Pill problems: Why are women still struggling to access the right contraception and how can healthtech help?

Contraception is the medical innovation that has the most pervasive impact on women’s lives, but it is also one of the most under-researched, under-innovated and under-resourced medical fields.

According to research carried out by Dama Health, 80 per cent of women experience contraception side effects that decrease their quality of life, and women try an average of four different methods during their fertile years.

“On average, most women spend almost half of their lives either trying to plan a pregnancy or to avoid unplanned pregnancies,” Dr Janet Barter, the president of the Faculty of the Royal College of the Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said in Davina McCall’s recent contraception documentary.

The documentary shone a light on the barriers that women face in accessing the education and support that they need to make informed choices about their contraception. These include a poor understanding of how the side effects of different pills impact different women, a worrying prevalence of myths and misinformation, and a broken and costly medication access model.

The dominant message was that to improve women’s health outcomes in the UK, their struggle to access the right contraception must be solved.

National funding a “drop in the ocean”

In March, the UK government announced a £25 million investment over the next two years, as part of the Women’s Health Strategy for England. It said that the money will help to create “women’s health hubs” that “improve access and quality of care” for services, including contraception. The hubs promise shorter waiting lists and fewer health inequalities.

However, according to McCall, that could be a “drop in the ocean” in the context of cuts worth a billion pounds from health budgets in recent years, and her documentary suggests it may take years for women in the UK to reap the benefits of the government’s investment.

Women’s health VIMPROs are stepping up to provide solutions  

Displaying the responsiveness and agility that is characteristic of vertically integrated micro providers (VIMPROs) in healthtech, a cluster of women’s health start-ups are trailblazing technology-first solutions.

These VIMPROs have identified women’s contraception pain points and built the technologies and infrastructures to address these. These technologies are streamlined, end-to-end solutions designed to meet the needs of a time-poor, price-sensitive, digitally savvy generation of women.

Navigating the contraception maze 

If women are to be empowered to make informed decisions about contraception and reproductive health, they must have access to relevant knowledge and information. This is an area where VIMPROs are already delivering excellent results.

For example, Phlo Connect partner, The Lowdown, is a contraceptive advice and support platform which was created as a space for women to share their experiences with pills, coils and implants – later evolving into a contraception advice and prescription platform because of the huge demand for reliable information.

Dama Health, who were featured in the McCall documentary, are leading the research side of the education movement. Their team of scientists, gynaecologists and female health specialists is investigating how different female bodies respond to different types of contraception in the short term and long term.

They are using the findings, and their own advanced technology and biomarkers, to deliver women with personalised and informed contraceptive support via a digital interface.

Bridging access gaps 

VIMPROs are also successfully leading the charge when it comes to building bridges that link up every step of women’s contraception journey.

Most women have been through the arduous process of going to their GP for a contraceptive pill prescription, then waiting for this to be filled by the pharmacy, and repeating the process all over again when they run short. They may have also experienced the stress of obtaining emergency contraception from their local clinic – something no woman should have to endure.

That’s why Hello Eve was created: to put an end to unnecessary expense, inconvenience and awkwardness. Their online contraception platform acts as a “one-stop-shop” for women, where they can consult with a clinician, choose the right treatment personalised to their needs, and arrange discrete, affordable delivery to a location of their choice.

To fix the frustrating fragmentation of the prescribing process, Hello Eve leverages the Phlo Connect technology stack. Using Phlo Connect APIs, Hello Eve’s clinicians can access true digital prescribing and medication dispensing that is secure, compliant and traceable at every stage.

Collaborative innovation at scale

Dr Geeta Kumar, the vice president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said in response to the McCall documentary that contraception was a “vital part of sexual and reproductive rights for women”.

It follows that by meeting women’s sexual and reproductive rights, every innovation and collaboration in the field of contraception will positively impact on women’s health and wellbeing outcomes. Thus, the importance of women being given access to timely, convenient digital advice and contraception delivery from the privacy of home cannot be underestimated.

As explored above, partnerships between women’s health advocates, research teams, VIMPROs and digital pharmacy infrastructure providers have begun to lay the groundwork for a contraception revolution.

With continued investment, the scale and reach of their efforts will soon expand to empower every woman with seamless, digitally-mediated access to optimal reproductive health.

Lyndsay O’Brien is product owner at London-based digital pharmacy infrastructure company Phlo Connect.