Australia’s hassle-free emergency contraception service

Ordering your morning-after pill shouldn’t be complicated. Meet the Australian platform helping thousands of women access emergency contraception hassle-free.

Picture this: you come home from work and before getting a well-deserved takeaway, you go online and order your contraceptive pills.

In post-pandemic Australia, women can have access to birth control pills as well as the morning-after pill on the online women’s health platform, Youly.

Alongside emergency contraception, the Australian platform offers around-the-clock support and treatments for herpes, menopause, sleep, reflux, thrush and asthma – to name a few.

“Whether it’s music or online shopping, we have access to online services whenever we need them,” says Nic Blair, founder of Youly. “However, health care has fallen behind in that advancement.

“We saw that there was a clear gap in women’s health care. In the Australian market, emergency contraception was one thing that came up as a poor experience for most of the women. So, it was an opportunity for us to close that gap and create a better, more discreet and more convenient experience for women to access health care.”

The founder says that the key is to understand the needs of the consumer. “Because I come from a digital background, I had a fast-moving digital technology mindset that proved beneficial,” he explains.

“That made me ask, ‘Why does contraception have to be difficult? Why can’t it be delivered to your door, the same way that groceries can be?’ Access to something like the contraceptive pill or the morning-after pill is important for women of all ages and it can be a real challenge in a traditional environment. With Youly, we tried to take a different approach and provide a solution that would fit into people’s lifestyles.”

With over 18,000 Instagram followers, the company is also committed to breaking women’s health taboos and educating people through social media. Nic says that education is more needed than ever, especially when platforms like Instagram still blocks some of the posts related to contraception and sexual health.

“This clearly shows how women’s health and sexual health are sometimes treated,” the founder points out. “We think it’s really important for our brand to lead that conversation and be advocates for women’s health. These are all important aspects that should be spoken about in a public forum and we are glad to have professionals who can help provide that knowledge.”

For Youly, appealing to a younger audience has also meant collaborations with Australian influencers who resonate with the brand such as Maddy MacRae and Leah Williams. “We’ve established a presence for Youly,” Blair adds. “And this makes it easier to outreach and have more people who come to us and say, ‘Hey, I saw the work you did and I would love to be part of this conversation as well’.

“It’s a bit of a snowball effect, but the key thing for us is very much educating the audience and talking about key topics in women’s health, as opposed to pushing adverts into people’s faces.

“We’re about to launch a campaign, called Youly Uncensored, which is working with a group of influencers who talk to their audience about experiences they’ve had accessing health care. Our aim is to become the voice that instigates the conversation and helps women realise that they are not alone.”

According to the company’s research, one in every 233 Aussie women who use the contraceptive pill have been helped by Youly and Nic does not rule out implementing the Australian model in other markets. “All of these are broader health care problems. So, for us, there is a big opportunity not only in Australia, but also internationally, because no one should go without access to contraception.”

So, what’s next for Youly? “Our broader vision for the company is to build a complete health care ecosystem for women,” says Blair. “We’re moving into skincare and we’re also looking at things like sleep treatments, reflux and asthma. In the future, we want to introduce pathology, radiology and specialists referrals, as well as health management programmes for weight management, diabetes and other chronic conditions.

“The longer term roadmap is to bring as many health care products and services into our environment as we can, so that our platform becomes the starting point for managing women’s health, as opposed to something you only go to for treatments.”

With so much success less than two years from the launch, I ask Nic what this means for him, as a founder. “I think getting the validation directly from your customers and realising that you’re actually having a bigger impact on people’s lives is the most rewarding feeling. Being on a journey that truly means something to people is important for our whole team, and also for me as a founder.”

For more info, visit youly.com.au.