Helping Women Manage Chronic Menstrual Issues - Introducing SocialBoat

[Swapnil]

Thanks @Dilip for inviting me to the community. Super excited to be here and to share more about how we are helping women with better menstrual health.

India has 300M Menstruating women and over 100M of them potentially have PCOS. A significant other proportion of women have other menstrual issues. Most issues arise due to menstrual health complications, hormonal imbalances and are chronic in nature. Most of the times they go undiagnosed or not managed well because:

1. Menstrual health is still an uncomfortable conversation
2. Offline workout and diet infrastructure is largely designed around the male body and the concept of calorie-deficiency. There are few relevant programs for women which take into account the added layer of complexities because of the menstrual cycle.
3. Lack of access to qualified resources. Problem is aggravated due to point 1.

PCOS and other menstrual issues lead to weight gain, increased insulin resistance ( higher chances of diabetes), reduced fertility. 80% of women with PCOS are overweight, >40% will have fertility issues, >65% have anxiety issues, >55% dont speak to their partners/family about it. Along with weight gain issues, this problem becomes more urgent when someone is trying to conceive and PCOS acts and a fertility suppressor.

At SocialBoat, we are building the world’s first generative AI (Sakhi) for menstrual health that syncs a users menstrual cycle with their body parameters and movement levels to create significantly effective workout, diet and health recommendations that are easy to follow and help manage specific issues or reach specific goals. Using OpenAI’s api’s and our learning layers we also have a chatbot that answers all menstrual and sexual health queries in over 20 Indian languages.

Our pro-plans offer human experts in addition to the AI which includes a team of a gynaecologist, diet coach and a yoga coach to create a holistic plan for the user.

In the last 9 months of building in this space, we have been fortunate to have:

1. Over 16K women, mostly those who have PCOS and are looking to conceive.
2. Been fortunate to receive a user rating of 4.9/5 and having helped our users get regular periods, reduce acne/hairfall, improve their AMH levels, reduce weight and improve moods! Most importantly, w have been able to give a private space to get quality knowledge about menstrual health.
3. Our progs are designed by a team of gynecologists, yoga coaches, dieticians and mental health professionals.
4. We are unit-economics profitable and trying to be cashflow positive in the next few months.

I would love to invite women in this community or in your network to try out SocialBoat and share any feedbacks.

[Abhinav_Singh_Negi]

@Kulsum @Shruthi @akhila

[Kulsum]

Hi Swapnil, thanks for sharing this.

Before I sign up to experience this, I had a few concerns. Can you help us with some clarification:

What data has been used to train this generative AI, how accurate is this, and has it helped women? Even with PCOS etc., I think the plans and diet vary for each individual based on their lifestyle and region; how is this AI solving this problem?

Also, how are these paid programmes different from what HealthifyMe and similar companies are offering?

[Shruthi]

Hi Swapnil, the website looks really pretty in purple , I haven’t signed up for a plan yet. But had a couple of doubts when starting the journey of signing up;

Why is the male gender represented in the signup flow? I mean, if this is a community for women to talk and understand their menstrual cycle, PCOS issues, etc., why include men in signing up?

Setting weight (scrolling) is difficult; there is no option to enter the weight either

I opted for general well-being, so on onboarding, why is it suggesting gaining 2 kg in month 1?

What if I don’t want to gain weight? Is there no way to customize it before the consultation starts?

3 months to achieve the goal with a monthly call check - Is there an option for us to choose a timeline?

Also, when I choose the option “‘lose weight” or “regularize my cycle,” why am I still being offered the option to gain?

[akhila]

Hi Swapnil, I have a couple of additional questions here:

1. How long does the AI take to provide personalised insights based on data collected from the user? I’ve noticed that menstrual cycle tracker apps (e.g. Flo, Clue) take 3-6 months to sync and provide fairly accurate insights.

2. While signing up on the app, there’s an option to pick current and ideal body shapes. If the idea of SocialBoat is to solve menstrual/health issues, should body shapes be factored in here? (also, one of the ‘ideal’ body shape options mentioned is overweight)

3. Online information states that influencers help with leading communities on SocialBoat. How does this work; are these influencers qualified professionals, and do they play an active role in the SocialBoat community?

[Ishiyetaa]

Hi Swapnil,
I’m curious about the usability and experience challenges you’re currently addressing. In one of the PCOS care apps we designed, we faced difficulties in ensuring consistent data input from users. It took several product iterations to establish a user-friendly daily input system, which is crucial for progress tracking and revising the care plan.

Would love to chat.