest amount of time between periods in the last year.

This data will now be stored on a digital platform operated by Aktivate, a third-party software company founded by former News Corp. executive John Miller. The company was founded just last year.

As Twitter users caught wind of the situation, they shared their support for the athletes as well as disgust with the new requirements.

Previously all the school was required to have on file following a student's physical examination was the signature page on which the doctor signed to clear the student athlete. Now the full form will be on file for seven years, the retention period for such documents.

One doctor told the FloridaTimes-Union:

"I think we're all on edge right now."

He, along with many other doctors and parents, fear the student information will not be kept private.