Mumbai: Women’s reproductive health and hygiene has always been an awkward topic of conversation for people. There’s always fear of stigma associated with reproductive health of women. There is a stereotypical thinking pattern prevalent in society, the fear of being judged and labeled by others, discrimination, and a feeling of being ashamed of openly discussing reproductive health problems or seeking help on the same.
There are so many areas of women’s health, from periods to fertility to menopause that are shrouded in taboo. To tackle the stigma associated with women’s health and, especially reproductive health, 29-year-old Divya Kamerkar, with her own experiences of reproductive health problems, and her husband Rahul Kamerkar, have designed and developed an app name– “Pinky Promise”– a woman’s best friend trying to help her in her time of need and making sure that her dignity and privacy is protected. “Pinky Promise” is a women friendly app launched on 10 June 2021 and gives a judgment free and safe space to get personalized answers to women’s reproductive health issues and connect with a powerful community of women who can support other women through their PCOS, sexual wellness journey and fertility time with a distinctive feature of “Chat Bot”–developed and designed using the best clinical protocols from around the world.
Amid the pandemic, getting access to a gynaecologist has become difficult and women like Divya Kamerkar, who is a mother and suffering from polycystic ovary, had to take advice from other women friends or depend on Google and other automated systems. Divya Kamerkar, who designed and developed the “Pinky Promise” app, said: “It’s not only based on my personal experience and indepth study into reproductive healthcare, but a survey of over 100 women that we conducted. The survey threw light on how, despite the emergence of women as a powerful consumer group in India and regardless of their income levels, women find it hard to access non-judgmental and scientific sources of reproductive healthcare. Most of them Google their symptoms and either ignore them or self medicate. Thus here is Pinky Promise is a woman’s best friend, which assurances her that her secret is safe! A woman can join with her nick name too and in a complete anonymous form,” said Divya who has a background of science and MBA from an international university and work experience as an advisor to several governments on healthcare and gender strategy, not only in India but also in other countries.
Talking about Pinky Promise’s main Chat Bot feature that addresses 80% of all commonly occurring gynecological conditions like period issues, urinary tract infections, abnormal vaginal discharge, sexually transmitted infections and birth control and fertility advise and how it works, Adv Rahul Kamerkar, co-founder of Pinky Promise, said, “Chat Bot is extremely non-judgmental and user friendly; the Chat Bot walks the user from her symptoms, all the way to making her understand why she may be having those symptoms and what to do about them. If a woman has a symptom, she can go to our Chat Bot and in a very friendly manner, she will be asked about those symptoms. Her responses are then evaluated against global clinical protocols and best practices to arrive at an understanding of what she may be going through. We have worked hard to make sure that language, colors, pictures, everything on the bot, is highly reassuring and comforting!”
In addition to the Chat Bot, the app also has chat rooms where women can connect with one another anonymously and answer each other’s questions on issues like pregnancy, polycystic ovaries, fertility etc. which require not just medical support, but ongoing experience sharing.