In collaboration with developers of “Caria”, a women’s health app, Apple is spreading awareness regarding myths of menopause. Co-founders Arfa Rehman and Scott Gorman created their app as a personalized guide for women going through menopause to understand the changes and manage changes symptoms.
Menopause is the biological process when the menstrual cycles of women, in their 40s and older, come to an end. As an important part of women’s health, developers believe that there is a lack of education and treatment of menopause. Therefore, the Caria app is designed to bridge the gap. CEO of Caria, Rehman said,
“There is a lack of education about menopause and its treatments in the medical community, as only 20 percent of ob-gyn residency programs in the US have a formal menopause curriculum. 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.”
‘Caria’ app debunks menopause-related myths of its symptoms, age, and treatment
Apple’s apps and devices function as versatile tools for users to track and monitor their health like Apple Watch ECG, Heart Rate, Blood Oxygen, Sleep tracking, Health app, and other features. Now, the company is adding menopause to its list of health conditions which can be tracked and managed on its platform via Caria app.
“Since there are so few options when it comes to managing menopause, as well as a lack of well-designed products for Gen X women, we’re hoping for Caria to fill that gap,” says Rehman.
Caria’s offers AI-powered assistant chat support to women to help them understand their symptoms and their journey. Later, the app will provide curated personalized health support and recommendations about wellness, fitness, and nutrition.
Developed with experts specializing in women’s health, Caria provides evidence-based approaches for managing menopause, including cognitive behavioral therapy, hypnotherapy, nutritional therapy, mindfulness, and fitness. It also delivers tailored programs for each stage of menopause — premenopause, perimenopause, natural menopause, or postmenopause — and curated goals. Caria recently launched a premium subscription for unlimited access to expert-created programs for symptom management.
Rehman debunks myths by clarifying that as menopause transition has four phases, there is no universal symptom and duration and every women’s experience is totally different. Some women can start perimenopause in their 30s and 40s, so it does not wait till retirement age. And lastly, there are medication and holistic approaches to go through this biological process. Rehman says,
“We’re excited to build on this foundation and collect more clinically validated data, which will be the first randomized control trial studying a digital behavioral health app for menopause.”In the coming months, Caria is partnering with the University of Illinois at Chicago to study the app’s efficacy in relieving symptoms of menopause. From current user surveys, 85 percent of women report improvement in symptoms after using Caria.
