By Anayansy Hernandez
Doctor visits are uncomfortable as is, now imagine explaining to your doctor a pain in an area you’re unfamiliar with. This was what Kerstin Recker, co-founder of Peli Health, experienced following an emergency c-section that left her with excruciating pelvic pain.
Recker visited four different doctors striving to find an answer to her pain, but found no relief and in the process encountered medical gaslighting when a doctor suggested to “have a glass of wine and relax.” Her co-founder Helen Grimshaw had given birth on two different continents and was never educated about her pelvic health either. “I didn’t even know what my pelvic floor was,” she said.
The fact is that 40 million women experience pelvic floor dysfunction in America, yet there are only 10,000 pelvic floor physical therapists, with many practitioners being out-of-network and costly.
Recker and Grimshaw knew they were not the only ones lacking resources when it came to their pelvic floor. With their extensive experience working in startups and deploying technologies in different nations, the founders came together to launch Peli Health into the market. The online platform offers evidence-based education, tools, and expert care communication for women regarding their pelvic health for just $10 per month to early-access users.
“One of our big focus is to help women educate themselves and to know what to look out for to manage their health better,” Grimshaw explained. The founders launched in May after spending three years conducting focus groups, creating a board of certified doctors, and developing science-backed educational content for users to inform themselves about their pelvic floor.
According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, only 12% of Americans have proficient health literacy skills. “It’s not just a consumer challenge, but also a provider challenge. Physicians have little time, so we asked them what information they would want patients to know,” Recker said.
Peli Health is helping change the statistics by providing its users content doctors wish they had more time to inform patients about. Some key features of the platform include:
- An “ask the expert” section where users can have questions answered by members of the advisory board.
- MD-approved resource content and regular expert interviews and events.
- A community chat that allows users to communicate and share resources and videos.
- Short-form and long-form videos curated by experts about diet, exercise, mental health, and more.
- A symptom tracker, developed with the oversight of clinical practitioners.
“What our platform addresses is not just the physical part of pelvic health, it addresses the mental health, the sexual health, the nutrition, and mindfulness as well,” Recker said.
By going beyond the physical, Peli Health has caught the attention of many partners and accelerators. Not only has their comprehensive strategy resonated with hospitals, insurance providers, and coverage but they have also been selected to participate in the Fourthwave Accelerator in Sacramento. With a waitlist currently in place, Peli Health aims to help individuals to take charge of their pelvic health in a way that is both effective and integrative.
Pictured at the top of this post: Peli Health founders Kerstin Recker (left) and Helen Grimshaw (right). Photos provided by Peli Health
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anayansy@yansymedia.com.