In the U.S. 41 million women have mental health struggles. 23 million of those women will go untreated.
Out of those who do get treated it takes an average of TEN years between symptom onset and their getting mental health care. The American Psychiatric Association declared a mental health emergency as recently as 2021.
This was the premise upon which LunaJoy was founded: a digital mental health clinic specialised for women – from puberty, fertility, miscarriage, pregnancy, menopause etc. (the reproductive health journey).
An insight core to the development of LunaJoy was the fact that OBGYNs do not like doing mental health screenings because of how difficult it is to get women into specialized mental healthcare (lengthy wait times and a lot of learnt helplessness around mental health in primary care). The current solutions in mental health do not address the needs of women, especially in the most vulnerable moments.
That’s why we need FemTech and more starts like LunaJoy. LunaJoy is attempting to get to women before they are in crisis by integrating directly with primary care providers and offer proactive engagement if there are positive screens for mental health needs. They utilise technology to de-risk handoffs, increase engagement in mental health and unburden primary care providers who do not have the time to adequately address mental health needs. If mental health services are not covered by insurance, women will not get care. They are willing to pay for the service for their spouses, but in order for them to get care the mental health service must be in network for them to seek it out.
So what does female mental health look like? Adolescence is a prime example: there is an uptick of mental health disorders (of women with a mental health disorder over 75% will have their first episode by age 24), over one in five women experience postpartum disorders and up to 30% of perimenopausal women will experience mood difficulties.
To learn more about Lunajoy’s mission and what the future of mental health and how it intertwines with FemTech looks like: