Young girls seek advice on sexual wellness online

A 20-year-old Sneha Indulkar (name change), a Mumbai resident, recently used an online consultation platform to seek advice on sexual wellness. She found herself to be in a more comfortable space and able to express better while seeking doctor's counsel over the chat.

Just like Indulkar, more young women are taking help of chat-based online platform to consult doctors. A recent statistic by Docprime, a digital consultation platform reveals that of the two lakh medical consultations made by women, 82 per cent of them under the age 18-40 years of used digital consultancy as a medium to seek medical advice.

While women who were hesitant to talk about problems like menstruation, sexual wellness, skin, and other health issue,the digital technology has bridged the gap. Women are more confortable to discus their health-related issues over these platforms. The data revealed that out of the total patients' consulted, 51 per cent women took the online consultation.

While most women under the age group of 18-25 years seeked advice regarding sexual wellness (58.7 per cent), a share of 51.9 per cent and 52.1 per cent needed advice on pregnancy and skin issues.

Dr Binita Priyambada, senior consultant said, "A majority of female patients who have consulted are from the age group 18 to 25. Some of the most asked queries are around sexual wellness, mensuration, and pregnancy. The reason these women find chat based consultation safe is because female sexual health is often times considered a taboo subject. Young girls who have queries regarding their sexual health prefer online consultation and find it a safe space for expressing their concerns."

Ashish Gupta, CEO, Docprime.com, said, "Access to technology has helped in addressing the increasing health issues of women and provided better well-being. Women under the age group of 40-60 years and above 60 years make up the rest, which is 18 per cent. This age bracket is more vulnerable to health-related risks with limited digital literacy, which needs attention."

In this fast-paced lifestyle, people, especially women ignore their health. This leads to several health complications. Connecting people by providing them the information they need to secure themselves is the need of the hour.