1) What prompted you to start a project on the health of women and girls?
Since we also once were teenage girls, we understand how difficult it can be to find answers to our seemingly awkward questions. We did not know whom to ask such questions as "Is my period normal?", "What is this discharge, is it normal?", "Why should I go to a gynecologist if I am not married yet?" We were embarrassed to ask these questions to adults, it was unreliable to look for answers on the Internet, and asking friends or classmates was of little use, because they didn't really know anything either.
Such ignorance of the basics of how our body works leads to the spread of various myths and fears, as well as health problems in the future, such as a neglected inflammatory process or excessive intake of pain medications due to untreated severe menstrual pain - which could have been avoided if the girl knew that despite not being sexually active, she can still go to a gynecologist for prevention measures..
As doctors, we wanted to create a source where our young citizens can read reliable information about health based on the principles of evidence-based medicine and data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
But, given that dry medical facts may seem boring for a teenager, we decided to diversify the content by adding areas such as psychology, as well as personal care, education (time management, goal setting). We are preparing interactive events (question-answer, quiz in Instagram stories) to make it more interesting for subscribers to stay on the page. This is how they learn important health information while reading about skin care or watching a selection of films.
2) Could you share why it is still important for women to know their reproductive rights?
According to the WHO definition, reproductive rights are the rights of men and women to make free and independent decisions about their reproductive health, including the birth of children, the time of their birth and the intervals between the birth of children, as well as the right to receive information on these issues.
It turns out that only the woman herself makes decisions regarding her reproductive realization. And every woman should know about her reproductive rights so that no one can influence them in any way. When a woman knows her reproductive rights, she can confidently make decisions on her own and protect herself from reproductive coercion and violence. Knowledge is power.
3) What worries our women? What questions do our women ask most often, and who answers them ?
The audience of our page is mainly girls aged 17-25. But also, girls under 17 and women over 30 are subscribed to us. Therefore, the questions come up very differently. But, if divided by themes, then most of all the girls are worried about their health. They often ask about menstrual irregularities, PMS, painful periods, intimate hygiene. Here are some common questions:
- My periods went twice this month. Is it okay, what should I do?
- My period lasts a week, is that too long?
- You wrote in a post that you can't douche, why? I always clean my vagina like that.
Our gynecologist answers such questions. But, if the question requires a doctor's examination, then we advise the girl to contact the gynecologist personally.
After we began to pay more attention to the content on psychology, girls began to write to us, sharing their stories, for example, about a quarrel with their parents. They ask us to give them advice to improve their relationship with their parents. We pass such questions to our psychologist, and she answers them.
There have been cases when girls wrote to us about the physical abuse they had experienced. They complained of signs of depression, and even wrote about suicidal thoughts. We have not come across such stories before and we do not have a proven algorithm yet, so we don’t know how to help in such situations. The only thing we could do was refer the girl to our psychologist for a free consultation. In the future, we would like to have more information on helping girls in such situations.
4) Can you share a successful story of how your project has impacted the lives of individual women or girls?
We believe that each of our answers to the girls' questions helps them to some extent. After all, so much awkwardness and suffering can result from simply not knowing something. And when you get the answers to your questions, you can independently figure out what to do next.
One such example is the impact of a psychologist's post on gaslighting. After posting a gaslighting test on Instagram stories, a girl wrote to us, discovering all of the warning signs of gaslighting coming from her fiancé. She shared that she felt something was wrong in their relationship, she was constantly looking for a problem in herself, considering herself to be guilty of their quarrels. It turned out that it was the first time she learned about this type of manipulation. She was very happy to learn this before her wedding with this young man, because in fact she realized she was a victim of a manipulator, and not "crazy."
Also, we want to note such cases when a woman wrote to us that she has been walking with an intrauterine device for 10 years. We advised her to urgently consult a gynecologist, since such prolonged wearing of the IUD can lead to health problems.
Such situations show that sometimes girls do not even know that they are facing certain problems until they read about it on our page.
(Joralar started working in 2019 on Instagram, team consisting of pediatrician, gynecologist & psychologist)
