The founder on a mission to destigmatise female sexual pleasure

“The stigma surrounding female sexuality is pervasive and affects girls and women of all ages,” wrote author Namoi Katz in 2016 in Time magazine.

Fast forward seven years and the social stigmatisation around female sexuality remains unchanged. According to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, stigma related to sexual and reproductive health has deep roots in society and the human psyche, as shame about sex has historically been ingrained in our religious institutions, schools, laws, and popular media.

“Whether it’s disease prevention or protection, we’ve always been taught about what not to do,” says Dina Niron, CEO and founder of the sexual wellness platform Organa.

“However, when it comes to sexual pleasure, women are hesitant because for so long, they weren’t supposed to have sex and enjoy it.”

Although sex education is widely supported by the vast majority of people in the US, it only covers topics such as STIs, puberty, birth control, and sexual orientation, leaving girls unaware of the needs of their bodies, says Niron.

“Currently, a lot of girls and women still lack very basic information about their bodies and their needs, but we know what an amazing effect positive sex has on our overall health. Through Organa, we want to help women enjoy just that.”

Described as a wellness platform where sexual pleasure is destigmatised and celebrated, Organa aims to improve women’s wellbeing in relation to their sexuality across physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual aspects and create a world where women feel comfortable and confident in their bodies.

“Our goal is to help women safely learn about their bodies – from identifying and finding their own sexual DNA to understanding what it is that they like and what it is that they don’t,” the founder explains.

“We are developing an interactive, personalised wellness consultation as well as a physical bio sensor product that will give women personalised insights and recommendations and increase their intimate pleasure and sexual knowledge. 

“To encourage them to communicate with their partners and work towards destigmatising the taboos around sexual health, we are also going to have some features that will enable them to share that information.”

While still working on building the platform, Niron says she and her team have already uncovered crucial data which shows female pleasure continues to be seen less of a priority.

“We started by asking women where they get their sexual information from and where they’re at with their sexual life and we found that 44 per cent of women in the US have never experienced an orgasm.

“We also discovered that women felt more comfortable discussing issues related to their sexual health with a digital agent, rather than a doctor. It’s worse than we expected.”

Funding is another issue facing female founders in the sexual wellness space.

“Out of all digital health funding, only about two per cent goes to femtech,” says Niron. “Of that, 65 per cent is invested into fertility, despite 70 per cent of sextech founders being female.”

Although alarming, the founder says the findings show the change is sorely needed. She is optimistic, however, and says she is hoping Organa could move the needle in the right direction.

“Using the data we will be gathering, we want to start looking at things nobody looked at. Things as simple as coffee, which we don’t know what effects can have on our sexuality.

“We want to really drill down and understand the impacts of all these things on our desire and sexual wellbeing and truly empower women.”