In the field of women’s health, medical advancement has focused on birth control and fertility treatments, even though women spend several years and an average of US$20,000 in trial-and-error treatments, doctor’s visits, and products trying to get the right diagnosis and treatment for menopause.
Co-founders Arfa Rehman and Scott Gorman saw the need for guidance and support during menopause, and together they launched Caria (formerly called Clio) — a personalised guide to help users understand menopausal changes and manage their symptoms.
“There is a lack of education about menopause and its treatments in the medical community, as only 20 per cent of ob-gyn residency programs in the US have a formal menopause curriculum,” says Rehman, who is also CEO of Caria. “As a result, many medical professionals don’t have the training to diagnose and treat menopausal symptoms, often leaving women with insufficient options and support.”
In a survey conducted by the Female Founders Fund, 78 per cent of respondents indicated that menopause interferes with their lives, and 23 per cent of respondents indicated that menopause had either “a great deal” or “completely debilitating” impact on their lives.
In 2019, Rehman and Gorman attended Apple Entrepreneur Camp, where they collaborated in person for the first time with one of their key engineers. They believe that the program was instrumental to Caria’s development, helping them incorporate new technologies and absorb expert insight from Apple’s design team on how to improve the app’s user experience.
“As a design-centric healthcare company, developing on the Apple platform and leveraging the capabilities of iOS have made meeting our priority for user privacy and security while delivering a stellar user experience easier,” says Rehman. At Camp, the team built the first version of their app for Apple Watch and started working on incorporating Siri Shortcuts, which now lets app users log all of their current and new symptoms, triggers, and daily activities from anywhere using their voice.
This content was originally published here.
